The Soul of America

[iNow]

Biden’s speech tonight was good. He was the right president in the moment. I wasn’t ashamed to have him be my elected representative.

He asked us to defend democracy together. He even defended the hecklers taunting him (they were in Philly, after all), but spoke to the broader moment. 

Hopefully enough people are still listening.

 

 

[geordief]

9 hours ago, iNow said:

Biden’s speech tonight was good. He was the right president in the moment. I wasn’t ashamed to have him be my elected representative.

He asked us to defend democracy together. He even defended the hecklers taunting him (they were in Philly, after all), but spoke to the broader moment. 

Hopefully enough people are still listening.

 

 

The content was good. The delivery always  has me on edge but that was OK too,this time.He cleared his throat 3 times at first and  I was worried  there was a problem but it was plain sailing after that.

 

Can there be any bipartisanship  if electoral reform is put on the table?(does the Alaskan system hold any promise by diluting the "them or us"chances of election?) 

[iNow]

2 hours ago, geordief said:

Can there be any bipartisanship  if electoral reform is put on the table?

Of course, but not if ones goal is to ignore the results of free and fair elections. 

[geordief]

57 minutes ago, iNow said:

Of course, but not if ones goal is to ignore the results of free and fair elections. 

Still has to be done.If the two party system had its merits it has run out of road and  some sort or a more proportional representative  system should replace it.

 

Maybe not the top priority and will never happen if Trump returns to power.

 

 

 

[Phi for All]

Undoing the bonds created in Nixon's Southern Strategy by drawing a clear line between Reagan Republicans and MAGA is a bold move, and a smart one imo. It's a compromise that works for Biden, who still wants to reach across the aisle, and shows that he finally gets that MAGA folks have never really been interested in democracy, so no amount of aisle reaching is going to overcome the racism and hatred and resentment. It's just going to take everybody else to stand up and tell them this isn't acceptable, never was, never will be, and maybe take the opportunity to fix some things to better benefit 99% of us.

[Peterkin]

This one of the best political speeches I've ever heard. Not because of policy or ideology statements, but because it directly - directly! and plainly! - confronts the single most important issue facing the nation. He didn't fudge and he didn't flinch and yet was positive. All-right!!

Electoral reform is certainly long overdue. It's also very difficult. There has been a good deal of damage. First stabilize the structure, then start renovations.

 

 

[iNow]

4 hours ago, Phi for All said:

a bold move, and a smart one imo. It's a compromise that works for Biden, who still wants to reach across the aisle, and shows that he finally gets that MAGA folks have never really been interested in democracy, so no amount of aisle reaching is going to overcome the racism and hatred and resentment. It's just going to take everybody else to stand up and tell them this isn't acceptable

Great points on the money. I’d go even farther and suggest the audience was more than moderates and maga, but was also the whole WORLD more broadly right now, in this moment.

There are people fighting for democracy in the Middle East. People fighting for democracy inside of the Russia… inside of China… In Ukraine and Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tibet… all across the African continent… and throughout South America where failing petrostates propped up by commercialized cartels… people are fighting for democracy. 

We’re at an inflection point. The attack on democracy is being waged on many fronts.

Biden was asking us to unify against that attack regardless of ideology or party. He was warning us that the attack  is here. It is at our doorstep. Physical violence is no longer uncommon. It’s also no longer localized within only certain countries. 

[iNow]

7 hours ago, Peterkin said:

This one of the best political speeches I've ever heard.

Yeah. I could quibble and pick nits or comment on optics, but I felt the content and the delivery met the moment. 

[Peterkin]

He's never been a terrific public speaker. In this instance, it didn't seem to matter: he delivered it credibly and with conviction.

Pretty much my sentiments

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/opinion-biden-s-fiery-speech-addressed-the-elephant-in-the-room/ar-AA11p4V8?cvid=7c22a17dd4d04544ba349c7d0fa7e4b2

[Sensei]

Speeches... this is the only thing politicians are good at....

 

Did you hear the V.P. speech to the child in Kaliningrad on Sept. 1.. ?

 

5 hours ago, Peterkin said:

He's never been a terrific public speaker. In this instance, it didn't seem to matter: he delivered it credibly and with conviction.

...politicians, especially in the US, do not write their speeches.. they have a team behind them that does.. they are simply.. speakers..

If you read Shakespeare aloud, that doesn't make you Shakespeare..

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by Sensei

[Peterkin]

7 hours ago, Sensei said:

politicians, especially in the US, do not write their speeches

Hence 'delivered' rather than 'invented'. Presumably, he knew what was in it before he performed it.

7 hours ago, Sensei said:

Did you hear the V.P. speech to the child in Kaliningrad on Sept. 1.. ?

No. Can live without.

[iNow]

7 hours ago, Sensei said:

If you read Shakespeare aloud, that doesn't make you Shakespeare..

A fair point, but not terribly applicable given a presidents direction and involvement with their writers on these, and how they redline everything themselves up to the moment of delivery. 
 

To the thread more broadly… Does anyone think this reached those who most needed to hear it?

[TheVat]

9 hours ago, Sensei said:

 

Did you hear the V.P. speech to the child in Kaliningrad on Sept. 1.. ?

