Biden’s State of the Union hinted at a key shift in the liberal imagination: From a merely restorative to a potentially more transformative vision for America
This essay by Thomas Zimmer is the most intelligent analysis of We The People I have yet come across. The logic and self-evident truths leap from the paragraphs. However, We The People are not ready for this, yet, and Biden needs to lead them there gently. Hopefully, the six months left before November may be enough for We The People to start grappling with the concepts. No doubt Trump's increasingly desperate antics will help accelerate the process.
America is changing. But America has always been changing. The choices that We The People face are as stark today as were during Independence, and then the Civil War. Hopefully, the leadership that Biden provides will result in a new course for the Nation, that will allow Biden to be considered fit company for Washington and Lincoln.
Interestingly, I feel like there is a strong case to make that his economic policy is focused on strengthening democracy. From the NLRB protecting workers' rights to the FTC preventing the further anti-democratic consolidation of monopoly power among the wealthy elite, economic policy is key to defending democracy. Obviously this is only part of the solution when we still have so many countermajoritarian institutions like the senate, supreme court, and electoral college.
I always enjoy and learn from your perspective. Thank you.
For me, the term 'Culture Wars' is confusing and unhelpful in conversation. At best, its meaning is a matter of personal privilege and perspective and quite likely dismissive. Regrettably, use of the term has the effect on me of dismissing the author as intellectually lazy which is unfortunate for both parties.
Thank you for the thoughtful analysis. When I watched the speech, I felt a shift. Biden is the first president since the Reagan Revolution to speak out loudly about the failures of “trickle down” economics.
I agree with most of what you say here, but not with the conclusion. There really is a difference between rhetoric and philosophy; while the best rhetoric is informed by philosophy, it's not the same thing, because the purpose of rhetoric is to persuade in matters that are not a matter objective proof, and it is always addressed to a particular audience with a particular ethos at a particular time in a particular context, and in most forms of rhetoric, to an audience that has to come to a decision about something. Emotions are involved because people have emotions. Rhetoric needs to be informed by virtue. We all know that it can and often is abused, but people need to be encouraged to do the right thing, even if we know they CAN be encouraged to do the wrong thing. One has only to look at Trump as a horrendous of example of that.
So to me there is no reason to criticize the fact that "Right off the bat, the president presented the U.S. as the “greatest nation on earth” and a “beacon to the world.” Because a good part of what this speech aimed at was to persuade the American voter that Biden is a leader who follows America's national IDEALS — and is now facing an opponent who does the opposite, based on a projection of an absolutely false ideology, a false America.
Of course, looking at it objectively, and philosophically, we know that America, or parts of it, have all too often gone against these ideals, that the present-day Republicans are dedicated to destroying these ideals, and that it is extremely unlikely that we will always follow them in the future. But to me it is evident that what America does in the world right now IS extremely crucial to the rest of the world, and that if we truly defend democracy, both here and abroad, we are indeed a "beacon to the world."
As to whether we are "the greatest nation on earth," well that is what I would call a hortatory statement; an exhortation for the American audience, and what it means, in context is, IF we are the greatest nation on earth, which is how we like to think of ourselves, then prove it, act like it.
Obviously in other contexts "the greatest nation on earth" might be mere jingoism. But Biden doesn't use it that way, and in this context it isn't jingoism at all. And interestingly, Trump, a truly evil person, doesn't even say things like that. He has no idea what America is, what the world is, or that America has any role in the world. He just doesn't think like that. Trump's message to his followers is, YOU are the Americans, BECAUSE YOU FOLLOW ME, everybody else is garbage. Biden's sees his audience as the community, a whole nation that has a key role to play the world. If you keep your ears plugged, that's not Biden's fault. Trump sees his audience as the cult of acolytes that exists only to support him, everybody else be damned. He has no conception of anything else and neither do his followers.
Thank you for the deep dive into how and why it was necessary for Biden to shift the narrative, and for the analysis of where America actually is. Let’s hope Biden’s narrative changes are sufficient to sway voters away from the TFG/MAGA cabal and to convince the non-voting D sideliners to participate by at least voting in November.
I bet, looking back, folks will realize how bad a choice Biden was to reset "post-Trump" America. Dems have only been begging for "unity" for almost a decade, but still they try, as if conservatives who want to rid of country of LGBTQ folks, (nonwhite) immigrants, and abortions will /surely/ come to their senses eventually. I just hope he's not our century's Neville Chamberlain.
"If Joe Biden can help us re-imagine an anti-fascist consensus not in service of a purely restorative project, but as a reminder of the nation’s egalitarian aspirations, as a plea to finally defeat those anti-democratic forces in our midst and push America forward, I am all for it." Me too; it's way past time.
