Joe Biden makes his plea for the ‘soul’ of America. But he isn’t the only one making that pitch

Independence Hall is the place where America’s founding fathers — on July 4, 1776 — signed the Declaration of Independence.

It is where the U.S. Constitution saw the light of day.

It is the original seat of American democracy, and a statue of George Washington — its first president — stands proudly outside.

But on Thursday evening, it was the place where President Joe Biden came to make his own declaration: that there is a crack in America’s foundations as large as the Liberty Bell — a fissure caused by Donald Trump and those who have rallied to his Make America Great Again (MAGA) cause.

“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” said Biden, against the blare of police sirens and the bullhorn blasts of a far-off critic.

“We are still, at our core, a democracy, and yet history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy.”

His words had an unmissable context. They were delivered two months before midterm elections that could shift the balance in the Democrat-controlled House and the deadlocked Senate.

They may also resonate in Canada, where a political culture marked by a more genteel tone is lately being challenged by some of the same forces identified in the U.S. president’s prime-time address.

It was dubbed the “Soul of the Nation” speech even before Biden and his wife, Jill, strolled out the doors of Independence Hall and down a red carpet to the podium. The term is one that came to Biden in 2017 in the wake of the racist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., when a driver mowed down counterprotesters, killing one.

His presidential campaign was cast as a quest to reclaim America’s soul, and the idea has been at the core of his presidency — emerging in references to the murder of George Floyd, Republican efforts to restrict voting rights and after a mass shooting that killed 10 in Buffalo, N.Y.

That American soul was under attack when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. It is splintering under the angry forces opposed to the Department of Justice investigation into Trump’s handling of classified government documents, which were seized in an FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago estate.

It risks shattering if the extreme Republican right gains more power, Biden said.

“I believe America is at an inflection point. One of those moments that determine the shape of everything that’s to come after, and now America must choose to move forward or to move backwards,” he said.

Biden has long prided himself as a Democrat with nearly half a century of political experience on being able to work with Republicans. But his comments about his political opponents have taken a more urgent and strident tone in recent weeks, and he’s referred to Trump supporters as “semi-fascists” in a recent speech to political donors.

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House minority leader, accused Biden of being the author of the country’s many misfortunes, including crime, drugs, immigration, health, education and a greatly reduced standing in the world.

“In the past two years,” he said, “Joe Biden has launched an assault on the soul of America, on its people, on its laws, on its most sacred values.”

That was a measured response compared to Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of those very same Trump loyalists — the ones Biden said “dominated” and “intimidated” the Republican party of old and were now “a threat to this country.”

“Joe Biden just declared every MAGA Republican an Enemy of the State,” she declared on social media, posting a link for supporters to buy custom-made “Enemy of the State” hats and shirts.

The proceeds of sales were for Greene’s campaign for re-election, the slogan for which is: “Save America. Stop Communism.”

If Biden were selling hats, the slogan might read, “Save America. Stop Fascism.”

But he’s not selling hats, and neither are Greene and her fellow Republicans stumping under Trump’s political umbrella.

Both sides are pleading for hearts, claiming that they are in the right, that they are the keepers of the Founding Fathers’ flame.

“The spirit of the pilgrims, the patriots and the pioneers still inspires our souls,” said McCarthy.

“We the people must say this is not who we are,” Biden said, invoking those famous three American words in a plea to the moderate souls of the country he leads.

“For a long time, we told ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed. But it’s not. We have to defend it, protect it, stand up for it, each and every one of us.”

Allan Woods is a Montreal-based staff reporter for the Star. He covers global and national affairs. Follow him on Twitter: @WoodsAllan

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