This is an adapted excerpt from the July 11 episode of “Morning Joe.”
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus issued a condemnation of judgmental religious leaders: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” In 1858, with the specter of a civil war rising in the United States over the issue of slavery, Abraham Lincoln accepted the Illinois Republican nomination for Senate, quoting Jesus and remarking in a now well-known speech, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Lincoln told his fellow Republicans, “I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.” He then encouraged his party to stand together as they had done in the past, “Two years ago, the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us.”
Lincoln’s words to Republicans in 1858 are all too relevant to Democrats today, as we approach a pivotal weekend for the future of our democracy.
Lincoln’s words to Republicans in 1858 are all too relevant to Democrats today, as we approach a pivotal weekend for the future of our democracy. There’s a rupture running deep throughout the Democratic Party: a split tearing at its very foundation. It’s a divide that will only serve to elect a man who has repeatedly promised to be a dictator.
President Joe Biden is on one side of this Democratic divide. In 2020, the president and his supporters saved American democracy by defeating Donald Trump, a malignant force promising to undermine the Constitution, make common cause with America’s enemies, and refuse to accept any democratic election result that declared him defeated.
Against the grim backdrop of his predecessor, Biden passed more bipartisan legislation and created more jobs than any president this generation. He also led America out of Covid more successfully than any other country on the planet, and has overseen the strongest dollar in a half-century. America’s economy is now the envy of the world. Period.
Under Biden, our military and alliances are stronger relative to the rest of the world than at any time since World War II. This is not a matter of debate, unless you get your news from hucksters on TikTok or a cable news channel allergic to the truth. Despite what Trumpists say, America is great, strong and respected across the world. Biden is showing as much by hosting a NATO summit this week — under his leadership, the alliance has become the strongest in the world’s history.
On the other side of the divide, many of the most powerful Democratic politicians, thought leaders and donors say privately — and soon may say publicly — that Biden can’t win in November. That’s become an almost universal sentiment among dozens of Democrats over the last 36 hours. They say the polls are collapsing, fundraising is drying up and any chance of saving the Senate and House from Trump’s rule is vanishing before their eyes.
Those are the two sides to this Democratic divide both with compelling arguments. But the window for saving American democracy is closing. Biden is dug in: he has the votes and the delegates. In the president’s eyes, it’s his rightful nomination. Also dug in are those who revere Biden but cherish democracy even more, and for them this is a zero-sum game.
Also dug in are those who revere Biden but cherish democracy even more, and for them this is a zero-sum game.
That’s why the handful of Democrats that Biden greatly respects — Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kauffman, Jim Clyburn, Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Ron Klain, and his family — Jill, Val and Hunter Biden — need to come together this weekend and talk about the consequences of this campaign and this candidacy on our country’s future. Democrats must come to a decision and unite against the immediate threat before America’s 240-year constitutional republic: Donald Trump.
Lincoln finished that 1858 speech by telling his fellow party members that against the “strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all then to falter now? Now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered and belligerent? This result is not doubtful. We shall not fail if we stand firm. We shall not fail.”
So said Lincoln then. So says a watchful and worried nation now.
