Speaking at an annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Boise in February 1976, Biden said: ”I told you [in a previous speech] about my view that the uniqueness of America didn’t lie in the fact that we’re a great melting pot. We hear that all the time, about it being black and white, rich and poor, Christian and Jew — therefore we’re strong. I told you then, I thought that was a bunch of poppycock.
“The fact we are black and white doesn’t bring us together as a nation. The fact that we’re Christian and Jew doesn’t send us running into one another's embrace to herald our differences. The fact is that people fear differences. The fact that the reason this nation is able to be the most heterogeneous nation in the history of mankind is not because it’s a melting pot. It’s because unlike any other nation in the world, we are uniquely a product of our political institutions.
“If France tomorrow, for example, were to turn in a monarchy, I told you, I did not believe that France would substantively change. Because in France there’s an ethnicity that binds them together, a cultural tie. You don’t have that in America,” he added.
"Just look around this country to see how different we are. Unless we get the American people from Delaware to Idaho, Massachusetts to California, believing that the political system can produce results for them, this country is going to spin apart like a gyroscope out of kilter,” said Biden.
“You were saying, ‘No, it can’t happen here, this is America, we’re unique, we are something different.’ Well, the Lord ain’t made a new brand of man in a long time. It can happen here, we can split apart, and we’re moving in the direction of doing just that.
“Without [the public’s] confidence, without their participation in the system, this nation will not see a tricentennial, this nation will not see the year 2000 in a way in which we now think it is composed." ...
“We hear time and again that we are uniquely a melting pot. Because we’re black, white, rich and poor, therefore we’re strong,” said Biden. “The fact that we are black and white, rich and poor drives us apart in America,” he said.
