Editorial: Democracy is in danger, but Biden's Philadelphia speech missed the mark

[brooklynite]

Washington Post

It is a depressing reflection of the dangerous political situation in which the nation finds itself that President Biden felt compelled to deliver a prime-time address decrying political violence and election denialism and calling on Americans “to unite behind the single purpose of defending our democracy.” Indeed, democracy is under assault in the United States. Rallying to its defense is an urgent task, and it does the nation no service to pretend that this is a problem of bipartisan dimensions. The leader of one party peddled the false belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, incited his adherents to storm the Capitol, and continues to stir anger and unrest today. As Mr. Biden put it in Philadelphia on Thursday night, “Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.”

The difficult, perhaps insurmountable, challenge that Mr. Biden confronted — just eight weeks before midterm elections that will determine the future course of his presidency — was how to convey the message of defending democracy in a way that summons patriotism rather than partisanship. Here, as much as we agree with the president about the urgency of the issue, is where he fell short, too often sounding more like a Democrat than a democrat. You don’t persuade people by scolding or demeaning them, but that’s how the president’s speech landed for many conservatives of goodwill.

Mr. Biden was wrong to conflate upholding the rule of law with his own partisan agenda. which he called “the work of democracy.” You can be for democracy but against the president’s policy proposals to use government to lower prescription-drug prices and combat climate change. “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,” Mr. Biden proclaimed. But many conservatives — not just “MAGA forces” — agree with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. It was disappointing that Mr. Biden chose to omit that the infrastructure, gun-control and burn-pits legislation he praised had passed with Republican votes. Pointing this out would actually have strengthened his effort to draw a contrast between “MAGA Republicans” and “mainstream Republicans.”

Moreover, Mr. Biden’s clarion call for democracy would carry more credibility if he were willing to call out his own party for its cynical effort to elevate some of the same “MAGA Republicans” he now warns will destroy democracy if they prevail in the general election. During the primaries, Democrats spent tens of millions helping dangerous election deniers defeat better-funded “mainstream Republicans,” including in Pennsylvania, where Mr. Biden, not coincidentally, chose to speak.

[The Magistrate]

1. Who's This Dribble-Dick Croaker, Sir?

When one party deals in treason, patriotism and partisanship are identical.

[Celerity]

6. the entire Editorial Board, same clowns who used RW taking points to smear Biden's debt forgiveness

[Joinfortmill]

2. Biden spoke truth to power. The End.

[Atticus]

3. No comment? nt

[Celerity]

4. The WaPo Editorial Board lately is starting to move towards sounding like a Wall Street Journal-lite

[2naSalit]

5. ...

Is there a language barrier with this editor? I didn't get that from watching the speech. Did he ruffle some feathers on the editorial board?

[PortTack]

7. Blah blah blah!!!

[JoanofArgh]

8. Both Sides Inc.

[BigmanPigman]

9. Who wrote this piece of crap?

Such BS must be coming from the type of person Biden was addressing in his speech. Fuck the Wa Po!!!!! They and CNN can dry up and disappear and no one would notice.

[Cha]

10. This thread needs this.. & the Fucking m$$$$$$m

Link to tweet

[greatauntoftriplets]

16. Tara Setmayer is a Republican strategist.

She's full of it.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. Actual title of oped: "Democracy is in danger. Biden should invoke patriotism, not partisanship, to

make that point."

[crickets]

15. What speech was this idiot listening to?

They bring their own partisanship with them, everywhere, every time. So tiresome.

[Scrivener7]

12. Whatever. He told the truth. And it needed telling.

[lame54]

13. He wanted to hear both siderism...

What a fool

[cornball 24]

14. BALDERDASH!!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

17. Biden Gambles That 'We the People' Still Exist

Anne Applebaum is an amazing writher. Biden had ignored TFG and MAGA idiots for as long as possible but it has become clear that TFG and the MAGA assholes are trying to destroy our democratic form of government. President Biden had to step and address this even if there is a risk that TFG and the MAGA GOP decide that our democratic form of government is a partisan issue.

I do not think that Joe Biden's speech was a partisan speech and that President Biden had to take steps to defend our democratic form of government.

