Or maybe Trumptards are just enraged by the idea of getting along with other people. In that case, I agree with you
I mean, you're not far off, but that's not quite what I was getting at. You are correct insofar that it doesn't matter whether Trump supporters are
right (they aren't), but Biden's biggest challenge isn't right or wrong. It's calming emotions and reconciliation vs. furthering division and allowing people to double down. To understand what I'm trying to say, you have to try and read the speech assuming bad faith - that's how the losers will read it - and see whether it would make you angrier or go "huh, maybe I'll give this guy a chance then". The speech was extremely "us and them".
Also, for reference, I'm using the transcript at
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/21/joe-biden-inauguration-speech-full-transcript-2021-president/ for my quotes.
Joe opens with two paragraphs talking about how "democracy has prevailed" over Trump's attempts to question the legitimacy of the election, which culminated in the Capitol riots. There's a problem with that - facts aside, most Trump supporters are not convinced that democracy has prevailed. Many think they're witnessing it being stolen. We shouldn't
legitimise these feelings, but we absolutely shouldn't paint them as evil. Because most of them aren't - they allowed their emotions and a plethora of media/information issues we're currently facing to take control of them. A statement like "We've learned again that democracy is precious, democracy is fragile and, at this hour my friends, democracy has prevailed. So now on this hallowed ground where just a few days ago violence sought to shake the Capitol's very foundations, we come together as one nation under God - indivisible - to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries" will be read in the context of "us and them", because that's the context it was uttered in. This isn't unity, this is "we won, now unite behind us".
The same goes for "We'll press forward with speed and urgency for we have much to do in this winter of peril and significant possibility. Much to do, much to heal, much to restore, much to build and much to gain." Again, this will be read as "you lot fucked up the country and now I'm here to fix it by undoing what you wanted to accomplish". Right or wrong, this won't help.
AATW claims that Biden talked a lot about unity. But every time he mentions "unity", he immediately follows up with a quip about how racism/the far right is bad. He actually can't stop himself, every time he says "unity", a sentence on how extremism is bad and how we'll totally fix it has to follow. Again, that's not "unity" - that's "you were bad, and now we're uniting against you".
So here's the problem: you've just spent a better part of 15 minutes listening to "us good, them bad, there are lies and there is truth, and luckily the truth has triumphed against the vicious attack on democracy, which by the way was very bad, just like racism and sexism which are also bad, hey, did you know that this location was very important for fighting these bad things, which are just as bad as my opponents?" when Biden looks up to the camera with a gentle smile and politely explains that it's time to end the "uncivil war". He just spent 15-20 minutes rubbing the fact that you're evil in your face and then says "debate over, we unity now
". I can't imagine this appealing to anyone who wasn't already on board. That problem, in itself, isn't new in America. It's just that Biden claims to be fixing it while perpetuating it perfectly.
Take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm not a Trump supporter, but I like to observe how they react to these things (the gist is
that they don't seem to disagree with my reading), and I occasionally pop in to some of the nastier parts of the Internet. I kinda-sorta understand how they communicate, but I probably missed a lot of what's causing the anger. However: if unity is the goal, then understanding must come first. In my humble opinion, Joe Biden has a long way to go before he understands any of the backlash against Democrats that first reared its head in 2016, and which to some extent is still continuing.
Side note: Garth Brooks did a fantastic job at following the message of unity, and was clearly an excellent choice for the ceremony. If any MAGAs kept their TVs on for long enough to hear him, that might at least count for something. J-Lo randomly screaming in Spanish mid-song, probably not so much, but that appealed a lot to the more passionate Dem base. Something for everyone, I guess.