Rage from the Seeming Outskirts of H-E-Double-Toothpick
Mr. Biden’s speech. on the evening of September 1, 2022. was a somber, perhaps even an imagined suburb-of-Hades-looking, re-affirmation of just another day under the reign of do-as-I-say, Democrat big government dominance. Promised to be a “soul of the nation” reuniting address, it was, of course, anything but. Rather than dealing with our many national issues, domestic and foreign, he chose to make this nationwide address, from historic Independence Hall, a blistering political attack on “MAGA Republicans” and half of the American electorate. Worse, with blood-red-lighting and darkened background, matching the hostile mood and fist-gesturing of his speech, a scene perhaps reminding some viewers, if not Hades-esque fires, certainly of the tightly-controlled, red & black look of WW II-era German rallies, this event showcased Mr. Biden with specifically designed, purely political, theatrics. But more than a stepped-up-budget community theater, his presentation was designed to put the nation on notice that MAGA Trump supporters were the enemy, undesirables, make that, “deplorables,” and not really welcome here in, by message and intent, Mr. Biden’s intended Woke-Socialist America.
Said Mr. Biden, in part: “As I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault. We do ourselves no favor pretending otherwise. MAGA Republicans have made their choice. They embrace anger. They thrive on chaos. They live in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies.” Sounds more than a little like what the Progressive Democrats have adopted for themselves these days, but prefer to instead transfer bad behavior onto the backs of America’s conservatives. Additionally, then, from his speech: “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundation of our republic. MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people.”
“Shadow of lies” and “respect the Constitution” comes to mind here. Who is it, again, who proposed to forgive portions of federal student loans, despite not having that right under our Constitution? Who, again, has ignored long-standing federal immigration and border protection laws to create an open southern border invasion and economic / cultural / criminal / potential terrorist disaster? And still other Progressive self-serving administrative edicts and push-through congressional acts with deceptive, misleading names, covering for largely huge financial hand-outs to Progressive friends. And shall we mention the disastrous withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, which severely damaged our international reputation (perhaps, some say, opening the door for the Russian invasion of Ukraine) and created a humanitarian crisis within the Afgan nation, a withdrawal that the WH deemed to be a “success.”
And lest we forget, when speaking about adhering to the rule of law, recall it was not MAGA Republicans who, in the Summer of 2020, terrorized, torched, and destroyed private businesses and law enforcement equipment throughout Democrat-controlled cities around the country. No, that wanton destruction, resulting in injuries and millions of dollars in damages, was all carried out by zealot leftists, apparently the president’s now chosen and preferred citizen elements. Now, with no apologies for the disruption caused by the January 6th proven unarmed, right-wing throngs at the Capitol, who were likely mostly MAGA believers, in fairness, virtually all of the destructive upheaval in America, over the last two years, has been carried out by unhinged individuals and mobs on the Left. Right-side Republicans far prefer actual peaceful, Constitutionally-protected, protests.
As expected, there have been a huge number of columnists who’ve written and spoken about the president’s speech. Here are but a few of those who reacted negatively to that bench-mark presentation. Wrote the New York Post’s Michael Goodwin: “To call it a hateful speech doesn’t do justice to its awfulness. The promise of an address on the soul of our nation and the setting of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall suggested it would be an appeal to our better angels. Instead, with lurid red lighting and two Marines standing at attention to serve as props, Biden delivered a 24-minute screed that was disjointed, rancidly partisan and, at heart, a declaration of war against those Americans who do not support him.” Within that speech, the president said the following: “MAGA Republicans look at America and see carnage and darkness and despair. They spread fear and lies. Lies told for profit and power.” Clearly, that last part, “profit and power,” was certainly a Leftists-look-yourself-in-the-mirror moment.
Goodwin continued his response, wondering what could possibly have led Mr. Biden to “insist on such a dreadful spectacle: “The short answer is desperation. Biden’s presidency is a nonstop disaster, with even its legislative successes becoming drivers of the highest inflation in 40 years. His failures, from Afghanistan to rising crime to the open southern border, have weakened America’s global standing and created domestic debacles. Unwilling to change course, Biden decided to cast the blame on unhappy voters and demonize them.”
