Conservatives like me found lots to like in Biden's inaugural address. Will he deliver?
Millions of conservatives are keeping a close eye on the new president
Read the entire article at USA Today
Thomas Jefferson’s inauguration in 1801 has been on my mind for the last few days. Not only was it the first inaugural address to be delivered in Washington, D.C. and the first to be followed by a parade to the White House, it was the first after a particularly bitter election that ended up going to the House of Representatives.
The inauguration that followed that vote marked the first peaceful transition of power from one party to another, and Jefferson gave one of the greatest inaugural speeches in American history. All eyes were on the new president as he extended an olive branch to his opponent, John Adams: “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.” It turned out Jefferson’s opponents liked the speech better than his supporters did.
As a conservative, I was hoping President Joe Biden would do the same in his inaugural address.
I’d bet that like me, most Republicans were relieved when Biden took a pass on getting too partisan. He used the words “unity,” “uniting,” “united” and “union” a total of 15 times in 20 minutes, and referenced the importance of our democracy more than ten times. He gave credit to the heroes who ensured that the attack on the Capitol did not stop our democracy: “It will never happen. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”
