Presidential historian, sometimes Biden speechwriter, and frequent MSNBC Jon Meacham joined The 11th Hour on Friday to recap what turned out to be a very eventful week. For Meacham, the week both the defense of Ukraine and the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court are critically important for democracy, just like winning World War II.
Responding to questioning from host Alicia Menendez about how critical the week was for President Biden, Meacham declared, “It’s a remarkable week for both the President and for all of us.”
Meacham declared that every generation of Americans is judged by how well they defend freedom, “and what we’re seeing abroad is tragically another chapter in the oldest story in humankind which is the will to power. Putin wants something. He wants it for economic power, for global power, for raw power, and he is allowing his ambitions, his appetite, to overrun the rule of law.”
Being a historian, Meacham recalled:
Winston Churchill came to the United States in 1943, in the middle of the Second World War. He gave a speech at Harvard in which he, was speaking basically to the isolationist impulse in the United States which had kept America, of course, out of the Second World War from September 1939 all the way until the middle of December 1941. And he said, you can’t become the greatest nation in the world, and say, we are not going to be interested in what happens elsewhere and he said, with greatness comes responsibility. And the generations that understand that and act on that are the ones we tend to honor the most.”
Meacham should’ve concluded there, but he didn’t, adding:
And then, of course, at home, you see with the—the-- appointment, of—of-- the nomination of—of--Judge Jackson, again this attempt to make us a more perfect union. To have this immensely important institution, reflect the diversity of the America that we are and that we’re becoming and so I think when people like me look back, and—and-- write about President Biden and write about this phenomenal era that really has been unfolding since the end of the Obama Administration unto this hour where there is a crisis of democracy and faith at home and now there’s a hot crisis of democracy and of faith abroad. I think we’re going to be looking at this pretty closely.”
Meacham is within his rights to be happy to see more Supreme Court even if diversity for its own sake is what matters for the Court, but that is not in the same universe as Ukrainians defending their homeland or victory in World War II.
This segment was sponsored by Discover.
Here is a transcript for the February 25 show:
MSNBC The 11th Hour
2/25/2022
11:50 PM ET
ALICIA MENENDEZ: With this tonight, historian Jon Meacham, he is the Rodgers Chair in American Presidency at Vanderbilt University. He occasionally advises President Biden on historical matters and major speeches. Sir, walk us through how critical of a week this was for the Biden presidency?
JON MEACHAM: It’s a remarkable week for both the president and for all of us. You know, every generation of Americans is ultimately judged by the extent to which we or they expand freedom, is both the defense of existing liberty, but also, how do we grow the mission of the American, and Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution that, for all of their flaws, is dedicated to the idea that in fact we’re created equal, and we have those rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and what we’re seeing abroad is tragically another chapter in the oldest story in humankind which is the will to power. Putin wants something. He wants it for economic power, for global power, for raw power, and he is allowing his ambitions, his appetite, to overrun the rule of law.
And that’s what has led to so many cataclysms in—in-- history. For millennia. But even over the last century or so, the First World War, the Second World War, the Cold War, which was hot in places. Although interestingly, did not ever feature a direct confrontation between the United States and the then-Soviet Union. And at every point, American presidents and—and-- the American people of that time, were called on, to be engaged in the work of the world.
You know, Winston Churchill came to the United States in 1943, in the middle of the Second World War. He gave a speech at Harvard in which he, was speaking basically to the isolationist impulse in the United States which had kept America, of course, out of the Second World War from September 1939 all the way until the middle of December 1941. And he said, you can’t become the greatest nation in the world, and say, we are not going to be interested in what happens elsewhere and he said, with greatness comes responsibility. And the generations that understand that and act on that are the ones we tend to honor the most.
And then, of course, at home, you see with the—the-- appointment, of—of-- the nomination of—of--Judge Jackson, again this attempt to make us a more perfect union. To have this immensely important institution, reflect the diversity of the America that we are and that we’re becoming and so I think when people like me look back, and—and-- write about President Biden and write about this phenomenal era that really has been unfolding since the end of the Obama Administration unto this hour where there is a crisis of democracy and faith at home and now there’s a hot crisis of democracy and of faith abroad. I think we’re going to be looking at this pretty closely.
