Jill Biden, a not-so-tradiMis future first lady
She is the new First Lady of the United States. Already alongside Joe Biden when he was Barack Obama's vice-president, Jill has a very clear idea of the role she will be called upon to play. And behind her air of a traditional mother, this teacher is a real politician.
Just over a year ago, I met Jill Biden for the first time. Joe Biden's wife had made an appointment with her supporters in Clive, an upscale suburb of Des Moines. We were 100 days away from the primaries in Iowa, the first state to open the ball rolling of the election season. The event, orchestrated by the “Women for Biden” movement, was what Americans call a “house party”, a meeting in a small committee organized among the inhabitants. The scene was worthy of the series “Desperate Housewives”. With an average age of 60, visibly well-off and all white, the women who came to listen to Jill Biden were gathered in an opulent living room with large bay windows overlooking an artificial lake. Glass of wine and crackers in hand, these mothers welcomed their future first lady with complicit enthusiasm. When she arrived, she immediately caused bursts of laughter by recounting having spent the car journey pulling on the “Women for Biden” T-shirts delivered in sizes that were too small.
“WE WILL NOT LET PRESIDENT TRUMP ATTACK OUR RIGHTS”
Then Jill Biden showed up. In this key state of the campaign, her speech was cut to seduce the electorate which had escaped Hillary Clinton in 2016. At the time, 52% of white women had voted Donald Trump. "As some of you know, when I married Joe, I became the mother of two boys, Beau and Hunter (Editor's note: in 1972, Joe Biden lost his wife Neilia and his thirteen-month-old daughter in a car accident). I was young, I was 25, and I didn't know what to expect with this new role of mom. I said to myself: what is more important than being recognized as a mother? So I stopped working for several years to do what you all do: help in the school library, serve meals in the canteen, drive the children to the stadium..." Insisting on the love that each woman had to her children, she continued her speech on the importance of guaranteeing health insurance accessible to all, before concluding: “We will not let President Trump attack our rights, our families and our country! As women, you all know, we are the ones who take care of others, we take care of our families, we would do anything for our children! I know you all share this sentiment. »
A COMMITTED PROF
At 69, the wife of Joe Biden has the ideal profile to seduce those who voted Trump yesterday and regret it today. But beyond her speech as a devoted wife and mother who seems very far from the political feminism claimed by the new generation of elected Democrats, Jill Biden embodies a committed woman. Committed to her job first. Because Jill Biden, holder of a doctorate in English, is a teacher at the “community college” of North Virginia. During her husband's term as vice-president, she continued to work. She pledged to do the same if Joe Biden won the presidency, an exception in American political history. At the Democratic Convention last August, she made a point of speaking from her old classroom in Delaware. “Yes, many classrooms are empty today, the playgrounds are immersed in calm. But if you listen closely, you will hear the crackles of change in the air. We did not give up. We only need a leader worthy of our nation,” she said forcefully.
A MESSAGE BASED ON EMPATHY AND RESILIENCE
"I think she's a mix of Michelle Obama, Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton," Randi Weingarten, president of a teachers' union, recently observed in the Washington Post. Like these previous first ladies, Jill Biden intends to play a significant role during the mandate of her husband. Already, during the Obama presidency, she was involved with Michelle Obama, particularly with military families. She was also mobilized in the fight against breast cancer or to promote the education of the most disadvantaged. These last months of the campaign have shown that she is more than ready to go to the front. Last March, she went so far as to push back a vegan activist who had appeared on stage, thus protecting her husband. The day after the incident, Joe Biden had quipped: “I am surely the only presidential candidate whose wife is the” Secret Service “” (note: personality protection service in the United States). In a campaign now marked by the pandemic and a few days before the ballot, Jill Biden travels through key states. With determination, she carries the message of the Democrats, centered on empathy and resilience, at the antipodes of the combative speech of Donald Trump. In a campaign clip, she recently told voters, “With the courage, strength and resilience we never knew we had, we will continue to fight for each other. For what is right. From now on, it is no longer a show of supporters that must be convinced, but all of America. And while the number of coronavirus cases is on the rise again in the country, the discourse inviting people to take care of their loved ones and family has never been so topical.
You are not alone.
— Dr. Jill Biden (@DrBiden) October 9, 2020
We are stronger than we ever knew. We are resilient. pic.twitter.com/E6Byib8FNu