Then, beyond the, in places, fire-breathing rhetoric within the speech, the use of the Marine Band and two Marine guards, in uniform, has been deemed concerning and improper, for what became, and was designed to be, a partisan political speech. Responded the White House after the fact: “The presence of the Marines (“a conscious decision”) at the speech was intended to demonstrate the deep and abiding respect the president has for their service.” While likely true, the presence of uniformed service members within a largely partisan speech, a fact known by insiders, well ahead of time, was ill advised. And especially so, when then-candidate Biden had promised, back in 2020, that he “would never put military forces in the middle of politics or personal vendettas.”
The president later responded to a post-speech reporter’s question by stating that “I don’t consider any Trump supporters a threat to the country.” Quite a reversal, and confusing to among others, columnist Byron York, who wrote: “Huh? Biden’s remarks (later) cast a cloud of confusion over what he said the night before. Did he mean it? Did he fully understand the kind of accusations he was making in Philadelphia? Was he confused? The president’s rhetoric was terribly serious and terribly divisive. It was hard to understand why he even gave the speech. Now, it is not clear whether he understands it, either.”
Florida’s Republican Governor, Ron DeSantis, referenced the Biden speech the following day during his appearance on “The Ingraham Angle:” He referred to the talk as “one of the most disgusting speeches an American president has ever given. He ran as being a unifier, and he’s basically saying to the vast majority of the country that disapproves of him, that they’re effectively a threat to the republic. He dodders, he lashes out. But at the end of the day, his policies are why there’s so much opposition to him.” Governor DeSantis then continued: “He (Biden) came in and he opened the border, and we’ve seen what a disaster that’s been. He kneecapped American energy. We’ve seen how that’s hurt millions of people. They’ve inflated the currency. We have one of the worst inflations we’ve had in over 40 years. So, of course people are going to be upset at all the wreckage that he’s left in his wake. He is the American Nero. He’s a failed leader.”
Meghan McCain, no fan of Donald Trump or the supposed “MAGA movement,” back then or now, also felt the need to justifiably hammer the Biden address. Wrote she: “It was the political equivalent of a kamikaze mission just months before the midterms. An angry, unhinged, 24-minute primetime screed that corrodes the reputation of the White House. The final nail in the coffin of American unity.”
Then Republican Representative Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) had some thoughts on the speech: “He called 75-million Americans extremists in that speech. The reason why Biden wasn’t on that stage talking about the economy, talking about security, talking about wins on the international scene is because Joe Biden has zero wins. So, what he did is he stood on that stage yesterday and deflected, and he took a page out of the Marxist-Leninist playbook, and that is that you can always blame your enemies and accuse your enemies of what you yourself are doing.”
And we’ll conclude this review of the president’s soil-the-opposition-speech with some words from the inevitable sage of the Senate, Louisiana’s Republican Senator John Kennedy: “The issue with hardworking patriotic Americans is that they just don’t agree with President Biden’s agenda. They don’t believe in bigger government, they don’t believe in higher taxes, they don’t believe in more spending, they don’t believe in more regulation, they don’t believe in more debt, and they don’t believe we ought to turn our cops into social workers – they don’t believe that stuff. His speech was a very cynical attempt to fill our heads with stupid.”
A missed opportunity to address what concerns Americans the most right now: inflation (fuel & groceries), soaring crime, and border security. All issues the ruling Democrats have created, but have not even begun to solve, if in fact they chose to do so at all. Sensing that the president’s prime-time talk would be more political than prevailing-issue-constructive, the three primary national TV networks chose not to give up their valued programming slots. NBC ran a ‘Law & Order’ rerun(!), CBS aired a ‘Young Sheldon’ rerun(!), and ABC chose to run ‘Press Your Luck.’ And on that final program selection, one could conclude that Mr. Biden chose to press his luck with the GOP-hostile direction of his September 1st speech … and lost.
(Biden speech quotes via frontpagemag.com, Robert Spencer, 9-2-22; Additional speech quotes via frontpagemag.com, Joseph Klein, 9-5-22; White House response via breitbart.com, Staff, 9-2-22; Candidate-Biden pledge via foxnews.com, Lindsay Kornick, 9-4-22; Goodwin article quotes via nypost.com, Michael Goodwin, 9-3-22; York follow up analysis via powerlineblog.com, Scott Johnson, 9-3-22; DeSantis quotes via foxnews.com, Staff, 9-2-22; McCain quote via dailymail.com, Megan McCain, 9-2-22; Reschenthaler quote via breitbart.com, Ian Hanchett, 9-3-22; Kennedy quote via townhall.com, Spencer Brown, 9-2-22; Network programming during the Biden speech via dailycaller.com, Laurel Duggan, 9-2-22).