Joe Biden on
political divisiveness and running for president
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| Photo: Naomy Pedroza |
“We’re leaning into maybe doing
this,” Biden said at Brown University on Monday, Dec. 10, noting that the
decision would be based on whether or not it made sense for his family.
“But I’m not being coy. We haven’t reached that final decision yet. When we do, we will announce it. I think I can raise the money. I think I can put together a campaign. I think I can do this.”
“But I’m not being coy. We haven’t reached that final decision yet. When we do, we will announce it. I think I can raise the money. I think I can put together a campaign. I think I can do this.”
He said that grief over the 2015 death of his son Beau from brain cancer prevented him from running in the 2016 presidential race — even though Beau had wanted him to do it.
“I made a promise to him that I
would stay engaged in all the things I cared about,” Biden said. “I didn’t
promise I would run. But I know what he wanted me to do. He made no bones about
it.”
Biden’s remarks came during a
question-and-answer session following a lecture hosted and managed by the
student-run Brown Lecture Board.
Yet only a few moments were devoted to the question of his potential presidential bid. In a wide-ranging lecture in front of a packed audience of students in Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center, Biden argued that the U.S. is experiencing a breakdown of its political system and offered some ideas for how to put the country back on track.
Yet only a few moments were devoted to the question of his potential presidential bid. In a wide-ranging lecture in front of a packed audience of students in Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center, Biden argued that the U.S. is experiencing a breakdown of its political system and offered some ideas for how to put the country back on track.
Denouncing what he called “naked
nationalism” and “phony populism,” he argued that these “new alien strains in
politics” currently pose a direct assault to U.S. democracy by promoting an us
vs. them clannishness rather than the “shared narrative of freedom and
democracy” necessary for the country’s safety and security.
Over the last 10 years, Biden said,
there has been “a direct assault on the very political institutions put in
place to guarantee that we remain a vibrant democracy.” But he made clear that
much of his critique was directed at the current presidential administration.
“Things have only gotten worse in
the last 18 months,” he added. “They’ve gotten very bad.”
Americans, he asserted, need to focus
on the future to escape the backward-looking “grievance politics” in which both
the Democratic and Republican parties are currently engaged — discourse that he
said is focused on tearing the other party down rather than addressing actual
political issues.
“This breakdown of our political
system hasn’t just posed a threat to our democracy and our core values and our
standing in the world,” he said. “It’s done something else — it has locked us
into a divisive debate over the past.”
To move forward and avoid the
gridlock that can ultimately lead to abuse of power by the executive branch,
Democrats and Republicans must seek consensus on key issues, Biden said.
“Political parties need to start to
talk to one another again… and end this coarsening of American politics,” he
said. “We have to rebuild the muscle memory that has allowed us to arrive at
consensus in our political system in the past.”
Biden zeroed in on ways that the
government could and should respond to issues facing lower-income and
middle-class Americans “without punishing any segment of society” — including
increased government support for early and higher education, wider access to
quality health care, improvements in the nation’s infrastructure, a fairer tax
system, and renewable energy investments that will head off the threat of
global warming.
“Although there is real reason for
concern, there is even greater reason for optimism,” Biden said. “I believe
this alt-right phony populism spewed by some of our leaders today has awakened
the nation to the dangers of continuing down this path… There is a growing
demand across the board to fix our political system.”
The former vice president was
invited to speak on campus by the Brown Lecture Board, a student-run,
student-funded organization that brings speakers to campus each semester. All
aspects of the event were managed by Brown students, who also comprised nearly
the entirety of the audience.
Biden encouraged them to take the lead in the political process of moving toward a better future.
Biden encouraged them to take the lead in the political process of moving toward a better future.
“This anger and division has to end
— and it will — and it depends on all of you,” he said. “Your generation is the
most tolerant, generous, progressive, educated generation in this country’s
history… Vote. Volunteer. Run. Your time is now.”