A sacred cause

In one stroke, with one speech, President Biden transformed the 2024 election.

It’s about “a sacred cause:” the defense of democracy.

In his speech near Valley Forge last week – a day before the third anniversary of the Trump-MAGA mob’s violent assault on the Capitol and the Constitution – the President invoked the spirit of Valley Forge: “America made a vow.  Never again would we bow down to a king.”

His speech showed the power of the presidential pulpit.

He framed Biden vs. Trump as a choice between democracy and dictatorship, freedom and autocracy, the rule of law and the rule of tyranny.

Biden showed that, no matter his age, he has the energy, power and passion to stand up to Trump in a way that no other public figure has:

“Donald Trump’s campaign is about him – not America, not you. Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. Trump’s assault on democracy isn’t just part of his past. It’s what he’s promising for the future.”

The President took on Trump and his apologists for “trying to rewrite the facts of January 6 (and) trying to steal history the same way he tried to steal the election.”

He said, “But we knew the truth because we saw with our own eyes. Trump’s mob wasn’t a peaceful protest. It was a violent assault. They were insurrectionists, not patriots.”

You can watch Biden’s speech here or read the full transcript.

As I watched it, I remembered the speech about democracy that Biden gave the week before the 2022 midterm elections.

Pundits sniffed that voters cared only about their pocketbooks, not democracy.

CNN’s Chris Cillizza dismissed it as “Joe Biden’s head-scratching democracy speech.”

Polls predicted a “red wave.”

The polls and pundits were wrong.

The “red wave” was barely a ripple.

Biden was right then. And he’s right now.

The Republican Party may bow down to King Trump.

America won’t.