Kamala Harris spoke to a child in Kaliningrad on Sept. 1?  Wow, I really missed that news!  We do have an unusually dynamic vice president, when it comes to foreign relations.

[Peterkin]

1 hour ago, iNow said:

Does anyone think this reached those who most needed to hear it?

If you mean the Democratic, and potentially Democratic voters who most desperately need to turn out and vote in record numbers, in spite of the obstacles that will no doubt be raised even higher, yes, probably. Will they have the resolve? Will there be bloodshed? Who can tell?

If you mean the moderate, sensible and potentially sane Republicans, I worry that it reached them only through the distorted medium of their own news sources, which might be more damaging than not reaching them at all. I haven't yet had the stomach to read the werewolf's reaction, among others.

[Phi for All]

1 hour ago, iNow said:

To the thread more broadly… Does anyone think this reached those who most needed to hear it?

I hope the MAGA crowd was listening when Biden made the comment about his hecklers being entitled to their outrageousness in a democracy as long as they avoided violence. I really hope they noted that, at a MAGA rally, protesters are threatened by violence from TFG himself. But I've all but given up hope that the MAGA crowd understands the importance of democracy in their lives since it's been so distorted by the entertainment sources they turn to for "news". 

I hold a LOT more hope that many Republicans see a greater divide between MAGA goals and what they've always believed in, a United States of America that takes personal responsibility for its actions and keeps the government from over-regulating our personal lives. Non-MAGA Republicans are normally very disapproving of political violence, which made it easy to stir them up against the BLM protests and events where FOX News could claim the left had organized into ANTIFA. Those folks can be persuaded to see reason, I think, and pointing out how violent TFG is in his rhetoric works to turn them away from him.

[Peterkin]

5 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Kamala Harris spoke to a child in Kaliningrad on Sept. 1? 

That's what I first thought of. But my SO mentioned Putin yesterday. Of course, Russian rewriting of history is nothing to us; the rewriting of American history is far more difficult for East Bloc immigrants to grasp.

[Phi for All]

9 hours ago, Sensei said:

...politicians, especially in the US, do not write their speeches.. they have a team behind them that does.. they are simply.. speakers..

If you read Shakespeare aloud, that doesn't make you Shakespeare..

I don't agree. We have this problem with our newscasters sometimes, where it's just a pretty face that doesn't understand the events they "report" on. But politicians on the national level tend to have a style they stick to for written speeches (usually stumping for their favorite messages), and also a style for going "off the cuff". You can't claim they're only "speakers" when they're so effective at it. Biden can be very good at reading from a script because you understand that he understands what he's talking about. But that never hampered TFG. You could always tell when he was reading from the teleprompter, and when he decided to go off-script. I can hardly stand to listen to him when he's not reading prepared material, but he's extremely effective as a simple speaker.

If you read Shakespeare aloud, sometimes that makes you an actor.

[Ken Fabian]

 

On 9/3/2022 at 3:29 PM, Sensei said:

Speeches... this is the only thing politicians are good at....

 

Did you hear the V.P. speech to the child in Kaliningrad on Sept. 1.. ?

 

...politicians, especially in the US, do not write their speeches.. they have a team behind them that does.. they are simply.. speakers..

If you read Shakespeare aloud, that doesn't make you Shakespeare..

 

If you start with hiring Shakespeare to write your speeches and tell him clearly what points you want to make (and why) that looks very different to reading aloud what Shakespeare wrote centuries ago. When the points matter and making them clearly and effectively is very important - more important than any satisfaction for doing it yourself (and you are very busy with other important stuff) - then having professional writers seems like a good move.

[Peterkin]

Also, professional speech writers are usually canny about what gaffes, likely misrepresentations and contentious wordings to avoid. They're are keenly aware that every speech will be analyzed with fine journalistic tweezers under powerful PR optics.  

[iNow]

1 hour ago, Peterkin said:

Also, professional speech writers are usually canny about what gaffes, likely misrepresentations and contentious wordings to avoid. They're are keenly aware that every speech will be analyzed with fine journalistic tweezers under powerful PR optics.  

It’s called tuning. Like music.

When the President speaks, it’s akin to dropping a very large rock into the water.

There will be waves outward in all directions, sound waves and others… waves amplified along the way by transmission hubs who then toss their own new (though decidedly smaller) rocks into their own newer / local waters.

It’s musical when any one of us speaks, but it’s downright orchestral when people who have enormous reach speak… especially US Presidents… including the less benevolent ones.

It’s a wave they’re creating when dropping that rock. A tidal wave. A pressure wave pushing outward into everyone’s own inward pressure points.

So, yes. They “tuned” the speech. Like a guitar or violin, or a piano in a grand hall.

The speech was “tuned” … thankfully… BEFORE it was broadcast out into space through the largest megaphone the world had ever seen until recent years… a US President speaking (I temper this since recent years are different with new attention shifting power centers forming, like influencers on social media, but even bigger than that and more algorithmic).

Thankfully… the speech WAS tuned before it was played through speakers large and small, mechanical and humanical, to people with minds both large and small… below every curve of the atmosphere itself and across every corner and cranny of earth herself. 

Anyway, if it’s not called tuning then it should be, and I’m glad they tuned it before delivering it. IMO, that shows they respect their audience, whoever that may be.

Edited September 5, 2022 by iNow