Link to tweet

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/09/democracy-biden-speech-trump-maga/671325/

MAGA Republicans are rather a threat because their leader does not accept the outcome of elections when he loses them; because he does not believe that the rule of law applies to him; because he does not adhere to the culture of restraint, tolerance, and moderation; and because he is now seeking to help elect other politicians who feel the same way. In their drive to change the political system, and to ensure that they can retain power even if they lose, Trump’s followers have verbally and sometimes physically attacked Capitol police officers, election workers, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and civil servants. He and his acolytes use violent language, and they inspire violence in return. As Biden put it last night, 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.”.....

But clearly Biden does care. And so he has taken the risky and genuinely brave decision to use emotional language in defense of our rules-based political system. The speech he gave last night at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the place where a lot of those rules were written, was indeed lit and orchestrated to evoke drama. It was also meant to evoke strong feelings of patriotism, unity, and connection. Biden referenced American history—”We, the people, have burning inside of each of us the flame of liberty that was lit here at Independence Hall”—as well as American pride. He contrasted Trump’s dark, apocalyptic worldview with his own: “I see a different America, an America with an unlimited future, an America that’s about to take off.” The United States, he said, “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.”.....

The use of political emotion in a deeply divided society carries some dangers. It is guaranteed to provoke an equally emotional response on the other side, raising temperatures instead of lowering them. Angry language makes the other side angry too, and can also galvanize voters. Precisely that reaction rippled across pro-Trump media and social media last night after the speech. The Fox News host Tucker Carlson declared that the president had “crossed into a very dangerous, very dangerous place.” Biden was accused of “criminalizing political opposition.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Biden had chosen “to divide, demean, and disparage his fellow Americans.” The Republican Party will undoubtedly start fundraising among those Americans who do indeed feel demeaned and disparaged. I expect that some Democrats will feel uneasy about Biden’s speech for the same reason.

Another danger is that the speech will be seen as partisan, as a plea for people to vote for Democrats, rather than as a call for all Americans to support liberal democracy. Clearly the White House was aware of this danger, which is why Biden addressed himself to “Democrats, independents, and mainstream Republicans.” That’s also why he went out of his way to note that “not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. I know, because I’ve been able to work with these mainstream Republicans.” Unfortunately, the timing of the speech, in the run-up to the midterm elections, will lead many to dismiss it anyway. So will Biden’s oblique and (in this context) possibly unnecessary references to abortion and contraception. Republican politicians and television presenters will deliberately frame the speech so that GOP voters interpret it as partisan, and many voters will only ever hear that commentary, and not listen to the words of the speech at all.....

Most dangerous of all, though, is the possibility that in a tribalized political system like ours, the Constitution, once it is championed by one political camp, may itself come to seem like a partisan cause, a thing that Democrats and maybe Liz Cheney care about, but nobody else. If, to be a fully paid-up member of the Republican Party, you have to go on pretending that the 2020 election was stolen and the January 6 insurrectionists were patriots, then you may eventually come to believe that rule of law is something to be defeated, not respected. Election laws become something that your enemies care about, not you.

Biden is betting that we are not at that stage yet. The language of his speech presumed that, in making an emotional appeal in favor of liberal democracy, he was still speaking to a decisive majority of the country. That’s why he kept using the expression we the people, a phrase that, of course, references the Constitution, but also expresses a sense of unity—a unity that should, in principle, still include people with a huge range of political tastes and views. “We the people,” he said, “accept the results of free and fair elections.” We the people “see politics, not as total war, but mediation of our differences.” And once again: “We the people,” Biden said, “have burning inside of each of us the flame of liberty that was lit here at Independence Hall.”

Our Democratic form of government is at risk. Elections need to be respected and TFG and the MAGA republicans really want to convert the US to an authoritarian state where the good old days where white rednecks had all of the power. We can not risk the loss of our democratic system of government.

[maxrandb]

18. "What FDR fails to acknowledge

is that many Germans, NOT just Nazis, agree with the "Enabling Act" "It is disappointing that FDR chose to omit the infrastructure and other legislation Hitler passed and praised with the support of moderate members of the Reichstag. Pointing this out would actually have strengthened his effort to draw a contrast between Nazis and those Germans that are just 'a little bit Nazi"

- Washington Post Editorial Board, 1932