Powerful remarks from @POTUS & @VP. Credit to the president for the directness with which he characterized the role of his immediate predecessor. But as with Garland yesterday, the enduring measure of their performances shall not be in their words but in their actions.
It is not enough to call for defending voting rights. The speech would have been better had he directly put the weight of his office and his personal reputation behind the fight for the legislation that will soon be before the Senate.
It is not enough to say we are a nation of laws. Rather, we must see the enforcement of those laws. It is not enough to say we will defend democracy. Our leaders must say and demonstrate how they will do it.
Saying the above does not diminish the fact that Biden was effective and presidential. Nor does it minimize the reminder we had that the great strength of the VP is as an advocate. Both are best when we see their emotions, when sense their passion.
Points of to those who picked a setting with so many distractions in the background, who did not choreograph where and how the hand off between the VP & the president should go, who did not insist this was better rehearsed.
That may seem like trivia but optics matter and the messages were so important that they deserve the best possible framing. Overall, the commemoration of the anniversary of January 6th was solid.
But now, a year later, we still wait to see whether we will translate our outrage and heartbreak at those events and our disgust at the evolution of the threats against our democracy since then into concrete actions that will be worthy of the words we heard today & yesterday.
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