Opinion: Joe Biden is wrong about Trump
By Molly Roberts Molly Roberts Editorial writer covering technology and society Email Bio Follow Editorial Writer April 25 at 4:07 PM Joe Biden is running for president, and his announcement video certainly aims to soar. It’s full of “bulging” veins and “fangs of racism.” It features words such as “soul” and clips of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It even ends with a slow zoom on that grandfatherly face we know so well as he celebrates not America the place, but America the idea.
Biden’s speech starts 243 years ago, with the Declaration of Independence. It uses Thomas Jefferson’s self-evident truths to set up a dichotomy in contrast to President Trump’s “very fine people on both sides” equivalence: the bad Charlottesville of two summers ago, and the good one of nation’s founding.
The problem is, you can’t pull Trump out of time, and you can’t tell America’s story while ignoring the bits you don’t like. Biden claims in his coda that this nation “instills in every person in this country the belief that no matter where you start in life, there’s nothing you can’t achieve if you work at it. That’s what we believe.” But plenty of people don’t believe that, and they’re right.
Should we take Trump as an aberration? Or is he an alarm blaring at Americans to pay attention and stop pretending the United States is on a steady march toward justice? Is he a wake-up call to actually pick up our feet — to take action to dismantle the lasting elements of white supremacy in our society, not all of which come conveniently illustrated with bulging veins and fangs; or to reverse structures that keep poor people of all races poor; or to ensure our kids’ kids don’t have to figure...
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