Thank you, Mr. President, for your clear and determined speech on this terrible anniversary of the attempted violent overthrow of the 2020 presidential election. The president made it very clear that the lie that the election was stolen started long before election day (because the Former Guy already knew he would likely lose and the only thing he ever does is make excuses and blame others) and that the lie that the election was stolen continues today. The astonishing thing is that his Cult believes the lie, or at least pretends that they believe the lie.
The Biden statement that stands out to me is that he said this is a battle for the Soul of the Nation - whether we are to continue to be a democracy that is run by the rule of law, or an autocracy that is run by the whim of an autocrat. He campaigned on restoring America's Soul, and that battle continues today as the Former Guy's Cult continues their assault on democracy, assault on decency, and assault on truth.
The wonderful historian Jon Meacham wrote an excellent history about the long battle for the Soul of America - "The Soul of America: the Battle for Our Better Angels". A pivotal event was the creation of the myth of the Lost Cause after the Confederate States lost the Civil War. Edward Pollard wrote a toxic book in 1866 - "The Lost Cause: A New History of the War of the Confederates". In it he expressed the fundamental cause of the attempted secession - white supremacy.
"The war, he wrote. "did not decide negro equality; it did not decide negro suffrage; it did not decide State Rights...And these things which the war did not decide, the Southern people will still cling to, and assert them in their rights and views...The question was no longer slavery, but white supremacy, which Pollard described as the "true cause of the war" and the "true hope of the South."...An article of faith of the Lost Cause creed was that the North had not outfought or out-generalled the South...rather, because of the North's overwhelming advantages in manpower and industrial strength...They had resisted Northern forces in battle; now they would defy Northern authority in peace"
In other words, like the former president, the ruling whites during the Jim Crow South, and too much of the Republican Party of the South and across the country to this day are entrenched in white supremacy lies - the lie that whites are superior to people of color. The Lost Cause was and is the Big Lie believed by those who lost the Civil War, and the Stolen Election is the Big Lie believed by those who lost the 2020 presidential election.
The Big Lie Republicans are doing everything they can to suppress the votes of people of color, and setting up election officials that can overturn the votes of their states and send electors chosen by them to install a Republican candidate as president. Completely undemocratic. Disgusting.
Dangerous times, but I believe in the Soul of America. I believe that truth will prevail in the face of this latest Big Lie by a loser who never takes responsibility but only blames and makes excuses. I believe that America is better than the authoritarian depravity of the former president and his violent cult.
