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Election winner Biden:
Mediator between the fronts
Photo: Drew Angerer / Getty Images
In fact, January 20th has been a solemn, conciliatory date on the calendar of American democracy for almost a hundred years.
The president is sworn in on this day every four years.
The election winner steps on the steps of the Washington Capitol and vows to defend the constitution.
It is more than just a formality, it is a secular liturgy, a consecration hour that is intended to assure the country and its citizens that it is now time to get back together after all the strife and strife of the election campaign.
"Today we are not witnessing the victory of any party," said John F. Kennedy after his swearing-in on January 20, 1961: "What we are celebrating is freedom itself." Franklin D. Roosevelt challenged the Americans when he took office in 1933 to take courage again after the dark years of the global economic crisis.
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." It was to become one of the most famous sentences an American president has ever uttered.
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