Joe Biden has wanted to be president for a long time. 32 years is a long time. You don’t want to become president and not be consequential, not make a difference, not do something great.
So now Joe Biden is president, and so far, he has not fulfilled his ambition. Whether he is limited by cognitive decline, the ineptitude of his advisors, or the siren song of the progressive left, one can argue that his first year as president has been worse than inconsequential.
But now, as fate would have it, Joe Biden has the opportunity of a presidential lifetime, a God-given defining moment. If Joe Biden can meet this moment, he can transcend the negativity and harsh disrespect that is being used to weaken his presidency, and in the process provide his political party with a rallying cry that could save the mid-term elections for the Democrats.
President Biden has stated that the world is at an inflection point – whether democracy and individual freedom can coexist with, or even triumph over, autocracy and subservience.
An autocratic society can exist only by controlling its people, whereas a free society can exist only by controlling its government.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has brought this ideological conflict into sharp focus. It demonstrates that a free society can be a threat to an autocratic society just as much as an autocratic society can be a threat to a free society.
By extension, freedom anywhere threatens autocracy everywhere.
As the leader of the free world, President Biden needs to rise to the occasion and champion freedom and democracy as if our very lives depend upon it.
“What does it mean to be free? To live our lives as we want, to follow the god that we wish, to be able to think and dream and express great thoughts without fear, to risk failure to achieve great goals, to rise in the morning knowing that anything is possible, to retire in the evening knowing that the next day will bring the same.
What does it mean to be free? To live our lives without the tyranny of oppression by either government or places of work and worship, to know that an honest day’s work will bring the bounty of a dignified life, that no man or woman will be subjugated by another, that everyone will receive the blessings of self-determination.
What does it mean to be free? To live our lives knowing that frailty and infirmity and misfortune will visit us all, and that we will be able to rely on the generosity of our friends and neighbors and fellow citizens to provide us with comfort and security when we are unable to provide these things for ourselves.
What does it mean to be free? To live our lives prepared to defend our freedom at whatever the cost, to reject rule by dictator or ruling class, to have no patience for corruption or for legal theft of property and wealth and achievement.
What does it mean to be free? To live our lives where our laws are fair and just for all, where opportunities exist for all in equal measure, where our accomplishments are based upon our merits, where the advantages of birth and family are tempered by generosity and compassion, where strength of character means more than wealth and status.
Those of us who are free benefit from those who came before us, those who had to fight to be free even at the sacrifice of their own lives. Freedom honors each one of us equally, standing in defiance of the belief that it is somehow God’s will that the strong shall dominate the weak.
And so, when freedom is threatened, whether by kings or dictators or despots or others who would force their dominion upon us, we must rise up together as one free people in defense of freedom, to confront the threat, to never surrender, to see the battle through to the end. For once freedom is lost, it is all the more difficult to regain.
So let the voice of freedom ring out loud and strong, from ocean to ocean, from mountain to mountain, from field to field – We who have been born free will fight to live free and will die to stay free.”
Or words to that effect.
Just as Abraham Lincoln had his “four score and seven years ago,” and Franklin D. Roosevelt had his “we have nothing to fear but fear itself,” and John F. Kennedy had his “ask not what your country can do for you,” Joe Biden needs to have a similar moment.
If he can find his moment, then Joe Biden will achieve his ambition.