Joe
Biden
The Fourth of July commemorates a courageous, extraordinary
day, when the architects of our nation
laid the first stone in the foundation of American democracy. In the nearly two
and a half centuries since, our Independence Day has come to stand not only for
that timeless bedrock, but also for every brick, beam and pillar Americans have
marched and bled to build atop it.
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Our
democracy rose up from the ground when we ended slavery and ratified the 13th,
14th and 15th
Amendments.
It rose higher when women fought for suffrage — and won. It was fortified when a lawyer named
Thurgood Marshall persuaded the Supreme Court to strike down “separate but
equal” and blaze a trail for opportunity in Brown v. Board of Education. And when our nation opened its eyes to the viciousness of
Bull Connor and the righteousness of the Freedom Riders — and responded with
outrage, and a new Civil Rights Act and a Voting Rights Act — we built it
stronger still.
Title IX.
The Indian Self-Determination Act. The Americans with Disabilities Act.
Marriage equality. DACA. Black Lives Matter. Brick by brick — and, all too
often, against long odds and violent opposition — the American people have
labored to expand the scope, strength and meaning of American democracy. There
has always been a push and a pull between our founding ideals and the forces of
inequality. But Independence Day is a celebration of our persistent march toward
greater justice — the natural expansion of our founding notion from “all men
are created equal” to “all people are created equal and should be treated
equally throughout their lives.”
Click to expan
That
pursuit of a more perfect union has been thrown off course in recent years —
and no one bears more responsibility than President Donald Trump. Every day, he
finds new ways to tarnish and dismantle our democracy — from baseless attacks on our voting rights to the use of military force against Americans protesting
peacefully for racial justice. He has
systematically gone after the guardrails of our democracy: the free press, the
courts, and our fundamental belief that no one in America — not even the
president — is above the law.
He has made it clear time and again that he won’t hesitate to tear apart our
most cherished democratic structures for an ounce of personal gain. And that
corruption of our founding principles threatens everything this nation has
worked so hard to build, blighting our ability not only to elevate our values,
but also to lead the world.
Democracy,
after all, is more than just the foundation of our society — it is the
wellspring of our power. It is the defining American quality, the one which
sustains our moral authority to keep the peace, drive progress, and marshal
nations to work together to take on global threats. Rebuilding and expanding
our democracy are essential to the long-term vitality of our nation. That’s
why, as president, I will take immediate action to reverse the damage Donald
Trump has done to our core democratic rights and institutions.
That
starts by protecting our most sacred right: the right to vote. I will restore
the Voting Rights Act — and fight to eliminate shameful barriers to voting that
the Republicans have put up in recent years, ensuring that Americans in every
neighborhood can participate in person or by mail on Election Day or during
early voting windows. I will pursue new laws to safeguard our elections from
malicious foreign actors. And I will seek to root out once and for all the
corrupting influence of dark money by calling for a constitutional amendment to
eliminate private dollars from federal elections.
To ensure
that our democratic values are able to rise to new heights, I will take
decisive steps to strengthen our foundation. That means immediately reversing
Trump’s cruel and counterproductive asylum, travel ban, and family separation
policies — and reaffirming our innate identity, reflected in our Constitution
and emblazoned in the Statue of Liberty, as a nation of immigrants. It means
fighting for — not conspiring against — the independence of our judiciary and
the freedom of our press. It means rooting out systemic racism from every area
of society it infects — from unfairly administered COVID-19 recovery funds, to
laws that perpetuate racial wealth gaps, to health disparities, to housing
policy, to policing, to our justice system and everywhere in between.
We must
demonstrate to the world that the United States stands ready to lead again, not
by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. That example — of
a broad and broadening commitment to democracy — can and must be the most
powerful force of influence in the world. November’s election will decide
whether we will leave the house of democracy built by generations of architects
and activists to decay, or whether we will come together as one nation to build
it up, stronger and higher than it has ever been before.
NBC
News THINK has also offered the Trump campaign the opportunity to write an
op-ed ahead of Election Day.
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