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Joe Biden vs Pat Buchanan on the Soul of the Nation
The President and the former GOP hardliner both evoked the same metaphor, but for vastly different visions of America
I listened to President Biden’s Thursday night speech on “The Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation” on the radio, so I didn’t catch the optics of his standing in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia and the weird lighting that his advance team used to stage the event. The words alone were bracing enough, though I wish Biden had chosen to show his audience more than tell it why democracy is in danger.
It’s hard sometimes not to worry that we’re heading into this battle with the equivalent of Weimar Germany’s Paul von Hindenburg as our standard-bearer. (Hindenburg was 78 when he became President in 1925, the same age as Biden when he was inaugurated.) As a long-serving Senator and then Vice President, Biden has probably spent more time in historic buildings that embody our democratic heritage than most mortals and maybe thought that the symbolism of going back to the Founding Fathers’ stomping grounds would speak for itself. Though these days one cannot really draw on that well without care. In the opening paragraphs of his speech, Biden did amend the Declaration to claim that the unique American idea launched onto the world…
