President Joe Biden has recognized greater than his justifiable share of hardship and tragedy. Whether or not overcoming his childhood stutter or dropping his spouse and daughter to a automotive crash in 1972 or his son Beau to most cancers in 2015, devastation has been a continuing companion all through his life; it’s tempting to see his current analysis of aggressive prostate most cancers in that gentle.
However that’s not Joe Biden. Sure, he has recognized deep tragedy professionally, politically and personally, nevertheless it has by no means outlined him as a result of he has at all times discovered the energy not simply to beat that tragedy, however flip it into triumph.
I’ve usually referred to President Biden as “Uncle Joe” or “Scrappy Joe from Scranton” as a result of he’s at all times punched above his weight, reminding me of how my grandparents used to inform me, “When individuals wish to depend you out, present them that they don’t know how you can depend.”
It’s one factor to get knocked down. That occurs to all of us. Joe Biden teaches us how you can get again up, and, greater than laudable and even righteous, that’s profoundly American.
Moreover, whereas some make their title in pomp and bluster, President Biden has lived his life with the blue-collar work ethic and sensibility he grew up with and the easy goodness and beauty of his religion. Ask any of the individuals who have recognized him. They’ll let you know.
Ask the easy marketing campaign volunteers who have been at all times shocked that he remembered their names or their households. Ask the numerous on a regular basis People he met how he’d take day trip of a packed schedule to hearken to their troubles, how he would have fun their victories and the way he’d console them and pray with them in instances of sorrow.
Ask them in the event that they’ve ever seen something like him earlier than or since.
Joe Biden has at all times leaned on his religion and it reveals. I do know. I’ve seen it firsthand. I used to be there with him at Royal Missionary Baptist Church on January 19, 2025. It was considered one of his final official occasions as President and I had the consideration not solely to assist plan the journey, however to worship with him in these pews.
He talked about religion that day. He talked about religion in God and religion in one another. He talked about religion in an America, “The place the individuals we love undergo arduous instances, fall down, make errors, however we’re proper there to assist them get again up.”
“We don’t activate one another,” he stated. “We lean into one another. That’s the sacred covenant of our nation. We pledge allegiance, not simply to an thought however to one another. That’s who we’re pledging allegiance to.”
In excessive instances, powerful instances, and all instances, he leans on his mates, his household, and his religion. It was on full show that day, and it stays on full show.
Once I heard about President Biden’s analysis over the weekend, like most of you, I used to be shocked and saddened. Greater than anything, Joe Biden is an effective man and he doesn’t deserve this struggle. Then once more, he’s by no means shied away from one both. That’s why that is a kind of uncommon moments the place we get to see individuals throughout this nation and the world rally collectively to face behind this good man who stood for us, who challenged us to remedy most cancers in all its types and who cheers us to get again up and be higher than we ever thought attainable.
Antjuan Seawright is a Democratic political strategist, founder and CEO of Blueprint Technique LLC and a senior visiting fellow at Third Method. Comply with him on X, previously often called Twitter, @antjuansea.
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