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В своей номинационной речи Байден точно выдержал тон Моисея, обещая вывести страну из тьмы на свет.

“America’s history tells us that it has been in our darkest moments that we’ve made our greatest progress. That we’ve found the light. And in this dark moment, I believe we are poised to make great progress again. That we can find the light once more.
I have always believed you can define America in one word: possibilities. That in America, everyone, and I mean everyone, should be given the opportunity to go as far as their dreams and God-given ability will take them.
We can never lose that. In times as challenging as these, I believe there is only one way forward. As a united America. United in our pursuit of a more perfect union. United in our dreams of a better future for us and for our children. United in our determination to make the coming years bright. Are we ready? I believe we are.
This is a great nation. And we are a good and decent people. This is the United States of America. And there has never been anything we’ve been unable to accomplish when we’ve done it together.
The Irish poet Seamus Heaney once wrote:
History says,
Don’t hope on this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

This is our moment to make hope and history rhyme. With passion and purpose, let us begin - you and I together, one nation, under God - united in our love for America and united in our love for each other. For love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. Light is more powerful than dark.
This is our moment. This is our mission. May history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here tonight as love and hope and light joined in the battle for the soul of the nation. And this is a battle that we, together, will win. I promise you.“
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/us/politics/biden-presidential-nomination-dnc.html

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В речи прозвучало прямое упоминание противостояния с Путиным:

“I will be a president who will stand with our allies and friends. I will make it clear to our adversaries the days of cozying up to dictators are over. Under President Biden, America will not turn a blind eye to Russian bounties on the heads of American soldiers. Nor will I put up with foreign interference in our most sacred democratic exercise - voting.
I will stand always for our values of human rights and dignity.”


Again, I am not weighing in to endorse anyone. (My media and admin jobs don't allow it.) But I worked with VP Biden for 3 years at the White House and he is most certainly a man of great character. On that, no one should have any doubt. https://t.co/H5TwfVM4Wz pic.twitter.com/m7RWGLqeZo
- Michael McFaul (@McFaul) February 27, 2020

Бывший посол Майкл Макфол пишет о том, что ситуация с отравлением Навального является примером противостояния добра и зла.

“Vladimir Putin is evil. Over the past 20 years, Russia’s current leader has constructed a ruthless dictatorship. He has shut down independent media and civil society organizations, and he has arrested critics and business leaders who dare to challenge his unconstrained powers. Abroad, Putin has annexed Ukrainian territory, sent troops to Syria to prop up one the most brutal dictators of our time, violated American sovereignty in 2016 to try to influence the outcome of our presidential election, and is interfering again in our election now. At home and abroad, Putin’s regime and its proxies have repeatedly killed, or tried to kill, its critics. Navalny may have just become his latest victim. <...>
American indifference to evil has consequences. It emboldens the villains and weakens the heroes. But sometimes presidents must say and do things - for example, to impose sanctions on Alexander Lukashenko for stealing an election in Belarus, to criticize Putin for aiding the Taliban, to signal solidarity with Navalny and offer assistance as European leaders have - not because these actions might be effective, but because they are right. In a world divided by good and evil, it’s time for America to get back on the right side.“
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-russian-dissident-is-fighting-for-his-life-where-is-the-us/2020/08/20/2acf79ca-e31f-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html

Donald Trump continues to cozy up to Russia while Putin persecutes civil society and journalists.

Now, opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma after being poisoned. It's unacceptable.

Unlike Trump, I'll defend our democratic values and stand up to autocrats like Putin. https://t.co/OLjoGDaG4f
- Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 21, 2020

Помимо деклараций, программа Байдена в области международной политики включает борьбу с международной коррупцией и отмыванием сворованных денег - дело жизни Навального, представляющее особую опасность для Путина и его камарильи.

“An insidious pandemic, corruption is fueling oppression, corroding human dignity, and equipping authoritarian leaders with a powerful tool to divide and weaken democracies across the world. Yet when the world’s democracies look to the United States to stand for the values that unite the country-to truly lead the free world-Trump seems to be on the other team, taking the word of autocrats while showing disdain for democrats. By presiding over the most corrupt administration in modern American history, he has given license to kleptocrats everywhere.
During my first year in office, the United States will organize and host a global Summit for Democracy to renew the spirit and shared purpose of the nations of the free world. It will bring together the world’s democracies to strengthen our democratic institutions, honestly confront nations that are backsliding, and forge a common agenda. Building on the successful model instituted during the Obama-Biden administration with the Nuclear Security Summit, the United States will prioritize results by galvanizing significant new country commitments in three areas: fighting corruption, defending against authoritarianism, and advancing human rights in their own nations and abroad. As a summit commitment of the United States, I will issue a presidential policy directive that establishes combating corruption as a core national security interest and democratic responsibility, and I will lead efforts internationally to bring transparency to the global financial system, go after illicit tax havens, seize stolen assets, and make it more difficult for leaders who steal from their people to hide behind anonymous front companies.”
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-01-23/why-america-must-lead-again



Байден не отклонился и от центральной темы своей избирательной кампании - борьбы с нацизмом за “душу страны”.

