Member-only story
The Speech I Wish Biden Would Give
It’s time for our leader to level with us.
“My fellow Americans,” President Biden would say, looking directly into the cameras as though they were our faces. There would be no pomp or circumstance. It would just be us and our president, the rest of the room silent. The speech might not even be all the way written; it would just come out, like this:
“To begin,” he’d begin, “I’m not making this speech to offer comfort. I am not here tonight to tell you it will all be okay, that you need not worry or prepare yourselves for days even harder than what we’ve witnessed in the past few years. Though I am your President, I am not speaking to you tonight as a ruler. President or not, I am not, nor will I ever be, the final arbiter on your choices.
“But of course, given the office I hold and the power that accompanies it, I have the great responsibility to be our nation’s focal point. For these four years, I am the one tasked with drawing us together as a people, with giving us a direction as we face ever more daunting times together. For too long, I and my predecessors have thought of ourselves like kings. We stand at these podiums and issue decrees and proclamations, smiling for photos when the nation needs comfort while corrupt and undemocratic advisers wheel and deal your destinies far from the public eye.
