President Biden was taught by his parents and grandparents never to turn a blind eye to personal abuse, whether from an individual or a mob.
That was integral in his early championship of civil rights and his longstanding dedication to fighting violence against women.
Jules Witcover points out that “whether it was physical punishment of a child by his father or the Nazi genocide in Europe, Joe Biden had no stomach for ‘might makes right.’”
When his son Hunter was at Georgetown, Joe made a speech to the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, of which Hunter was a member. The speech championed his conviction that “the greatest sins on this earth are committed by people of standing and means who abuse their power.”
The focus of Joe Biden’s speech was supposed to be how religion influenced his politics. “As I went through it,” he said later, “I realized that the one thread that goes through everything in my public career that is totally consistent with the Catholic social doctrine that I was this opinion that the cardinal sin a government, an individual, a corporation, a business, a father, a parent can commit is to abuse the power they have, whether it is psychological, physical, financial, or political . . .
“It was one of the reasons I ran for the Senate. I was so angry. The kicker for me was when there was a march on Washington and Nixon said those who were protesting the war should not be carrying or wearing American flags. I thought to myself, that son of a so-and-so, who does he think he is, defining what Americans are?”
Biden’s abhorrence of the abuse of power also led him to take Beau at 15 (and later Hunter at 15) to Dachau and the Berlin Wall.
Beau later said that his dad wanted them “to use the memory of the Holocaust, that we as a nation and a people [had to be] vigilant that it would never happen again . . . It goes to what animates my dad’s public life — the necessity to stand up to bullies . . . There is no difference between the private man and the public man. He is the same.”
Joe Biden abhors people who abuse their power.
Joe Biden is a great president.
Is there still more work to be done? 100%! Lots more work. But Biden did more than many people guessed could be done. He deserves a lot of credit. AND he deserves to be re-elected.
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This is an entry in my ongoing series Boosting Biden.
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These posts are written by Goodnewsroundup (Goodie),
edited by Matilda Briggs, supported by 2thanks and WolverineForTJatAW,
and reinforced by several other notable Kossacks!
As with all good things, it takes a village.