In 2 speeches, this 4th of July weekend, Trump has set out his campaign theme — in contrast to the recent iconoclasm — and my first question is: Where had Biden located himself?

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No jokes about the basement. I know that's his physical location. I want to know where he has positioned himself between Trump — who's conspicuously embracing the traditional American icons and ideals — and the protesters — who are tearing down monuments and denouncing the old ideals.

I saw that Joe Biden gave a 4th of July speech and found the transcript. I was settling to "live-blog" my reading of the speech — as I did yesterday with the first of Trump's weekend speeches — but — copying the text — I saw that it was just a minute-long bit. Does it do much of anything at all? One thing Biden might do is keep relatively quiet and low-key and reserve the ability to move to any place he wants on that continuum between the icon-worshippers and the iconoclasts.

Here's the entire text of Biden's July 4th speech:

Our country was founded on an idea, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.” We’ve never lived up to it. Jefferson himself didn’t. He held slaves, women were excluded, but once proposed it was an idea that couldn’t be constrained. 

It sounds as though he wants to be right in the center of the continuum.

It survived the ravages of the Civil War, the dogs of Bull Connor, the assassination of Martin Luther King and more than 200 years of systemic racism, and just weeks ago the murder of George Floyd. Through it all, these words have gnawed at our conscience and pulled us towards justice.

Now, he's embraced the concept of "systemic racism." It's a given. A truth to be held self-evident.

American history is no fairy tale. 

That is, the idealized version of the story is propaganda. It doesn't get to exactly what's real. But the "systemic racism" story is also propaganda. As campaign rhetoric, Biden rejects the "fairy tale" version of American history, but he's offering up as the alternative the horror show version of American history. We'll see how far he will lean into that "systemic racism" theme.

It’s been a constant push and pull between two parts of our character, the idea that all men and women, all people are created equal, and the racism that has torn us apart. 

Oh, how he wants to be smack dab in the middle.*

We have a chance now to give the marginalized, the demonized, the isolated, the oppressed a full share of the American dream. We have a chance to rip the roots of systemic racism out of this country. 

How? If it's systemic it's interwoven into everything. Virtually everyone agrees that if it's there, we want it out, but how are you going to do that? The answer is, I think, it doesn't matter. He's just trying to get in the right spot so he can be voted for. And you've got to admit, what he's saying sounds like Obama. Shouldn't that be enough?

We have a chance to live up to the words that have founded this nation. This Independence Day let’s not just celebrate the words, let’s celebrate that promise and commit to work, the work that we must do to fulfill that promise. We remain locked in the battle for the soul of this nation, but believe me, truly, it’s a battle we can and we will win if we act together. Happy Fourth.

It's a battle for the soul! And the way he will do this battle is by looking as though he's right in the middle. I do think he's slightly off-center to the left, because he gave very little of his 1 minute of air time to the traditional values of America. He only named one of the 4th of July historical figures, Jefferson, and only to say that he didn't live up to the text he wrote, the text we still ought to venerate, as we try to get closer to its abstract ideal.

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* This is such a great recording:


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