All opinions expressed in this article are solely the opinions of the contributors.
President Joe Biden delivered a fiery speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia earlier this month, calling MAGA Republicans “extremists” who are threatening American democracy. New polling shows that more than half of Americans believe the speech will cause further polarization between the parties. Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten takes a closer look at why Biden’s rhetoric — which accused MAGA Republicans of not respecting the rule of law — went too far.
In what was cleverly called by one observer his Threatysburg Address — Joe Biden, “uniter in chief” — delivered one of the most divisive, disturbing, and deplorable speeches in recent memory, sullying the Independence Hall setting in so doing.
Yet perhaps even more ominous was the little commented upon fact that the reality of his administration has already surpassed its rhetoric, and few have noticed it.
Now to be sure, it’s worth acknowledging just how disturbing the president’s words were.
He said that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
He said such Republicans “do not respect the Constitution,” “believe in the rule of law,” “recognize the will of the people,” “fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.”
Remarkably, the man overseeing the party of the BLM 2020 summer riots resulting in estimated billions worth of damage as cities were shelled out, yet to recover, livelihoods destroyed, and cops were assaulted en masse — the start of a massive increase in violent crime accompanying progressive policing policies – said all this, and now tells us “there’s no place for political violence in America.”
He of course got into issues of election integrity — never mind his party’s challenges of the 2000, 2004, and 2016 elections.
I could walk chapter and verse through Joe Biden’s hypocrisy here – the campaign commercials juxtaposing Biden’s words about Republicans with what his party has advocated – would write themselves.
He also said that the dominance of MAGA in the GOP is “a threat to this country.”
The president said, “We’re all called by duty and conscience to confront extremists who will put their own pursuit of power above all else.”
I could also talk about how frankly scary it is that he spewed this rhetoric, vilifying up to half the country, and calling for confronting them, flanked by Marines, as if they were his enforcers, standing in front of this red glaring light, embittered, angry, and gesticulating in ways that observers noticed really did look Hitlerian.
The blatantly dishonest, rank, hostile showing, demonizing the loyal opposition, coming from a compromised and again cognitively declining old Swamp Creature could be more easily dismissed were the people feeding the words to him not in command of the government. And were they not acting accordingly.
