I’m A Democrat Who Thinks Biden’s Anti-Democratic Rhetoric Has Gone Too Far
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Iam a lifelong Democrat. I even worked for Joe Biden at one time. Thus, nothing that has happened in America since January 2021 has surprised me. But the president’s speech in Philadelphia last week marked a new low for America and a new low for a party that I once idolized.
To me, the Democratic Party was the party of hope, tolerance, and opportunity. Indeed, those themes echoed through Bill Clinton’s speeches in 1992. Clinton’s presidency was the high-water mark of the post-war Democratic Party. He blended JFK’s idealism with Reagan’s folksiness. He embodied America’s middle class, the greatest political force at the time, and pulled the country into a new century that our leaders promised would be peaceful and safe.
That has all vanished. Biden’s speech in Philadelphia last Thursday confirmed it.
As speeches go, the Biden speech was a letdown, filled with shallow attacks on broad categories of people and, of course, the former president. Nobody outside of a CNN newsroom, which appears to havemodified the speech’s lighting in real-time, will be inspired by a fall campaign focused on Donald Trump and the people who rioted at the Capitol.
But writing a poor speech is one thing. Delivering it in front of a Nuremberg-style backdrop is quite another. The imagery shocked many people. It should have shocked everybody. It took just a few minutes for The Babylon Bee to drawcomparisonsbetween Biden’s speech and Nazi Germany. And while most Nazi comparisons are exaggerated, these ones struck a little too close to home.
After all, while the president warns about fascism (or “semi-fascism,” whatever that is) in America, his administration is the one censoring people who disagree with it and trying to prosecute its political opponents, both flagrant violations of democratic norms. His administration is the one that, while claiming to crack down on Big Tech, works with it to punish dissenting voices and stifle debate. His administration is one that attacks its critics as terrorists, and which comparesspeech to violence. His administration is the one that felt bold enough to create a “disinformation” board within the Department of Homeland Security, an Orwellian concept that the world has not seen on such a large scale since those 1930s regimes that Biden says he hates.
These are not signs of a healthy democracy. They are not what Biden promised to deliver during his 2020 campaign or his inaugural address. Voters have noticed. Although the president’s approval rating stabilized during August, it still sits at a measly42.1 percentin the RealClearPolitics average. It’s hard to see that number increasing after last week’s speech.
The saddest part is that most Americans want Biden to succeed. That is what drew so many of them, me included, to his campaign. They did not like the negative tone that Trump brought to the White House. They wanted compassionate, competent, bipartisan leadership, somebody with the confidence to thank Trump for his service and move on. Biden seemed the perfect fit.
I learned earlier than others that those were hollow promises, and that Biden is a shell of his former self — at this point, a puppet of the media and political establishment, both of which are obsessed with Trump. Hence last Thursday’s speech.
It’s comforting to know that at least some White House staffersreportedlyworried about the speech. They should speak up more often. Or resign and speak out publicly. Voters need to know that there are professionals within the Democratic Party who do not agree with this administration’s descent into demagoguery. There are people who care less about political labels and more about finding common ground on the vast issues our society is facing at home and abroad, people who believe that the progress America made in the decades after World War II were good things and that, while not perfect, we have built the freest and most fair country in the history of the world, a country that is the perfect foil to the oppressive society created by the CCP in China.
I know these people exist because I speak with them privately. But that’s not sufficient. The next two elections will be the most important ones since the Civil War. They will decide whether America moves on from the toxic, divisive Trump/Biden era, to deal with the issues facing the 21st-century world or whether we face another four years of hatred, censorship, and political persecution.
There are some bright signs. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has already backtracked on his state’s Covid policies, saying its lockdown didn’t work and that this is an area “where folks got it wrong.” His comments may come too late for the businesses that the lockdown destroyed and the kids whose educations were impaired, but they at least show the open-mindedness that we need in our leaders. And they stand in stark contrast to comments from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who started the lockdown fetish in America and who still stubbornly claims that he did everything right.
(Disclaimer: as a lawyer, I am litigating a case that seeks to require that Newsom end the statewide Covid-19 emergency that has been in place since March 2020.)
But it’s clear that Biden is not the answer and needs to go. Last week’s speech confirmed it.
Of course, it’s possible that the president will acknowledge the criticism and pivot. But I doubt it. There are still too many people in the media and political establishment who are obsessed with Trump and want to see himbehind bars. It’s hard to ignore that echo chamber and it’s hard to pivot from calling your political opponents fascists who are a threat to the country itself.
Thus, expect the message to continue and to change only if Americans finally say enough and vote accordingly.
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He's wasting his Presidency in a storm of demagoguery and division. He's making America worse every day.
I had no idea Sean. I suspect that there are a multitude who feel exactly as you do!
unless you wrote this article it needs a link
That leads to an obvious question: Where are our moderators today?
I'm not saying Sean is not the author, one can assume he is. It seems slightly out of character for him on this forum, but certainly within his capability.
The issue has been taken care of.
It's from The Federalist.
Well done, btw
I didn't notice Freewill.
Sorry about that.
????
He is a moderator and he was probably here when I made that comment.
I didn't notice that he was here. I blame it on my old age!
Yes, my mistake. Thanks to whoever added the link.
Any article that attempts to make the argument that Biden is the initiator of divisiveness in our country is flat out bizarre.
Donald Trump has been off the charts divisive for 7 years (at least) now. And we have the record of thousands of tweets and other utterances to prove it.
I think all this uproar about how divisive Biden is serves as a diversion from fading republican hopes for the election. What Biden said may have been "unkind" in the eyes of some, but the blunt truth is he wasnt wrong. And since when does a president not have the right and responsibility to speak out on grave issues facing the nation?
