Waterville, ME – Biden: It’s Time For America To Regain Unity And Purpose

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    FILE - Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at an event marking the seventh anniversary of the passing of the Affordable Care Act outside the Capitol Building in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein Waterville, ME – Former Vice President Joe Biden gave assurances Sunday that the country’s current divisiveness brought on by a presidential election that “churned up some of the ugliest realities” of society will be temporary.

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    Biden told graduating seniors at Colby College to resist the impulse to throw up their hands after an election that played to society’s “baser instincts.”

    “It’s time for America to get up. It’s time to regain our sense of unity and purpose. It’s time for us to restart realizing who in God’s name we are,” he said during a sunny commencement address on the library lawn.

    The Democrat who served two terms alongside President Barack Obama expressed his own disbelief in the state of affairs.

    “This past election cycle churned up some of the ugliest realities in our country. Civilized discourse and real debate gave way to the coarsest rhetoric and stoking of our darkest emotions,” he said.

    But he said the corrosive politics and us-against-them populism won’t be permanent. “I assure you it’s temporary. I assure you it’s transitory. The American people will not sustain this attitude,” he said.

    He encouraged the 480 graduates from 36 states and 42 countries to resist the temptation to retreat into their own bubbles, engaging in a comfortable lifestyle and surrounding themselves by people with similar viewpoints.

    Instead, he encouraged them to get out and take risks, to treat others with dignity, and to build bonds of empathy with others.

    “Life can’t be lived in a self-referential, self-reinforcing, self-righteous echo chamber we build for ourselves online. Living on screens encourages shallow and antiseptic relationships that make it easy to reduce others to stereotypes, to write another human being off as a bad person,” he said.

    Biden never mentioned Republican President Donald Trump by name but he came close when he talked about standing up to sexual harassment and sexual violence.

    He made a reference to so-called sexually charged locker room conversations — referencing Trump’s downplaying of lewd remarks as “locker room talk” — before telling the group: “It doesn’t go on like someone said it does.”


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    6 years ago

    You want unity ? Just drop the whole damn Russia thing and unite behind trump . Let bygones be bygones .?People don’t realize that on many issues Trump is not a conservative . There is finally a man not partisan in the White House . He could not care les about gay marriage or abortion. Even the ACA if u want unversial health although I am against it , Trump would go for it . There are only 3 or 4 things that trump really cares about . Immigration , national security and pro wall st business . On everything else if he would have the dems on board he would trash the ko
    Ko tea partyers in a second . So drop the Russian nonsense . We all know what happened . The Russians hacked the dnc way before trump rose to anything . Then trump colluded with them when to dump the gossip. No major sin . Now we know the truth . Let’s get over it and unify for the sake of the country .

    Let’s be “stronger together ” while simutenouisly ” making America great again “!

    6 years ago

    We are all fortunate that this bumbling, blabbering fool is not holding public office. he can still shoot words at students, too innocent to know that he decries rhetoric while he is doing exactly that. Yes, the divisiveness is abhorrent. He points to the chaos that cannot allow the new president to govern the country without persistent resistance, political mayhem, fake news, and violent protests. But he simultaneously incites all of this. I am more than happy that he has left public office. If he would move into greater obscurity, it would be a Divine gift.