Introduction

On September 1, 2022, President Biden gave a speech which will be his defining moment as a leader and communicator.  The official name for the speech is “Remarks by President Biden on the Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation” but it can be commonly identified as just the anti-MAGA speech.  This speech became controversial immediately after it was given.  Supporters of President Biden and his politics called it an accurate description of recent past events and the current state of affairs.  Those on the other side believed that his words were divisive, in bad faith, and an attack against his political opponents.

One question that I heard raised from a supporter of the speech’s worldview is “what did he say that was wrong?”  This is a very fair, interesting question and a good starting point from which an opponent of the speech’s worldview can build an argument.  The speech itself wasn’t about presenting a certain set of facts which could be proven or disproven.  It was about building a narrative, perception, and framing around a set of events.  To point out the problems of a narrative, we need to see whether it can be shown to be contrived; inconsistent with previous actions/beliefs, one-sided, and exclusionary of the full context of its underlying factual blocks.  If we look at it this way, even if we can’t say that what President Biden said is “wrong”, we can demonstrate that what he said is partisan, inconsistent, hypocritical, and not the basis for a good-faith worldview.