Joe Biden's 2022 University of Delaware Commencement Speech Reminds Americans that Our Nation Was Founded on an Idea

Biden at University of Delaware

Americans have been losing track of their values, and President Biden reminded us of what those values are. In his May 28, 2022 commencement speech at the University of Delaware, his alma mater, President Joe Biden appealed to a sense of national unity. He reminded his audience that the United States was founded on an idea, not “on ethnicity, religion, geography.” That idea was “the flame of liberty,” as Biden called it, “The right to determine our own destinies.”

This was a ceremonial speech, a graduation celebration. Ceremonial speeches like this (public speaking specialists call this “epideictic speech”) reinforce people’s values. Biden urged his audience to move forward toward liberty and justice. Most centrally, however, he urged the audience to place their faith in the nation's institutions. Unlike some of his earlier speeches, which too often ignored the nation's divisions, Biden asked the audience to confront those conflicts. He talked about:

“A crisis of faith in the institutions that have — however flawed they may be — serve as the infrastructure for the American experiment in liberty and self-government.” [italics added]

Biden reminded the students that, for the first time in American history, we did not have a peaceful transfer of power. Instead, a huge, violent mob ransacked the United States Capitol building to install the losing candidate in office. The assault arose from the bald-faced lie that the 2020 election was stolen. There are, however, no such things as “alternative facts.” To Biden, truth was an underlying value:

“Truth is truth. Lies are lies. And the truth is: We have a solemn duty to keep the flame of liberty burning. This is not about blue and red, rural, and urban. It’s about America. The right to govern ourselves. The right to determine our own destinies, to overcome division and despair, and to meet the challenges of our time with grit and, maybe equally important, with some grace. To press ahead determined, resolved, and full of hope.”

Instead of taking the easy route, Biden said that we must stand by our founding ideas:

“It’s not easy. It’s never been. But it’s who we are — people united by a [an] idea — by an idea, unbending in the face of adversity, and devoted to creating and sustaining [this] beloved nation of ours.” [italics added] 

So, Biden asked the public to trust the institutions of constitutional governance. Politics is not just about who wins an election, or which group benefits from which laws. Politics means to represent what the entire nation needs. To stand behind our values. As we celebrate Memorial Day, let us remember why our nation is worth defending. In our troubled times, what better reason can there be to give a speech?

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Research note: Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca developed the idea that epideictic speeches reinforce social values in their groundbreaking book, The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation.

Image: White House YouTube channel