Biden’s Gettysburg address is one for the ages. Please take a look. Many might have missed it in the fast and furious news cycle about trump yesterday.
Biden invoked Lincoln multiple times on the hallowed ground and appealed to the “better angels” of the nation. He also invoked Lyndon B. Johnson, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass in his address. Not once did Biden mention trump by name.
A few highlights —
- Today, once again, we are a house divided. But that, my friends, can no longer be. We’re facing too many crises. We have too much work to do. We have too bright a future to have it shipwrecked on the shoals of anger and hate and division.
- Lincoln reimagined America itself; he believed in the rescue, redemption and rededication of the union.
- He (Lincoln) taught us this — A house divided could not stand. That is a great and timeless truth.
- By fits and starts, our better angels have prevailed again just enough against our worse impulses to make a new and better nation. And those better angels can prevail again now. They must prevail again now.
- Too many Americans seek not to overcome our divisions, but to deepen them. We must seek not to build walls, but bridges. We must seek not to have our fists clinched but our arms open. We have to seek not to tear each other apart. We have to seek to come together.
- Hate never goes away. It only hides, and when it’s given oxygen, when it’s given an opportunity to spread, when it’s treated as normal and acceptable behavior, we’ve opened a door in this country that we must move quickly to close.
- Think about what it takes for a Black person to love America. That is a deep love for this country that, for far too long, we have never recognized.
- I do not believe we have to choose between law and order, and racial justice in America. We can have both.
- Wearing a mask is not a political statement, it's a scientific recommendation. Social distancing isn't a political statement, it's a scientific recommendation.
- It's a virus. It's not a political weapon.
- It cannot be that here and now in 2020 we will allow the government of the people, by the people and for the people to perish on this Earth. No, it cannot and it must not.
- We can be so much better. We can be better starting today. We can have a national strategy that puts politics aside and saves lives. We can have a national strategy that makes it possible for schools and businesses to open safely. ... This pandemic is not a red state or blue state issue.
- What we need in America is leadership that seeks to deescalate tensions, to open lines of communication, to bring us together, to heal, to hope. As president, that's precisely what I will do.
Partial transcript at www.rev.com/…
YouTube link in tweet below from John Dean -
Some reactions -
New Biden Ad on Climate Change
Also, check out diary “Cherries - An Ad from the Biden/Harris team on Climate Change and Food” for an important ad from the Biden team, the first presidential campaign ad focused solely on climate change. It is devoted to climate change and its effect on the future of food, described from the perspective of farmers.
As Joe says, let’s ignore the polls, let’s ignore the noise, let’s do everything we can to save the nation and the world — vote, volunteer, donate, GOTV.