This was a week when Americans, reeling in our collective anguish after 31 mass-murders in two cities, discovered we need to re-learn history's lessons about a few things we thought we'd never forget.
Mainly: What it was really like to live in America back in the days when our presidents were truly presidential.
This week, some of us watched, live on our news screens, an unexpectedly impressive lecture on precisely that subject. Our lecturer wasn't your typical academic, but an ad hoc historian. And most of you probably missed what he had to say, because he spoke during a news-cluttered day while President Donald Trump was flying from Dayton, Ohio, to El Paso, Texas. In Dayton Trump met with wounded victims and grieving families after a gunman fired his military-styled assault weapon at nightlife revelers. In El Paso, eight victims of another assault-weapon murderer declined to meet with Trump. The shooter, a Trump admirer, had attacked after posting an online screed parroting Trump's frequent inflammatory words, including his claim that we are under "invasion" by Central American criminals. Then he aimed at Latino-looking people and squeezed his rapid-firing trigger.
While Trump was flying, some Americans indeed watched as a lecturer in Burlington, Iowa reminded us of our better times:
"Our institutions, often imperfectly, stood against hate at moments when we were most tested. America's presidents have (risen) up in the past. George H.W. Bush, renouncing his membership in the NRA. President Clinton, after Oklahoma City. George W. Bush, going to a mosque after 9/11. President Obama, after Charleston. Presidents who led, who opposed, chose to fight for what the best of American character is about. There is a deafening silence now.... Our president has aligned himself with the darkest forces in this nation. It makes winning this battle for the soul of our nation that much tougher, harder."
Yes, this was no objective ad hoc historian. He not only knew all of those ex-presidents, but he also hopes to spend his future mornings shaving our next one � while staring into his own bathroom mirror. It's Joe Biden. And surprisingly the former vice president was concise, self-controlled and actually eloquent in ways that will surprise his non-admirers.
If his ambition takes him no further, this will be remembered as the week Biden served us admirably as our national reminder-in-chief.
"You all know that words of a president matter," said Biden. "They can move markets. The can send our brave women and men to war. They can bring peace. They can calm a nation in turmoil. They can console. They can confront and comfort those who have faced tragedy. They can inspire us to literally reach for the moon. They can encourage us to appeal to our better angels, or better nature. They can also unleash the deepest, darkest forces in the nation. That is what I believe Donald Trump has chosen to do."
Biden recalled Trump's claim, after white supremacists and neo-Nazis ignited violence that killed a woman in Charlottesville, Va., that there were "fine people" on both sides. "Those words not only stunned America, but they stunned the world....
"The battle for the soul of the nation has been a constant push and pull for 243 years, between the American idea that says we are all created equal and the harsh reality or racism that has long torn us apart."
Biden added: "We are living through a rare moment in this nation's history, where our president isn't up to the moment. Where our president lacks the moral authority to lead. Where our president has more in common with George Wallace than he does with George Washington."
No, this is much worse. Having covered Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign, I know Trump has gone much further than Wallace ever dared to go in using inflammatory words to attract voters who love to hate because of race, religion or birthplace. That's why I have warned in columns that Trump's hate-rhetoric would trigger some easily incited follower to attack and maybe assassinate a political target Trump designated. Such as when Trump points at reporters at rallies and calls my colleagues "enemies of the people!"
Every savvy Republican politician knows this. But when you ask them about Trump's hateful words, they cringe and develop political laryngitis.
Yet every respectable Republican in Congress believes the words Biden said:
"We are almost 330 million Americans. We will have to do what our president can't. Stand together. Stand against hate... If we stand together, we will win the battle for the soul of this nation. We are the United States of America."
Biden did have one viewer who disagreed. From Air Force One Trump tweeted: "Watching Sleepy Joe Biden making a speech. Sooo Boring!"
