President Biden's Jan 6 Speech Was Mostly Awful
When you're going to give a speech, you aught to have a clear objective of what you want your audience to learn or do, and then hit that objective square-on.
Joe Biden's "January 6 Anniversary" speech was steeped in sentiment, but severely lacking in purpose. Worse, it felt like his speechwriters had been just as infected by the Donald Trump virus as too many Republicans have been. Biden made it personal. He papered over the real challenges we're facing in our culture relating to conspiracy thinking by using the unhelpful term "lies." He also deployed an "us-vs-them" narrative instead of a diagnostic of what occurred, and, importantly, what troubling activities are happening right now in the states as a result. There was precious little spiritual leadership, and a whole lot of prerogatives. I recognize that he was going for tough love, which is his brand, but I think he fumbled.
A true shame, and in my view, a squandered opportunity. As I was listening, I was beating myself up for not getting myself into a position to help craft more optimal, and more constructive, messages for leaders like the President.
So, I did something about it. I re-wrote the speech, including commentary on why certain aspects of the speech are new and different from what Biden said on Jan 6.
You can read the original transcript and the Capital D Strategies re-write here:
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