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Paul Revere is Dead. Next: American Democracy.
How Biden’s alarming speech so tragically failed to break through.
It came and went with barely a ripple, as if Nagasaki got four column inches on World News Roundup, page 18.
On Thursday, in one of the most remarkable episodes in American history, the president of the United States stood at a lectern and denounced the rival party — and, by extension, 73 million of its faithful — as deluded, dishonest, undemocratic, hateful and an immediate threat to our nation’s future. Not “out of sync with our values.” No, fascistic menace.
Joe Biden, whose 60-year political career was built on doing business with the Republican opposition, targeted his predecessor and MAGA allies as lying, manipulative, cynical scoundrels leading America down a violent, authoritarian path. It should have been a shocking moment that stopped all of America in its tracks.
This is, after all, a president who rose to power on a foundation of legislative equanimity, a 60-year commitment to comity, collegiality, compromise and the tortured politesse that once-upon-a-time sugar-coated even the deepest partisan rivalries. (“My good friend on the other side of the aisle …”)
But on Thursday, this creature of the U.S. Senate did not make his case by reaching across the aisle. He lobbed a cruise missile over it. And to highlight the gravity of the moment, he launched the barrage from Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, the birthplace of American democracy. Because the TV picture apparently cut off the white and blue lighting on either side of Biden, the televised image bathed the hallowed landmark only in blood red. It looked like the elevator scene in The Shining. Fittingly enough.
“There’s no question,” Biden said early in the speech, “that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country.”
The words themselves were neither novel nor, by any rational measure of reality, factually a matter of dispute. What was remarkable — and, more than that, historic — is that they came from the mouth of the President. Or, anyway, a normal president. This wasn't the former guy; this was Joe Biden — career politician and verified non-sociopath — who, until very recently, would never be so blunt for fear of seeming divisive and, worse, unpresidential.
It was as if the Dalai Lama were suddenly trash talking the Pope. “Hey, you coneheaded Jesus freak, when does your church really stop protecting sicko priests?”
Such pointed rebukes of the other party are typically delegated to designated pugilists in Congress, who are like hockey enforcers, thugs who can’t much skate or shoot but can beat up guys on the opposing team. The Republicans’ chief bully is Jim Jordan of Ohio, who uses hearings to badger witnesses with inflammatory questions that aren’t really questions. He is ably assisted by the Breakfast Club of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert, who roam the neighborhood blowing up mailboxes with M-80s. The Democrats have Adam Schiff of California, who by contrast is intelligent and honest, but with quite a knack for saying the loud part quietly. The point is: Confrontation is historically their job, not the president’s, whose dignity must be left intact.
But conditions have changed. We are in a historic crisis, on the brink — or, depending on your view, in the midst — of catastrophe. Circumstances demanded that the leader of the free world voice what others (ahem) have been saying for seven years: that the GOP has embraced the kind of evil that destroys a free society and the Constitution it is built upon.
So, considering the stakes, considering history, considering the enormousness and the enormity of the moment, it was destined to be covered and discussed and fretted over and obsessed about for days or weeks by the news media.
But no.
The speech was duly covered, but it was not aired live by the networks, and in ensuing days was all but drowned out by Mar-a-Lago, Gorbachev, a water crisis in Mississippi, a kidnapped heiress, wildfires and Trump himself. Thus did a historic event and unprecedented existential threat land with a muffled thud. How could that possibly have happened?
There are answers to that question.
For one very big thing, the networks wouldn’t air Biden’s speech because it was deemed too “political” — a judgment that was both bizarre and accurate. Of course it was political. By definition, denunciation of the controlling wing of the opposition political party is political. It cannot be otherwise. But, for God’s sake, so was “The Redcoats are coming!” What is relevant is not the politics but the existential warning. Here the networks used the same circular logic Republicans invoke to claim bias in law enforcement, the media and even social media: “Why is all the criticism against conservatives?” Well, you sleazy fucking nitwits, it’s because conservatives are embracing whacko conspiracy fantasies and denying science and killer pandemics and election results. They are banning books, embracing dictators, inciting and defending insurrectionists, taking away voting rights and abortion rights and living by the Trumpian code of dishonor. You might as well ask why homicide cops are biased against men running from crime scenes with shotguns.
That said, Biden made a dumb mistake by using the end of his address to cite the achievements of his administration. There will be ample time and countless forums to extol his virtues. But any talk of infrastructure, jobs, climate measures, burn pits or any other policy matter had no place in this speech. It not only scared away the networks, it undercut the gravity of the situation. It was like interrupting an air raid warning with soft-drink commercials. And it was gross.
