Mr. Biden struck many good notes in an Inaugural Address that will be remembered more for its moment following the Capitol riot than for its words. The speech had a personal flavor with touches of his Catholicism, such as quoting St. Augustine and praying for the dead. In this and in other personal manners, the new President is refreshingly unwoke.

The overall theme was “unity,” which he called “our path forward.” His best note on that point was a call to “start afresh” and listen to one another. “Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire,” he said. “Disagreement should not lead to disunion.”

Yet in this call to unify there was also too much of a suggestion that we are obliged to unite around one point of view. “I know that the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new,” Mr. Biden said. “Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal, and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart.”

So our political differences are between those who believe in American ideals and those who are racists and nativists? This sounds too much like Barack Obama’s habit of casting differences of ideology or policy as divisions between enlightenment and bigotry. This is divisive in its cultural and moral condescension, as the Obama years proved in creating the political opening for Mr. Trump.

Mr. Biden is right that there is a difference between “truth” and “lies,” and too much political discourse is strewn with falsehoods. But that fault rests with partisans on all sides. Most political differences aren’t between truth and lies. They are debates about the tradeoffs between core principles like freedom and equality, or over the best means to achieve good ends.

On that point we heard too little in Mr. Biden’s speech to reassure conservatives now being purged and ostracized that he will call off the emboldened progressive censors. If his pursuit of social justice becomes a drive to blame every inequity in American life on racism, he will divide more than unite. If he insists that those who disagree on climate change are “deniers” who care nothing for the planet, he will alienate millions …

Perhaps Biden, like Obama, intends to alienate millions.

The test of Mr. Biden’s unity pledge will be in how he governs. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, which is what every new American President deserves.