Building Things Up, Tearing Things Down
Joe Biden''s inaugural address still resonates three years on as E. Jean Carroll's defamation trial attracts more abuse from Donald Trump
The conduct of Donald Trump this week during the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial is yet another tragic reminder that in order to serve himself and deny culpability for his despicable behavior, he’s willing to tear down our system of justice. As long as this malignant man walks this earth—or until he’s finally placed behind bars—he will continue to abuse the money and power he possesses to cause harm.
In contrast, President Joe Biden has shown us how an empathic president behaves. In his inaugural address, delivered exactly three years ago tomorrow, Biden told us who he is and what future he’s committed to shaping.
While the rapist who occupied the White House before Biden used his precious inaugural platform to talk about “American carnage”—what George W. Bush referred to that day as “some weird shit”—Biden used his time after taking the sacred oath of office to provide a positive vision based on American and human values. His address is both a time capsule of where the country was at that moment and an expression of the principles and purposes that will continue to drive his efforts this year.
First, the time capsule: “Few periods in our nation’s history have been more challenging or difficult than the one we’re in now,” Biden said, noting: “A once-in-a-century virus silently stalks the country. It’s taken as many lives in one year as America lost in all of World War II. Millions of jobs have been lost. Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed.”
With the deadly pandemic and steep joblessness now clearly in the rear-view mirror—thanks to Biden—the grim reality of that chapter has mostly receded from our daily consciousness.
He also spotlighted our planet’s “cry for survival,” the continuing “cry for racial justice” and the need to confront and defeat “a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism.” He talked about “this winter of peril and possibility” and the effort to come: “Much to repair. Much to restore. Much to heal. Much to build. And much to gain.”
Biden understood the rare moment of his inauguration, “where just days ago violence sought to shake this Capitol’s very foundation.” And he saw himself as part of something greater: “Today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause, the cause of democracy. The will of the people has been heard and the will of the people has been heeded. We have learned again that democracy is precious.”
He also proposed what has been to this day the most problematic aim of his presidency. He first quoted Abraham Lincoln after he signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, who said that “my whole soul is in it.” Then Biden said his “whole soul” is in “bringing America together. Uniting our people. And uniting our nation.”
On that day, it was his belief that it’s possible to “fight the common foes we face.” Among them: “Anger, resentment, hatred. Extremism, lawlessness, violence.” He asserted this even though we were witnessing millions of Americans not only stray from the country’s shared heritage to confront these perils, but who were (and are) actively embracing this broken path.
Still, he put his faith in “our better angels,” which "have always prevailed.” He admitted that talk of unity can sound like “a foolish fantasy.” Yet, “our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, and demonization have long torn us apart.”
And what happens without unity? “Without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos.”
Which brings me back to the Manhattan courtroom Wednesday, where another man who held the nation’s highest office was bent on undermining a judge, intimidating witnesses, further defaming the woman who suffered his sexual abuse—and ultimately exploiting the moment to convince millions of his cult that he’s suffering political persecution from a biased judge and a system of justice that cannot be trusted.
“Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial. I understand you are very eager for me to do that,” Judge Lewis Kaplan said. Trump had been disrupting E. Jean Carroll’s testimony with comments audible to the jury that included, “This really is a con job.”
“I would love it, I would love it,” Trump said.
“I know you would because you just can’t control yourself in this circumstance,” the judge replied.
Trump’s comments about Judge Kaplan later on his Truth Social site: “He is abusive, rude, and obviously not impartial but, that’s the way this crooked system works!”
While Trump’s ill-equipped lawyer Alina Habba sought to turn poor Donald into the victim of Carroll’s ambition and desire to exploit him for fame and fortune, the jury heard about the death threats and other abuses she’s faced since bravely deciding to try and hold this sexual predator accountable—and to get him to stop his continuing defamation.
“For a few glorious hours I thought this is it,” said the 80-year-old Carroll after a jury verdict held him liable for defamation last May. Then, the next day, Trump mocked her in a CNN town hall. “He’s doing it to a large crowd and drawing laughs about sexual assault,” she testified this week. About that vile laughter from the pro-Trump audience: “I felt worthless.”
This trial was motivated by his refusal to stop the abuse. Even on Wednesday, Trump left the courtroom and told reporters that Carroll’s experience is a “fabricated story…It’s a totally rigged deal. This whole thing is rigged. Election interference.”
Three years ago on inauguration day, Joe Biden shared a list of “common objects” that he believes define Americans. Among them: Opportunity, dignity, respect, honor, “and yes, the truth.”
He talked of the “painful lesson” that emanated from the violent attack on the Capitol and democracy:
There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders—leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation—to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.
He envisioned that “democracy and hope, truth and justice” will not “die on our watch.”
But the clock is ticking.
While Biden is still working to strengthen our institutions and values, an anti-democratic sociopath fueled by carnage is determined to tear it all down. And that wannabe dictator has plenty of well-positioned acolytes who yearn for a fascist state and are determined to help him achieve it.
When Trump returns to Judge Kaplan’s courtroom—and other courtrooms in the coming months—we can be sure he’ll do whatever he can to disrupt the proceedings and dare the court to throw him out. We’ve seen this story before: Bullies always blame the victim and insist the system is unfair when they’re held accountable.
It will take the continuing courage of people like E. Jean Carroll to say what they’ve experienced and make clear that the cruelty and violence of Trump and the cultists who believe in him do not decide our future.
As I wrote last May at the time of Carroll’s first winning verdict, Trump “has gotten away with a lifetime of lies and cruelty and criminality because too few people possessed the courage to stand up to him. But pushing back and demanding that the truth be heard is the only way to overcome a bully, especially one untethered from reality and able to persuade millions of Americans to join him.”
Let’s not lose sight of what’s achievable: Those of us in the majority have the ability to overcome the dark desires of the MAGA minority, sustain democracy and enable an empathic leader to continue pursuing a positive future.
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This piece in microcosm, outlines the choice confronting us all. We must not fail to fight for and make the right one. Thank you!
Yet another thoughtful and timely piece. Do you remember “Yertle the Turtle” by Dr. Seuss? Even as a child, I empathized with all the turtles’ plight as they were malevolently stacked on top of each other to build Yertle the Turtle King’s throne. No one or no thing should be higher than Yertle, not even the moon. And yet...the “plain little turtle called Mack” had to burp; an act which brought down the whole tower Yertle thought he could build for himself without impunity.
It goes without saying this children’s story is a metaphor for fascism. Donald Trump is building his tower and will continue to build it if he ascends to the presidency once again. If a great collective burp could bring him down, I’d gladly attempt to scare one up. Along with millions of others, what a great and resounding force we could be. Burp force, not brute force, could win the day!