The value Americans place on democracy is the “most urgent question of our time,” President Joe Biden said during a speech kicking off his 2024 campaign in Pennsylvania on the eve of the third anniversary of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol – where he launched an impassioned political attack on his likely opponent Donald Trump that painted a sharp distinction between how the nation’s first and 45th presidents ended their terms.
“Donald Trump’s campaign is about him, not America. Not you. Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy to put himself in power,” Biden said.
The backdrop of Biden’s speech near Valley Forge, where George Washington rallied an undersupplied and demoralized Continental Army at the height of the American Revolution, gave the president the opportunity to contrast Washington, who would eventually set the precedent of relinquishing presidential power in the face of an adoring new nation, with Trump, who went to extraordinary lengths to maintain his grip on power, encouraging his supporters to march to the Capitol as he refused to accept the result of the 2020 election.
That message could rally a base that has been souring on Biden over his handling of various foreign and domestic crises, including the Israel-Hamas war and the influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border.
Polling has shown that while Biden is not a popular leader, democracy itself is a central issue for Americans ahead of November.
A majority of Americans, including 72% of Democrats, think the outcome of the 2024 election will be extremely or very important for the future of democracy in the United States, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll last month, ranking the issue behind only the economy.
Biden’s campaign has sought to has…
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