“Just a week ago yesterday was the third anniversary of the events in Charlottesville. Remember seeing those neo-Nazis and Klansmen and white supremacists coming out of the fields with lighted torches? Veins bulging? Spewing the same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the ’30s? Remember the violent clash that ensued between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it? Remember what the president said? There were quote, “very fine people on both sides.”
It was a wake-up call for us as a country. And for me, a call to action. At that moment, I knew I’d have to run. My father taught us that silence was complicity. And I could not remain silent or complicit. At the time, I said we were in a battle for the soul of this nation. And we are.”

Между тем судебный иск жителей Шарлотсвилля против нацистских организаций продолжается, следующее заседание состоится в октябре.

In July, Judge Norman K. Moon denied motions filed by defendants to dismiss the suit, as organizers say they were, as Moon put it, “simply engaged in lawful, if unpopular, political protest and so their conduct is protected by the First Amendment.” According to Moon’s ruling, among the defendants’ claims were that they couldn’t be sued by white plaintiffs because they only had a racial animus against non-white people. Moon also wrote that the defendants argued for the case’s dismissal on First and Second Amendment grounds, but shot that down, as well.
Moon ruled that the plaintiffs “plausibly alleged the defendants formed a conspiracy to commit the racial violence that led to the Plaintiffs’ varied injuries.” That means the First Amendment doesn’t cover their actions or advocacy for violence. It’s a similarly subtle difference Moon noted in rejecting Second Amendment claims, finding that the plaintiffs were right to assert that the defendants could’ve beared arms legally, but using them as they did created some of the grounds for the lawsuit.
That means that the case will still likely have its day in court this October with Roberta Kaplan and Karen Dunn serving as co-lead counsel for IFA. Spitalnick says IFA expects a win and a bold new precedent for successfully suing extremists.
“It can have major financial, legal, and operational impacts on these leaders and groups. It already has had major financial, legal, and operational impacts on the defendants,” she says. “The case can really bankrupt and dismantle the leaders in the groups that are at the center of this movement, which, again, will have impacts that extend well beyond Charlottesville.”
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/charlottesville-residents-suing-neo-nazis-kkk-alt-right-unite-the-right

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Среди трампистов принята дикая теория заговора о том, что Трамп не говорил про нацистов “very fine people”, но, как и культ QAnon, это оторванная от реальности вера служит костылями для преодоления когнитивного диссонанса.

More background here:https://t.co/geLZZzqHqv
- Eli Valley (@elivalley) August 21, 2020

Стихи ирландского поэта Шеймаса Хини про рифмующуюся историю, которые цитировал Байден - из пьесы “The Cure at Troy”, переложения трагедии «Филоктет» Софокла, были навеяны судьбой Нельсона Манделы.



Освобождению Манделы из тюрьмы и концу режима апартеида в Южной Африке способствовал пакет санкций, принятый Конгрессом в 1986 в законе Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. Общественное давление к этому времени было сильным - появились общественные организации вроде Free South Africa Movement и Artists and Athletes Against Apartheid. Рейган был против закона о санкциях, который связывал бы ему руки в политике “constructive engagement” по отношению к руководству ЮАР. Демократы призывали республиканцев определиться, являются ли они партией Линкольна или партией апартеида.

Senator Kennedy, who has reserved some of his best moments in the Senate in recent years for issues he sees as refections of old-line, basic Democratic principles, said, “There comes a time in the life of a country when it must live up to the principles that made that country special and different in the world and in history. Now is that time for the United States on this issue of apartheid.” <...>
Mr. Kennedy stirred the Republican nest Tuesday morning, when he said: “The Republican Party is at a crossroads. It must decide whether it wants to be the party of Lincoln or the party of apartheid.” When told of the impact, Mr. Kennedy, replied sternly, “I think it's a fact, it's true. I think it ought to be said.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/13/us/congress-high-anxiety-over-south-africa.html



Рейган наложил на закон вето, но Конгресс преодолел его при поддержке ведущих республиканцев - в том числе молодого Митча Макконелла, который проявил принципиальность несмотря на то, что был обязан Рейгану победой на выборах.

In this country the sanctions issue had also become a highly symbolic and political question. The Senate majority leader, Bob Dole, Republican of Kansas, described the vote as a “litmus test” of the lawmakers' feelings on civil rights.
Senator Alan Cranston, a California Democrat, summed up this symbolism when he said, “The Senate must decide whether we stand with the oppressed or with the oppressors.”
Mr. Reagan made a major effort in recent days to salvage his veto, and he called a number of Senators personally today, arguing that he would appear weak and ineffective in Iceland if he were rebuffed by the Republican-controlled Senate on a major foreign policy question. Earlier this week, he tried to bolster his cause by promising to impose some economic sanctions on his own, and by appointing the first black Ambassador to South Africa.
These efforts only gained him seven more votes than the total that opposed the bill in August. All 21 votes to sustain the veto were cast by Republicans, but the key to the outcome today was that 31 Republicans, including many conservative allies of Mr. Reagan, were not persuaded by his arguments.
A good example was Mitch McConnell, a first-term Republican from Kentucky, who said he was casting his first vote against the President on a foreign policy issue with “great reluctance.” But on this question, the lawmaker said: “I think he is ill-advised. I think he is wrong. We have waited long enough for him to come on board.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/03/world/senate-78-to-21-overrides-reagan-s-veto-and-imposes-sanctions-on-south-africa.html

