As the general election campaign between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump begins in earnest, I’m bracing myself, as I suspect many of you are too, for a long season of insults hurled back and forth between the candidates — dark warnings about the Third World status of our country today from Trump and cautions about his opponent putting democracy at risk from Biden.
And so I wonder: What happened to the days when political leaders felt a calling to give speeches that spoke to the best of who we are? Where is the lofty rhetoric that reminds us of the ideals and values of America?
Abraham Lincoln was sworn into his first term as president during one of the darkest times in American history. The issue of slavery had torn the country apart. By the time of his inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven Southern states — including Georgia — had seceded from the Union, and war loomed.
And yet, here is how Lincoln closed his speech that day:
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Lincoln’s soaring language was a plea to the remaining Southern states to stay in the Union, which, of course, they did not do.
But Lincoln was far from the only political leader in our history to paint a majestic portrait of America to bring us together as a people.
President Ronald Reagan gave one of his most remembered speeches at Pointe Du Hoc, France, on the Normandy coast on the 40th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Among the many who had come to hear him speak were 62 of the U.S. Army Rangers who had participated in the invasion.
Credit: David Vincent
Credit: David Vincent
“These are the boys of Pointe Du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war. …
“You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. … The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next.”
At the time of Reagan’s speech, the country was still recovering from the deep divisions caused by the Vietnam War. Among other themes he hit on that day, this was Reagan’s tribute to all military personnel who fought for their country.
Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes gave an eloquent appeal for unity in a speech in January 2001 urging state senators to pass his measure to minimize the image of the Confederate battle emblem on the state flag. The move faced fierce opposition and contributed to Barnes’ reelection loss in 2002.
“We are one people forever woven together in a tapestry that is Georgia. We are all one, or at least we should be, and it is our job, our duty and our great challenge to fight the voices of division and to seek the sound of reconciliation.
“We will never forget those like my great-grandfather who fought at Vicksburg for a cause they thought was just. But neither will we forget those who served at Yorktown or those who died on the beaches of Normandy or even in the jungles of Vietnam.
“The flag you will vote on today honors all of them, not just one of them.”
Of course, there have been other great American speeches. But they are no longer in fashion today. Some of that is probably our fault. Our attention spans have shrunk to a matter of minutes or less. Where the speeches of politicians once attracted large crowds who thirsted for them as a form of enlightenment and entertainment, we now want political messaging in simple, bite-size pieces that we can scoop up like so many kernels of popcorn.
In keeping with our contentious and deeply divided times, few campaign speeches today inspire us to be better people. Instead, they appeal to our worst instincts.
Trump’s inaugural address in 2021 will most likely be remembered by history for his description of “American carnage.” And just a little more than a week ago, given the chance to celebrate his sweeping victory in Super Tuesday primaries, he returned to his dark vision of the country:
“We live in a Third World country with no borders. … We have millions of people invading our country … and they’re coming from rough places and dangerous places.”
Meanwhile, as many Democrats praised Biden’s fiery State of the Union speech, it was noteworthy for its campaign-style attacks on Trump, which means we’re unlikely to get soaring rhetoric from him, either.
I’ve always been deeply moved when I read those closing words of Lincoln’s first inaugural address when he called upon Americans to be motivated “by the better angels of our nature.”
It’s an extraordinary affirmation of the goodness Lincoln believed people are capable of. The next eight months leading up to the November election would be far more endurable if our politicians could only live by that exhortation.
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