Number two, while it’s true that in the whole of American history Thursday marked a nearly unprecedented moment, in recent history it didn’t even mark an unusual moment. Donald Trump, the reckless buffoon he was denouncing, spent the entirety of his administration spitting on his predecessors and his political opposition, not to mention every other individual or institution that ever crossed him. You’ll recall that he won the presidency (more or less) by threatening his opponent with prison. Just yesterday he called Biden an “enemy of the state.” After seven years of that kind of rhetoric from Trump and his rabid followers, Biden’s singular action was, well, plural. Trump not only ignored norms of presidential conduct, he reset them. “More White House accusations of evil? Ho-hum. What’s on Netflix?”
Finally, and sadly, the speech just wasn’t that good. Much as Biden walked haltingly to the podium, supported by the grasp of the First Lady, in his read he struggled for the clarity and cadence of his oratorical youth. His timing was off, his passion waxed and waned. Even the minor stumbles of enunciation distracted, and detracted, from the message. But beyond the delivery lay the larger issue of the text itself — oblique, repetitive, formulaic and too damn long. If it takes a half-hour to scare the shit out of your audience, you have chosen the wrong words.
I was kind of hoping for “The red hats are coming!”
Mind you, Biden had his moments, but he did not fully meet the moment. And so I’ve taken the liberty of rewriting the most crucial speech of his career, by cutting it in half, deleting the unnecessary repetition, moving some passages around and adding some salient details the White House, for whatever reason, chose not to include. I’ve embedded the changes within the original text, which I’ve rendered in italic. I’ll say this: The president did get off to a good start.
I speak to you tonight from sacred ground in America: Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pa.
This is where America made its declaration of independence to the world more than two centuries ago, with an idea unique among nations: that in America, we’re all created equal.
This is where the United States Constitution was written and debated. This is where we set in motion the most extraordinary experiment of self-government the world has ever known.
With three simple words: we, the people; we, the people. These two documents and their ideas they embody — equality and democracy — are the rock upon which this nation is built.
They are how we became the greatest nation on earth. They are why, for more than two centuries, America has been a beacon to the world.
But as I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault. We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise.
So, tonight, I’ve come to this place where it all began to speak as plainly as I can to the nation about the threats we face, about the power we have in our own hands to meet these threats and about the incredible future that lies in front of us, if only we choose it.
But I must begin with the cancer itself.
MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards, backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love. They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fanned 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.
They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, brutally attacking law enforcement, not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger at the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots. And they see their MAGA failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election as preparation for the 2022 and 2024 elections.
They tried everything last time to nullify the votes of 81 million people. This time, they’re determined to succeed in thwarting the will of the people.
Some of my fellow citizens — in fact, many of you — will hear this and think, “Oh, it’s just more partisan politics.” That is true — yes, true — not because there is an election coming up, but because one of America’s venerable political parties has mutated, under the influence of a dangerous demagogue, into a party of lies and oppression. With the threat of 73 million votes being used against them, the leaders of the Grand Old Party have been blackmailed into submission, and have too willingly capitulated. There is nothing grand about desecrating the Constitution and the principles it upholds. I will say this plainly:
We are not in the midst of the usual political spat. We are in a life-or-death struggle for our democracy.
That’s why tonight, I’m asking our nation to come together, unite behind the single purpose of defending our democracy regardless of your ideology. I’m asking you, each of you, to take a deep breath and consider these questions:
Has a tyrannical and maniacal United States government invented or exaggerated a global pandemic that has killed one million Americans and 6½ million people all over the world? How? Why? Think of what you are saying and tell me why? It’s just plain nutty.
Are the 70.6% of Americans who are Christian really threatened by the 29.4% of Americans who are not? Come on, folks, do the math.
Jews represent less than 2% of the population. When Donald Trump voiced support for the Charlottesville extremists who chanted “Jews will not replace us,” did that not reek of the most horrendous crime of the last century, a murderous calamity for all time? Was that not utterly grotesque and vile? Think about that: the president of the United States, refusing to denounce domestic Nazis. It is terrifying. It is disgusting. Sadly, it is not especially surprising.
The same reckless president also cozied up to foreign anti-democratic strongmen. Putin. Kim Il-Sung. Orbán. Erdoğan. Bolsonaro. This is how the lights go dark on the shining city on the hill — a darkness that now threatens to envelop us.
I must remind you of other Republican leaders who have supported Trump and Trumpism, no matter how clear the depravity — including not just the Covid lie but the bizarre and outlandish conspiracy ravings of the movement called QAnon. Folks, I am here to tell you, no matter what your elected officials in the so-called Freedom Caucus tell you, the government and our civic institutions are not riddled with pedophiles. Jewish space lasers do not target us, and alien lizard people have not infiltrated us. It is hard to believe that a president must even give oxygen to such lunacy. But if you go to a Trump rally anywhere in this country, you will see QAnon’s bizarre footprint everywhere.
