Joe Biden’s Inaugural Address

Abstract This chapter presents Joe Biden’s Inaugural Address, which stresses unity and empathy and invokes American history to convey that the people of the imperfect American nation should have reason for optimism. Although the overall theme of Biden’s speech is unity, he begins by talking about the January 6 insurrection. Biden affirms at the outset that the inauguration represents the triumph not of a candidate, but of the cause of democracy. Outlining the challenges the American nation would face, Biden emphasizes that there is much to repair, restore, heal, build, and gain. The address affirms Biden’s consideration of the threats to American democracy as not solely the insurrectionists, but also “white supremacy” and “domestic terrorism.”