This essay by Thomas Zimmer is the most intelligent analysis of We The People I have yet come across. The logic and self-evident truths leap from the paragraphs. However, We The People are not ready for this, yet, and Biden needs to lead them there gently. Hopefully, the six months left before November may be enough for We The People to start grappling with the concepts. No doubt Trump's increasingly desperate antics will help accelerate the process.
America is changing. But America has always been changing. The choices that We The People face are as stark today as were during Independence, and then the Civil War. Hopefully, the leadership that Biden provides will result in a new course for the Nation, that will allow Biden to be considered fit company for Washington and Lincoln.
what a great essay- thank you.
Interestingly, I feel like there is a strong case to make that his economic policy is focused on strengthening democracy. From the NLRB protecting workers' rights to the FTC preventing the further anti-democratic consolidation of monopoly power among the wealthy elite, economic policy is key to defending democracy. Obviously this is only part of the solution when we still have so many countermajoritarian institutions like the senate, supreme court, and electoral college.
I always enjoy and learn from your perspective. Thank you.
For me, the term 'Culture Wars' is confusing and unhelpful in conversation. At best, its meaning is a matter of personal privilege and perspective and quite likely dismissive. Regrettably, use of the term has the effect on me of dismissing the author as intellectually lazy which is unfortunate for both parties.
Thank you for the thoughtful analysis. When I watched the speech, I felt a shift. Biden is the first president since the Reagan Revolution to speak out loudly about the failures of “trickle down” economics.
I agree with most of what you say here, but not with the conclusion. There really is a difference between rhetoric and philosophy; while the best rhetoric is informed by philosophy, it's not the same thing, because the purpose of rhetoric is to persuade in matters that are not a matter objective proof, and it is always addressed to a particular audience with a particular ethos at a particular time in a particular context, and in most forms of rhetoric, to an audience that has to come to a decision about something. Emotions are involved because people have emotions. Rhetoric needs to be informed by virtue. We all know that it can and often is abused, but people need to be encouraged to do the right thing, even if we know they CAN be encouraged to do the wrong thing. One has only to look at Trump as a horrendous of example of that.
So to me there is no reason to criticize the fact that "Right off the bat, the president presented the U.S. as the “greatest nation on earth” and a “beacon to the world.” Because a good part of what this speech aimed at was to persuade the American voter that Biden is a leader who follows America's national IDEALS — and is now facing an opponent who does the opposite, based on a projection of an absolutely false ideology, a false America.
Of course, looking at it objectively, and philosophically, we know that America, or parts of it, have all too often gone against these ideals, that the present-day Republicans are dedicated to destroying these ideals, and that it is extremely unlikely that we will always follow them in the future. But to me it is evident that what America does in the world right now IS extremely crucial to the rest of the world, and that if we truly defend democracy, both here and abroad, we are indeed a "beacon to the world."
As to whether we are "the greatest nation on earth," well that is what I would call a hortatory statement; an exhortation for the American audience, and what it means, in context is, IF we are the greatest nation on earth, which is how we like to think of ourselves, then prove it, act like it.
Obviously in other contexts "the greatest nation on earth" might be mere jingoism. But Biden doesn't use it that way, and in this context it isn't jingoism at all. And interestingly, Trump, a truly evil person, doesn't even say things like that. He has no idea what America is, what the world is, or that America has any role in the world. He just doesn't think like that. Trump's message to his followers is, YOU are the Americans, BECAUSE YOU FOLLOW ME, everybody else is garbage. Biden's sees his audience as the community, a whole nation that has a key role to play the world. If you keep your ears plugged, that's not Biden's fault. Trump sees his audience as the cult of acolytes that exists only to support him, everybody else be damned. He has no conception of anything else and neither do his followers.
Thank you for the deep dive into how and why it was necessary for Biden to shift the narrative, and for the analysis of where America actually is. Let’s hope Biden’s narrative changes are sufficient to sway voters away from the TFG/MAGA cabal and to convince the non-voting D sideliners to participate by at least voting in November.
I bet, looking back, folks will realize how bad a choice Biden was to reset "post-Trump" America. Dems have only been begging for "unity" for almost a decade, but still they try, as if conservatives who want to rid of country of LGBTQ folks, (nonwhite) immigrants, and abortions will /surely/ come to their senses eventually. I just hope he's not our century's Neville Chamberlain.
"If Joe Biden can help us re-imagine an anti-fascist consensus not in service of a purely restorative project, but as a reminder of the nation’s egalitarian aspirations, as a plea to finally defeat those anti-democratic forces in our midst and push America forward, I am all for it." Me too; it's way past time.