Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire, destroying everything in its path. Hear one another, see one another, show respect to one another. Let’s begin to listen to one another again. A.B.Īnd so today at this time in this place, let’s start afresh, all of us. Any legislation will have to run through the political middle, but there are always political incentives to preventing a president from accomplishing things - notably, to argue they failed so your party's nominee might replace them. The Senate is 50-50, and the House is the closest it's been in about two decades. It will be difficult to make it happen, though - not just because of the faction of the Republican Party that remains loyal to Trump, but because of the historically close balance of power in the House and Senate. No nation - only a state of chaos.Ĥ This was Biden's most pronounced appeal to unity. For without unity, there is no peace - only bitterness and fury. We can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can see each other not as adversaries, but as neighbors. History, faith and reason show the way, the way of unity. In each of these moments, enough of us have come together to carry all of us forward. Through civil war, the Great Depression, world war, 9/11, through struggle, sacrifice and setbacks, our better angels have always prevailed. The battle is perennial and victory is never assured. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we're all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart.
I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real, but I also know they are not new. I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days.
We can deliver racial justice and we can make America once again the leading force for good in the world. We can reward, reward work, and rebuild the middle class and make health care secure for all. We can teach our children in safe schools. With unity, we can do great things, important things. Uniting to fight the foes we face: anger, resentment, hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness and hopelessness. And I ask every American to join me in this cause. On this January day, my whole soul is in this: Bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation. When he put pen to paper, the president said, and I quote: “If my name ever goes down into history, it’ll be for this act. In another January, on New Year’s Day in 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy: Unity. To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America requires so much more than words. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer.ģ The Biden administration has pledged to make climate change a priority in his administration, starting with undoing many of Trump’s environmental decisions via executive order and rejoining the Paris climate accord in his first days in office. A cry for racial justice, some 400 years in the making, moves us. Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed. It’s taken as many lives in one year as America lost in all of World War II. A once-in-a-century virus that silently stalks the country. We'll press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and significant possibilities, much to repair, much to restore, much to heal, much to build, and much to gain.įew people in our nation’s history have been more challenged or found a time more challenging or difficult than the time we’re in now. And over the centuries, through storm and strife, in peace and in war, we've come so far. But the American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us, on we the people who seek a more perfect union. The oath, first sworn by George Washington.
I’ve just taken the sacred oath each of those patriots have taken. President Trump did not attend, in a major break from the traditional ceremony of transfer of power. 2 Mike Pence, who succeeded Biden as vice president, attended the inauguration, as did former presidents Bill Clinton, George W.
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