McConnell, a freshman, had upset a two-term Democratic incumbent in the 1984 Reagan landslide by a a razor-thin margin of less than .5%. He explained he would cast his vote to override "with reluctance." McConnell argued that: "Because I have chosen to stand with those who struggle for freedom, I must stand apart from my president (Congressional Record, 99th Congress, October 2, 1986, 27833)."
https://www.thecongressproject.com/comprehensive-antiapartheid-act-of-1986



Против закона безуспешно боролось расистское крыло во главе с Джесси Хелмсом.

Outside the Senate chamber, Helms told reporters:
“All this bill does is exacerbate the situation in South Africa. Nobody is for apartheid, but who are we to be so pious about the efforts of the South African government to stop the riots, the looting, the shooting and the mayhem that’s going on over there?” he asked.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-08-01-mn-4281-story.html

Ключевую роль в принятии закона сыграл умеренный республиканский сенатор из Индианы Ричард Лугер, глава комиссии по международным отношениям.

The Congressional Quarterly Almanac for 1986 notes that, “The key actor in the Senate was Lugar, normally one of Reagan’s most loyal and effective supporters. Lugar was the main architect of the Senate bill.” The Hoosier senator was denounced by some fellow Republicans, including Reagan’s communications director Pat Buchanan and Sen. Jesse Helms, who predicted that Lugar “would be responsible for turning South Africa over to ‘militant blacks’ and ultimately the Soviet Union.” Lugar, ignoring the attacks, declared from the Senate floor that “We are against tyranny, and tyranny is in South Africa!” The Senate passed the veto override 78-21.
https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2013/12/10/indianas-richard-lugar-helped-mandelas-anti-apartheid-cause/3957833/

Через месяц республиканцы потеряли большинство в Сенате, после чего Хелмс, пользуясь старшинством стажа, вытеснил Лугера из руководства комиссии.

Republican senators, reaffirming the principle of seniority, today rejected the choice made by their party's members of the Foreign Relations Committee and elected Senator Jesse Helms to be the committee's ranking Republican.
Mr. Helms, one of the Senate's most combative conservatives, upset Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana to become the Republican Party's principal foreign policy spokesman on Capitol Hill. The vote, which was by secret ballot, was 24 to 17. <...>
Senator Lugar, who served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee for the last two years, was replaced as chairman by Senator Claiborne Pell, a Rhode Island Democrat, after the Democrats won control of the Senate and the right to control its committees. Two weeks ago the Republican members of the committee voted 7 to 0 to make Mr. Lugar the ranking Republican. Senator Helms appealed that vote to the entire Republican membership of the Senate. <...>
Senator Helms, a 65-year-old former newspaper editor and onetime radio and television executive, clearly relishes his combative reputation.
“I'm sorry to disappoint you folks,” he said as he emerged from the meeting today to announce his victory to a waiting crowd of reporters. He said he had a message for newspaper editorial writers: “I hate to ruin your day, but you lost.” <...>
Asked whether Mr. Helms presented the image the Republican Party needed in the Senate, Mr. Lugar replied: ''I don't think his vision would be beneficial. I respect his point of view, but I don't agree with it.''
As Foreign Relations chairman, Senator Lugar led the successful effort last year for a bill imposing sanctions on South Africa, which Senator Helms bitterly opposed. Mr. Lugar also played a key role in leading the Administration to drop its support of President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/21/us/republicans-pick-helms-over-lugar-for-a-senate-job.html



В 2013 Обама наградил своего бывшего ментора Ричарда Лугара медалью свободы.

“A proud Hoosier, Dick Lugar has served America for more than half a century, from a young Navy lieutenant to a respected leader in the United States Senate. I’ll always be thankful to Dick for taking me -- a new, junior senator -- under his wing, including travels together to review some of his visionary work, the destruction of Cold War arsenals in the former Soviet Union -- something that doesn’t get a lot of public notice, but was absolutely critical to making us safer in the wake of the Cold War.
Now, I should say, traveling with Dick you get close to unexploded landmines, mortar shells, test tubes filled with anthrax and the plague. (Laughter.) His legacy, though, is the thousands of missiles and bombers and submarines and warheads that no longer threaten us because of his extraordinary work. And our nation and our world are safer because of this statesman. And in a time of unrelenting partisanship, Dick Lugar’s decency, his commitment to bipartisan problem-solving, stand as a model of what public service ought to be.”
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/11/20/remarks-president-presidential-medal-freedom-ceremony

Ныне история о лояльности и принципиальности, расизме и диктатуре не то, чтобы рифмуется, но входит в противоположную фазу.