OPINION: Biden’s Independence Hall Speech: Unity or Attack Speech? -

By Anthony Dryden

This is an independently submitted op-ed for our Quill section. Views and statements made in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Tower.

Recently President Biden gave what was marketed as a “unity” speech at Independence Hall, though I doubt that many got a sense of unity from this speech, and the set behind the President certainly did not contribute. When thinking about unique and memorable political imagery, we have certain ideas in our mind. Now I can add a new image to my list: President Biden in front of the blood red background. With a President who is currently polling at 38%, just exactly what was his PR team thinking? Perhaps they saw the popularity of the “Dark Brandon” meme. Originally, the meme was three images from Chinese artist Yang Quan that went viral. The images depict President Biden sitting on a “Game of Thrones” like throne made of guns with a fiery background. That quickly morphed into some very hilarious and weird memes that both sides of the aisle have been using. This was an attempt to capture this essence gone astray. As we will see, the aggressive tone of this speech may also have been an attempt to capture this image in real life.

The speech was originally claimed to be a unity speech, and it did not turn out this way. Right at the beginning he launches an attack denouncing former President Trump and his supporters as extremists that threaten “the very foundations of our Republic.” Then he contradicts himself by claiming that “not even the majority of Republicans” are these extremists, only to state two seconds later that the Republican party is dominated by them. Biden claimed the Republican party does not respect the rule of law, denies elections, and does not respect the Constitution. Lest we not forget Biden claimed he could not forgive student debt Constitutionally, and now has done it anyway. Lest we not forget Biden and the political left denied Trump’s victory for four years. Remember how many major politicians deny that Antifa even exists when they cause chaos on our streets; for example: FBI director Christopher Wray says “It’s not a group or an organization.”

Biden states, “MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards, backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy.” “Choice” refers to abortion. Now it seems all pro-lifers are extremist MAGA forces. What does that bode for us at Catholic University? Our university is proudly pro-life. Does President Biden consider our university a hotbed of MAGA extremism? Hundreds of our students have attended the March for Life over many years. It is a staple of the Catholic University that we stand up for the unborn. I hope that President Biden does not consider us all extremists because we are good people who live our faith authentically. We stay true to our teachings.

Now what about the right to privacy? There is no right to privacy expressly contained within the Constitution. The Supreme Court in 1965 “found a right to privacy, derived from penumbras of other explicitly stated constitutional protections.” Supreme Court justices have disagreed over this for years, and now President Biden has labeled all conservative justices past and present a threat to the republic.

Biden then goes on to praise how our nation is at its “core a democracy”. He praises how his party is the one who “believes in the rule of law.” However, if we go back over the past several years we see how both parties have called into question one of the most fundamental parts of the rule of law in this nation – election integrity. Beginning with recent memory, Trump claimed widespread voter fraud. Going further back, Democrats did not accept the 2000 election of President Bush, nor his reelection in 2004. Stacy Abrams still claims that she won the Georgia gubernatorial election. With all these examples of denying “free and fair elections” as Biden states, from both sides of the aisle, it is fair to say that this message rings hollow.

When President Biden was inaugurated, he proclaimed a message of unity. Respectfully, some of that speech was very good. My favorite part of it is as follows: “Politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path.” The independence hall speech was supposed to be about American unity. Instead of living up to his inauguration speech and trying to calm the raging fire of polarized politics, Biden has poured more fuel on the fire. There will always be division in politics, but it does not have to be as polarizing as it is currently.

This unity speech, as it was marketed to the press, does not seem very unifying. It seems as if the President has used this opportunity to label vast swaths of the nation as people who are irredeemable. I encourage the reader to use the New York Times’ transcript and read the speech themselves. Make up your mind and engage in spirited and respectful conversation with those willing. God Bless.