Calling 74 Million people "semi-Fascist" is truly bizarre!
So you agree then that everyone who voted for Trump in 2020 is MAGA.
No, that's not what I believe, it's what Biden's handlers believe.
You said Biden disrespected 74 million voters. Biden said he disrespected MAGA Trump followers. Evidently then you think all 74 million are MAGA.
Biden was very clear John. He called them "Semi-Fascists."
Biden's slur didn't differentiate...his intent was to demonize all those who voted for Trump.
Most people who are “MAGA” as you say, aren’t the crazy, out of control fundamentalist that you seem to like to characterize them as.
Most just want to USA to stop aspiring to mediocrity or worse. Most are tired or the woke, PC nonsense being pushed by the left. Most will never accept crazy ideas like if one is white, they need to feel guilty about what happened generations ago. Most are tired of some sanctimonious prick, many of whom have never volunteered to serve one minute for this country, calling them unpatriotic because they don’t goosestep to the exact progressives tune on Jan 6th. Etc, etc
I could keep going but I’m sure it is all lost on you.
"...everyone who voted for Trump in 2020 is MAGA. "
You did that three days ago when you asserted that MAGA, and all Republicans, have been the same for the last thirty years.
Uh, I didnt say that everyone who voted for Trump in 2020 is MAGA. I was commenting on Vic's contention that Biden insulted every one who voted for Trump. Biden insulted MAGA, so whatever number of Trumps voters that are not MAGA were not being insulted by Biden.
Not that hard to figure out.
You must have a guilty conscience. No one says, here I am sure, but in society generally that individual white people should feel guilty about past racism (unless of course they are racist). But it is beyond a shadow of a doubt that America has historically been a racist country. According to you, no one was responsible , it sort of just happened.
If various white people are proud of their ancestors (grandpa built his own hardware business etc. , my great great grandmother invented coconut oil etc.) when they did something good, why shouldnt they be embarrassed of the same ancestors when they allowed racism to exist for hundreds of years? It doesnt even make any sense.
I dont personally feel the slightest personal guilt about racism, but I know that trying to bury the past will never make the future better.
Stop projecting John.
I don’t agree with a damn thing most progressives say these days. Simply batshit crazy and deranged most of them be so why would I? They all are welcome to kiss my lily white ass.
Anytime.
You're entitled to your wrong and unsupported opinion(s). Trump and MAGA citizens are not a grave issue facing the nation, or a threat to our "democracy"
Yep, not even close but nonsensical rhetoric like that is all they have. Since they’ve fuck up everything else under their control
A sincere lifelong Democrat would not be writing anti-Democratic op-eds for the likes of The Federalist.
Don't you remember when the base of the democratic party were working people?
How do you think those people feel about the current democratic party?
The present day Dems bear no resemblance to these of yore...they've lost all touch with their former supporters, especially among minorities
Really? How about the 87,362,856 lawyers, accountants, pilots, nurses and generals who wrote the same gang-letters about Trump? Many people thought they were fullashit, too.
Here are some other articles this supposedly "sincere lifelong Democrat" has written:
"How Listening To Rush Limbaugh As A Democrat Taught Me To Be A Better Person"
"How An Anti-Trump Resistance Manifesto Actually Indicts The COVID Tyrants"
"If Joe Biden Really Wants Unity, He’d Call For Lockdowns To End Forever"
"The ACLU’s New Curfew Position Unmasks Their Hypocrisy"
Perhaps when he says he's a "lifelong Democrat" he's just admitting that he's one of those rightwing conservative Democrats from 50 years ago, most of whom gradually switched parties to be a rightwing conservative Republican, but he never actually changed his party affiliation. Now, among the modern liberal and progressive Democrats he feels all alone which is why he spends his time bashing Democrats for the rightwing conservative extremist 'Federalist'.
Democrats only need to look in the mirror to find out who the real fascists are.
Everyone in this country had 18 months of it. There is no doubt in my mind of what is coming
Same shit different day. The right pushes extremism, the left then calls out the extremism - then the right characterizes the act of calling out the extremism as divisive, and calls that the real problem. Rinse and repeat.
Opinions on what represents “extremism” do vary.
Ending the peaceful transfer of power, refusing women control over their own bodies, forcing ten year old rape victims to birth babies, defending the theft of top secret government documents, caging babies, inviting Russians into the Oval Office … the list is endless. Hillary nailed the label.
Hillary is an evil piece of shit. Have to not be a worker drone to see that I guess .....
Let me guess - she’s evil because she eats babies?
Sounds like you have information I don’t have.
But... the left has claimed to be the grown-up in the room. Biden is following Clinton's path of getting sucked into the sewer of cheap arguments. Just as Clinton solidified a bloc of deplorables, Biden now has the semi-fascists. Biden could choose to ignore pig-wrestling and stick with the issues, since the way to stop repeating is to stop repeating.
Lol. Cheap arguments? Nothing in 6.1.1 is a cheap argument.
Was a ten year old rape victim denied an abortion in Ohio? Does the right wish to ban abortion on a federal level? Does Donald Trump still hold enormous influence in the Republican Party? Did he admit that he lost fair and square yet? Did Trump take classified documents to his residence and refuse to give them back? I won’t go on with this, [Deleted]
Yes, of course - when you deny a ten year old an abortion the intention is clearly to not force her to have a baby. [Deleted]
So Biden is the one dividing US, and for the previous how many years has this division been going on again ?Trump, the most DIVISIVE potUS EVER, is the Dick tater tot wanna be in Chief, who attempted a division beyond most belief, as the GOP continues to refuse to see, what the entire world has, and continues to witness. WTF