Despite having plagiarized much of Ronald Reagan’s earlier 1984 speech honoring our venerated 1944 D-Day heroes at Pointe du Hoc overlooking Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, President Biden’s recent address projects a starkly dismal contrast with both the former president’s patriotic vision and his leadership legacy.
Reagan had begun by stating "At last the hour had come. Dawn. Sixth of June, 1944 … "two hundred and twenty-five Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs ... They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up … When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again."
He then said: "Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top…and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe."
Similarly, in an apparent attempt to sound Reagan-esque, Biden stated: "At dawn on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944 … two hundred and twenty-five American Rangers arrived by ship, jumped into the waves and stormed the beach … They launched their ladders, their ropes and grappling hooks, and they began to climb.”
Biden continued: "And inch by inch, foot by foot, yard by yard, the Rangers clawed, literally clawed their way up this mighty precipice until at last they reached the top … They breached Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, and they turned, in that one effort, the tide of the war that began to save the world."
As noted even by the far-left-leaning Washington Post, that narrative soon turned political, where with implicit reference to his presumed 2024 opponent’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) campaign slogan, Biden said, “My fellow Americans, I refuse to believe — I simply refuse to believe — that America’s greatness is a thing of the past.”
Somewhat echoing Reagan’s statement that “One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man,” Biden hailed World War II veterans who “knew, beyond any doubt, there are things that are worth fighting and dying for,” including freedom and democracy.
Then darkly contradicting and contrasting this with Reagan’s vision of America in his 1989 “shining city upon a hill” farewell address, Biden later stated that those fallen D-Day Rangers “fought to vanquish a hateful ideology of the ’30s and ’40s,” asking, “Does anyone doubt they would move heaven and earth to vanquish hateful ideologies of today?”
Leaving no doubt regarding his contempt for American values, Biden added, “When we talk about democracy — American democracy — we often talk the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness … What we don’t talk about is how hard it is. … The most natural instinct is to be selfish, force our will upon others, to seize power and never give up.”
And whereas President Reagan championed and advanced global peace through strength evidenced by influences leading to the fall of the Soviet Union, President Biden’s failed legacy is again conspicuously opposite.
When Reagan addressed the crowd at Normandy, he was speaking from a position of renewed U.S. military and economic strength following a struggle to restore American power after the Soviet advances of the 1970s.
By this time, Reagan had pushed regulatory and tax reforms through Congress that resulted in GDP growth to 5.8% or more over five straight years along with a historic defense buildup that ultimately created a 600-ship Navy.
In addition, Reagan had proposed creation of a major Strategic Defense Initiative for missile defense against Soviet ICBMs while also rallying European allies to deploy medium-range nuclear missiles on the Continent to counter Soviet deployments.
These resolute policies enabled Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, to successfully face down massive protests calling for a “nuclear freeze.”
Fast forward now to contrast these economic and military records of “the Gipper” with those of “the Grifter,” Joe Biden.
On our domestic side of the ocean, contemplate burdensome inflation and attendant food and commodity costs associated with profligate government spending and attacks on fossil energy from the time Joe Biden took office less than four years ago.
Observe that Reagan’s city on the hill has lost much of its glitter to raging street crime, un-prosecuted property theft, and a southern border open to many millions of homeless unvetted migrants where even the concept of national sovereignty has come to be politically challenged.
Regarding global peace through strength, the Biden administration has proposed cutting the U.S. defense budget in real terms for four straight years, with military spending now down close to 3% of GDP.
Meanwhile, America’s allies and adversaries have observed feckless leadership evidenced by the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle.
Similarly weak and misguided Obama and Biden administration appeasement policies have enabled Iran to soon become a nuclear threat and very likely have emboldened Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Hamas attack on Israel.
And what about those brave Rangers at Omaha Beach in Normandy along with other valiant warriors of that “greatest generation”?
Given a second chance, which contrasting vision of American democracy — Reagan’s shining city beacon of equal opportunities, or Biden’s sinful citadel of racial disparity — would they choose to represent and honor their ultimate sacrifices?
Keep that fundamentally patriotic question in mind when you cast your vote.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.
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