And if you go to the Congress of the United States, you will find hundreds of Republicans who claim — not believe, necessarily, but claim — that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. This is the biggest of his Big Lies, and also the most investigated allegation in American history. Yet no law enforcement agency; no elections board; no recount; no audit; no Secretary of State in any state, red or blue; no court in the land has found evidence of even a single voting precinct’s outcome affected by fraud. Not one. Yet one third of you — and two thirds of Republicans — still doubt the results of the very election that brought me into office. Once again, I implore you: Take a breath and think about it. No matter what Donald Trump and the right-wing media tell you, how in the world could that malignant lie be true? How? How? It can’t be. It isn’t. It is the lie that threatens to topple the Republic, but it is literally impossible. For the love of God, use your head. Because violence has already come to the heart of our democracy on January 6, 2021, and Republicans threaten more to come. Is that the America you love?
Stop. Breathe. Think. Citizens are free to have and express grievances. But there is nothing patriotic, or moral, or rational or — for that matter — Christian about political violence. This insanity must stop. Lives are at stake. Honor is at stake. Democracy is at stake. Our way of life is at stake. The future of your children and their children and their children is at stake as fascism — yes, I said fascism — incredibly once again beckons.
We will not let that happen. We cannot, and we will not.
I know this nation. I know you, the American people. I know your courage, I know your hearts, and I know our history. This is a nation that honors our Constitution. We do not reject it. This is a nation that believes in the rule of law. We do not repudiate it. This is a nation that respects free and fair elections. We honor the will of the people. We do not deny it. And this is a nation that rejects violence as a political tool. We do not encourage violence. We are still an America that believes in honesty and decency and respect for others. Patriotism, liberty, justice for all, hope, possibilities — we are still at our core a democracy.
And yet, history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy.
I ran for president because I believed we were in a battle of the soul of this nation. I still believe that to be true. I believe the soul is the breadth, the life and the essence of who we are. The soul is what makes us, us.
The soul of America is defined by the sacred proposition that all are created equal in the image of God, that all are entitled to be treated with decency, dignity and respect, that all deserve justice and a shot at lives of prosperity and consequence. And that democracy, democracy must be defended, for democracy makes all these things possible.
Look, our democracy isn’t perfect. We have never fully realized the aspirations of our founding, but my fellow Americans, America is an idea; the most powerful idea in the history of the world, and it beats in the hearts of the people of this country. It beats in all our hearts. It unites America. It is the American creed.
And if we do our duty, if we do our duty, in 2022 and beyond, then ages still to come will say we, all of us here, we kept the faith. We preserved democracy. We heeded our words. We heeded not our worst instincts but our better angels. We proved that for all its imperfections, America is still the beacon to the world, an ideal to be realized, a promise to be kept. There’s nothing more important. Nothing more sacred. Nothing more American. That’s our soul. That’s who we truly are. And that’s who we must always be.
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A wry and pointed take on politics, media and society from Bob Garfield.
In America we get to choose our leaders. The other side of that coin is that we deserve the leadership we elect.
The American people in enough gerrymandered districts vote in jabbering clowns who pander to their basest, ugliest instincts. And so we get pond scum like Newt Gingrich, Jim Jordan, and the uniquely loathsome Ted Cruz twisting the legislative process into a grotesque self-parody. We get a serial bankrupt, pussy-grabbing, four-flushing cheat and sociopath for president. We get a Supreme Court filled with knuckle-dragging troglodytes and a card carrying member of a Margaret Atwood dystopia.
Democracies don't have a long shelf life. Athenian democracy, the granddaddy of them all lasted less than 200 years. The United States is the only extant democracy that has lasted longer ... but not by much and it seems unlikely it will see its semiquincentenial. So it goes.
It is a statistical verity that half the people are dumber than the average guy. We have voters embracing "alternative facts", Q-Anon fever dreams, and the bizarre notion that Donald Trump has ever for a nanosecond thought about anyone other than himself. We have voters who ignore history, who scoff at expertise, and who somehow imagine that theirs is the road to "making America great again". Ronald Reagan told them that government isn't the solution to the problem, it IS the problem. And they believe it.
President Biden could have given your speech. Daniel Patrick Moynihan could have given the speech of his life. It wouldn't have mattered because words don't matter anymore and ideas don't matter anymore. Identities matter. Tribes matter.
In an address at the end of his presidency George Washington warned of the dangers of political factionalism. We can be Americans. Or we can be Democrats and Republicans.
Factionalism won. Suck it, George.
I like it! Nice updates, Bob. Though while I suppose I would not be surprised to learn Trump shot 18 holes with ol’ Il-Sung back in the day, I think you meant Jung-Un? 😁