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A year ago this week, President Joe Biden delivered an unusual prime-time speech from the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. The point of his message was straightforward: Biden made the case that the state of our democracy was in peril, due to Donald Trump, his followers, and their extremist ideology.
A year later, the public learned that the incumbent Democrat isn’t the only presidential-level observer with such concerns. The New York Times reported:
A coalition representing nearly every former president from Herbert Hoover to Barack Obama issued a collective call on Thursday to protect the foundations of American democracy and maintain civility in the nation’s politics. The alliance of presidential centers and foundations for U.S. leaders dating back nearly a century, both Democrats and Republicans, is a historic first. Never before has such a broad coalition of legacy institutions from former administrations joined together on a single issue.
As a rule, presidential centers and foundations don’t generate national news. In fact, they don’t try: These institutions deliberately steer clear of the political disputes of the day, ceding that ground to those presently in the arena.
But given the state of our democracy, they apparently felt the need to make an exception.
“Americans have a strong interest in supporting democratic movements and respect for human rights around the world because free societies elsewhere contribute to our own security and prosperity here at home,” the joint statement read. “But that interest is undermined when others see our own house in disarray. The world will not wait for us to address our problems, so we must both continue to strive toward a more perfect union and help those abroad looking for U.S. leadership.”
The letter added that “elected officials must lead by example and govern effectively in ways that deliver for the American people.” It went on to say that Americans should also “respect democratic institutions and rights.”
The statement was endorsed by the Obama Foundation, the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the Clinton Presidential Center, the George & Barbara Bush Foundation, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, the Carter Center, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, the Richard Nixon Foundation, the LBJ Foundation, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, the Truman Library Institute, the Roosevelt Institute, and the Hoover Presidential Foundation.
The Eisenhower Foundation did not participate, though it told the Associated Press, “The Eisenhower Foundation has respectfully declined to sign this statement. It would be the first common statement that the presidential centers and foundations have ever issued as a group, but we have had no collective discussion about it, only an invitation to sign.”
Donald Trump, meanwhile, does not have a presidential library, and his “foundation” was shuttered after getting caught committing fraud. No organization affiliated with the Republican signed on to the joint statement.
That’s just as well. As the Times’ report noted, “The statement is largely anodyne in its prose and is careful not to include specific examples that could seem to refer to a current or a former elected leader. But some of its wording, and its timing, appear to serve as a subtle rebuke of former President Donald J. Trump.”
What’s more, let’s not brush past the ringleader behind the effort: The AP’s report added that the push for the joint statement “was spearheaded by David Kramer, executive director of the George W. Bush Institute.”
If Trump starts whining via social media about his predecessors, at least we’ll know why.