WAIT, I THOUGHT WE ALREADY DID THAT BY ELECTING OBAMA*. Biden: By Electing Me, Americans ‘Bent the Arc of the Moral Universe More Toward Justice.’
While Biden aimed for soaring rhetoric with his “arc of the moral universe” line, he actually undercut the message of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous words.
In his sermon at the Temple Israel of Hollywood in 1965, King warned against indifference and violence, and he declared his firm belief that “right here in America we will reach the promised land of brotherhood.” He expressed his faith that the civil rights movement would prevail against segregation because “somehow the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
Many left-leaning activists have twisted this language, claiming that it is up to human beings to “bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice.” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has repeatedly used this line. Yet the whole point of King’s statement is that God is ultimately in control, and it is not the job of human beings to “bend the arc of the moral universe.”
Biden exuded reverence in his speech, but his line about the arc of the moral universe actually undercuts God’s authority. If human beings can bend that arc, then King’s faith in the ultimate victory of the civil rights movement was misplaced.
Even in this speech, Biden could not avoid gaffes. In referencing the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic, he said, “230 million — thousand Americans” had died, as if he caught himself in mid-sentence. Biden and his running-mate, Kamala Harris, have repeatedly inflated the death toll using “million” instead of “thousand.”
Finally, while many media outlets have declared Biden the winner, and while he leads in the vote counts in most of the swing states, the results of the election are still premature.
As the New York Sun notes, “Bum’s Rush for Trump Is Biden’s First Mistake:”
The better way for Mr. Biden to have handled this situation, however awkward, would have been to thank the networks for their support and for calling the election for him — but then to remind them, and the American people, that the result has yet to be certified. And to say that out of respect for both the president and the presidency, he’d prefer to wait until the electoral college and the courts have disposed of any challenges.
That would have been the sort of unifying gesture that we would have expected from a man confident of his victory. And of a leader genuinely committed, as Mr. Biden claims he is, to healing the country. It’s an enormous thing that Mr. Biden has won the largest popular vote in history. Why try, then, to preempt the electoral due process for, in President Trump, the winner of the second largest popular vote in our history?
In the country that Mr. Biden insists he wants to unify, after all, Mr. Trump’s voters represent nearly half the population. It was Secretary Clinton’s politically fatal blunder to have failed to recognize that if one maligns an adversary one maligns his followers. That’s as true in respect of Mr. Trump as, say, George Washington. A failure to grasp the point cost Mrs. Clinton the presidency.
Then again, too, Mr. Biden and Senator Harris have their own party to unify. That may require the same moves as any outreach they plan to Mr. Trump’s followers. It’s also unlikely to be any walk in the park. The Democrats have had their margin cut in the House, and they are — for good reason — taking it out on Speaker Pelosi, a fact made clear by an astonishingly bitter leaked phone call among the Democratic caucus.
CNN are the proverbial “progressives in a hurry” – in this case, to throw Biden under the bus: CNN’s Anderson Cooper and David Axelrod Speculate About Biden Possibly Serving Just One Term: Kamala is 2024 ‘Presumed Frontrunner.’
* Obama Loves Martin Luther King’s Great Quote—But He Uses It Incorrectly.
