In direct contrast to the dystopian battles President Trump depicted in his Mount Rushmore extravaganza, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden defended the nation as an ever-improving entity capable of growing and maturing.

In an Independence Day message, Biden listed a number of times the United States has been improved by change:  the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, which eliminated slavery, outlined birthright citizenship, granted equal protection and enshrined voting rights; women’s suffrage; and many other actions to ensure legal rights such as Title IX and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“[T]he American people have labored to expand the scope, strength and meaning of American democracy,” Biden noted, adding “There has always been a push and a pull between our founding ideals and the forces of inequality.”

Biden also made direct accusations that Donald Trump’s presidency has not only perverted those quests for equality, but that Trump has attacked the very foundations of American democracy.

“Every day, [Trump] finds new ways to tarnish and dismantle our democracy — from baseless attacks on our voting rights to the use of military force against Americans protesting peacefully for racial justice,” Biden said. “He has systematically gone after the guardrails of our democracy: the free press, the courts, and our fundamental belief that no one in America — not even the president — is above the law.”

Biden pledged to protect voting rights as well as restoring America’s role to spread and protect democracy worldwide.

“We must demonstrate to the world that the United States stands ready to lead again, not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.”