By Edwin Cooney
As Joe Biden takes the presidential oath on Wednesday, January 20th, 2021, he becomes the fourth president to face the monumental challenge of establishing and revitalizing national unity!
Under George Washington's administration, the whole country craved national unity even though the people's hearts, for the most part, remained with their home states. Seventy-two years later, as Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated, the southern part of the nation feared a possible downturn in its economy. Due to the possibility that slavery was vulnerable to abolishment, the South reverted to its original “Doctrine of State Sovereignty" and broke away via military rebellion.
By 1933, people faced and feared social and economic deprivation due largely to the degree of greed on the part of what Franklin Roosevelt called "economic royalists."
In his inaugural address, FDR did three things. First, he pronounced the nation's mood with his proclamation that “the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” He went on to thank God that our crisis was merely a material one. Second, he described in outline form the various measures he'd employ to put people to work and increase the purchasing power of the people's money. Finally, he took personal responsibility for the results of his efforts.
FDR entered the presidency blessed with several advantages. First, he was a pillar in his local religious community which in 1933 was vital for any successful politician. Second, his family was politically well-connected through his fifth cousin Theodore Roosevelt (his wife Anna Eleanor's Uncle Ted.) Third, he was Harvard and Columbia Law School educated with executive experience in Woodrow Wilson's cabinet and as Governor of New York State. Above all, he had an excellent array of personal talents from speech-making, and salesmanship gifts in addition to his administrative abilities. He possessed an overwhelmingly charming personality and temperament.
Much of what Joe Biden possesses is obscured by the fact that his professional experience has been in the legislative rather than in the administrative branch of government. (Even as an executive when he held the office of Vice President, Joe Biden’s reputation was largely linked to that of his former chief, Barack Obama.) As he begins the most vital part of his life, he comes across, not only to the voter but to the educated commentator and even to some of his peers, as little more than competent. His power of persuasion is more personal than either intellectual or particularly logical. Yet, it's encouraging to realize that he's twice been chosen over the years to chair two vitally important and powerful Senate committees, Judiciary and Foreign Relations. (A lot of senators from both parties would give their eyeteeth to have chaired either committee, let alone both of them!) Like two of his vice presidential predecessors, Harry Truman and Gerry Ford, he’s plain-spoken and his word has always been good even when his judgment may have been questionable.
One more thing must be taken into account as we evaluate him just before he becomes president. For the last two years, President Trump has ridiculed all of his potential opponents, be it “Pocahontas" for Elizabeth Warren or "sleepy Joe" for Biden himself. However, the Trumps have paid special attention to Joe Biden. Obviously, "sleepy Joe" was the potential opponent Mr. Trump feared most! Why do you suppose that was? After all, Joe Biden wasn't nearly as socialistic as Ms. Warren or Senator Bernie Sanders. Yet, President Trump not only ridiculed him, but investigated him and his son Hunter.
Like Franklin Delano Roosevelt eighty-eight years ago, our new president must take and proclaim the nation's mood truthfully and powerfully. As was true in 1933, more than anything else, we're dangerously afraid of each other. (Note: that's "fear itself!") What he needs to convince us is that while the fundamentals of our economic structure are intact, they can only be rebuilt and strengthened as we attack Covid-19. Next, President Biden has to explain why his economic plan, as expensive as it must be, is designed to benefit the most populous part of the nation. He must explain why putting money in people's pockets will enrich the marketing element of the nation. Finally, while what he has to say about the past four years or about the crisis brought on by the January 6th attack on the Capitol may be something he is compelled to address, he must minimize his judgment of the causes and likely outcomes of that disastrous and "dastardly" attack.
If John and Susie Q Citizen are to get any inspiration from our newly minted President Joseph Robinette Biden, they must believe at the close of his historic address that the speech has been for and about them as well as above and beyond mere payback politics.
After all, payback politics is the child of “fear itself!"
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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