The Power of Compassion

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Joe Biden did something at the Lincoln Memorial last night that was remarkable partly because his predecessor was incapable of it. Biden acknowledged and affirmed the everyday heroism and grief of so many Americans.

But Biden has a special gift for this kind of healing. Lest we forget, this is a man who lost his wife and daughter in a horrific car crash when he was 30. He went on just a month later to be the second-youngest senator ever to take office.

He later lost his cherished son Beau to cancer, and went on to be elected president. Some people just harden their hearts to that kind of loss. Joe Biden is not one of them.

Biden is the kind of person who combines a capacity for resilience with a hole in his heart that he never forgets. Having had more than my own share of loss, I can tell you that the two things are related.

For Trump, loss meant a casino deal that went sour, or having to shell out money to pay off a hooker. Compassion for the personal losses of others was beyond his capacity and comprehension.

Maybe it’s Biden’s Irish sentimentality or maybe it’s just his innate character and painful life experience. But his deep compassion comes naturally at a moment when the nation is deeply hungry for healing. That sort of genuine consolation cannot be fabricated by speechwriters.

If America is ever to come together after the ravages of Trump and the coronavirus, we must first appreciate each other’s struggle and sorrow. Biden was far from my first choice, but this just might be the right marriage of moment and man. He is as authentic as Trump was fake.

Biden’s gift for compassion goes beyond the underwhelming label that attached to him in the campaign—a man of decency. But both traits, combined with the nation’s need for deep healing, could give pause to Republicans inclined to cynically block everything Biden proposes.

Biden’s long-standing personal relationships with many Republican senators, which at first alarmed many progressives as too bipartisan and centrist, are also just what the country needs.

Forgive the optimism. Maybe I’m just caught up in the wave of relief and joy on this Inauguration Day, which very nearly didn’t happen. Just as we can all use some compassion, we can all use some hope.

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