Mark Franke
Indiana Policy Review

“With malice toward none; with charity for all …”

Abraham Lincoln concluded his second inaugural address in 1865 with those words. That, too, was a time of crisis brought on by deep divisions in American society. No one understood better than Lincoln what had been at stake, and, more importantly, what continued to be an existential threat to the nation and the lives of her citizens.

Mark Franke

What Lincoln hoped to do was to bring the nation back together under a shared ethos, commonly understood and valued by all. He knew he had to help reconcile the triumphant victors, some of whom were planning a retributive punishment for those they held guilty; and the demoralized and defeated, some who vowed never to surrender. “Binding up the nation’s wounds” was his slogan, if you will, for his second term of office.

Would Lincoln’s vision have come about? We’ll never know, as John Wilkes Booth put paid to Lincoln’s dream for a reunited nation. What followed was a bitter and often violent Reconstruction that solved some problems while arguably exacerbating others.

2021 is not 1865, at least not in terms of the death and destruction that America’s bloodiest war wreaked. Perhaps, though, we are getting close as several recent authors have hypothesized a new secession crisis in our near future. One can easily see parallels between the past decade and that of the 1850s in terms of over-wrought rhetoric and playground name-calling, let alone the targeted violence. Things spiraled out of control back then, and some think we are experiencing the same descent into violent extremism now.

This can be Joe Biden’s hour. He ran in the Democrat primaries as a moderate alternative to the other candidates’ race to the extreme left. He then positioned himself against Donald Trump as one who would unite rather than divide the nation. That theme resonated with many voters who, although conservative in ideology, were fed up with Trump’s incessant political bullying.

His inaugural address contained the expected unity statements and verbal imagery of much of what unites us as Americans. His call to ratchet down the rhetoric resonated well with most commentators whom I have read. I particularly liked his characterization of politics as “a raging fire.” Nearly all can agree with that.

All good so far, but what is it are we supposed to unite around? The Democrats won the White House and managed a tie in the Senate while seeing their House majority decrease. Does this open the door for carefully crafted initiatives that can rise above rank partisanship?

Or will a “winner take all” mentality rule, fueled by the extremists who feel that this is their mandate to remake America in their image?

I don’t expect to like most of Biden’s policies and legislative initiatives. After all, I am a classical liberal in the sense the Founding Fathers were. I worry about the influence the cancel culture crowd will have in the Biden administration. Will Biden listen to his instincts “to be a president who does not seek to divide, but unify,” as he proclaimed on the campaign trail?

Or will the loudest voices in his party co-opt the agenda?

“The man and the hour have met,” if I may appropriate another political quote from the 19th century. The speaker was rather premature in his prediction of that newly elected president’s success in office.

Is Joe Biden the man for this hour or will success as president elude him? While not optimistic that Biden can rise to the occasion, I fervently hope that he does. He is president for us all, not just the half that voted for him.

Lincoln concluded his address with “… to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves …” Will Biden be another Lincoln? Probably not. But then, almost no one can. Still, I wish him success in being the unifying Biden of his inaugural address.

Mark Franke, an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review, is formerly associate vice chancellor at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

SOURCE: This column was made available through Hoosier State Press Association.