We, the people, have burning inside of each of us the flame of liberty that was lit here at Independence Hall.... That sacred flame still burns....
Fire, if it's the right fire, is good. It's sacred. But then there's bad fire, the political passion coming from the part of the country that "is not normal," the people who are not "mainstream"
I’ve been able to work with these mainstream Republicans. But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans.... MAGA force... 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....
There are the normal, mainstream people, the people who "work with" him, and then there are those terrible other people. They "fanned the flames of political violence." Is that metaphor, referring to passion? When I try to remember literal fires, I think of the riots in the summer of 2020. Those were political. Is Biden condemning the people of the left who set hundreds of fires in political protest? Or is his condemnation reserved for the extremists of the right — and is he talking about all Trump supporters or just some of them? Who is threatening the "soul" of the country? Incoherently, his rhetoric feels incendiary and abnormal and not mainstream.
I greatly prefer normal, mainstream politics, and that's why this rhetoric bothers me so much. He's passionate about not being passionate, fiery about avoiding fire. He's demonizing so many people, and I'm not sure why. It's stated in the abstract. We all like some personal rights and not others and have different ideas about the scope of those rights. We all like the pursuit of justice, but we have different ideas about what counts as justice. And what about "the rule of law"? Ask a Critical Race Theory person, and you may hear that the rule of law is white supremacy. It's a matter of diversity and debate. Can we have this debate? Or is an authoritarian leader going to disqualify all participants who don't accept his idea of personal rights, justice, and the rule of law? His version constitutes "the very soul of this country"?
There are far more Americans, far more Americans from every background and belief, who reject the extreme MAGA ideology than those that accept it.
His version of the soul of America represents what "far more" Americans think, so — what? — screw those other people? Something like 47% of voters voted for Trump, but even if the Trump voters were more dramatically overwhelmed by throngs of more "normal" people, they are still part of the population. Or maybe it's not about excluding everyone who's not in the majority. Maybe it's about rejecting them because they have "extreme MAGA ideology." What is "extreme MAGA ideology"? Desire for a secure border? Pro-life? Really, what are the elements that Biden envisions as not worthy of debate but justifying denouncement as not normal and not mainstream?
And folks, it’s within our power, it’s in our hands, yours and mine, to stop the assault on American democracy....
It seems to me that it's within our power to participate in democracy and vote. Where is this "assault"? Why in the name of all that is normal and mainstream is he conjuring up violence — an "assault"? It's going on right now. Don't you see it? The "assault" I see is the effort to keep Donald Trump from running again. If the overwhelming majority of Americans reject his "extreme MAGA ideology," what's the problem? Let him run and he will be defeated.
Biden introduces the imagery of light and darkness. It's abstract and preachy:
And now, America must choose... to be a nation of hope and unity and optimism or a nation of fear, division and of darkness. MAGA Republicans have made their choice. They embrace anger. They thrive on chaos. They live, not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies....
He sounds angry, denouncing anger. He's divisively condemning division. It's abstract, preachy, and incoherent.
For a long time, we’ve told ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed, but it’s not. We have to defend it, protect it, stand up for it, each and every one of us. 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.
What about the people whose ideology is "extreme MAGA ideology"? I guess he means "regardless of your ideology" as long as it's normal, mainstream ideology. No extremists! But the rest of you, if you would please, congregate in the great middle and "unite behind the single purpose."
We’re all called by duty and conscience to confront extremists who put their own pursuit of power above all else. Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans, we must be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving American democracy.
What about non-mainstream Democrats? Who's inside this circle and who's outside? Don't extremists get to participate? What does "saving democracy" mean? I remember when fervent Democrats occupied the Wisconsin state capitol building and chanted "This is what democracy looks like" because they didn't like the results of the 2010 election. Sometimes you get protests, and sometimes the protests break into riots. It comes from the left as well as the right, but democracy survives.
And MAGA Republicans are destroying American democracy. We, the people, will not let anyone or anything tear us apart....
Ludicrous. He's tearing us apart while saying nothing will tear us apart. Who are "we the people" if you're excluding MAGA Republicans? As I said in the previous post, he's saying: We the People, but not you people.
We hear — you’ve heard it, more and more talk about violence as an acceptable political tool in this country. It’s not. It can never be an acceptable tool. So, I want to say this plain and simple: There is no place for political violence in America, period, none, ever....
He's saying that while standing in front of Independence Hall. No place for political violence in America, period, none, ever? That was the place!
[T]here are public figures today, yesterday and the day before predicting and all but calling for mass violence and rioting in the streets. This is inflammatory. It’s dangerous. It’s against the rule of law. And we, the people, must say this is not who we are. Ladies and gentlemen, we can’t be pro-insurrectionist and pro-American....
Ironically, he seems to be "predicting" violence. Who is he talking about? Why is he raving about violence? How is this helping? How is it normal and mainstream?
Eventually, he settles in to the one specific complaint: Some people don't believe the election was properly handled and they don't believe the announced results. That's not violence and chaos. It's something we've seen before, notably in 2000 and 2016. It's part of democracy — doubting and criticizing the mechanisms of democracy.
After looking at America and seeing carnage and darkness and despair, he states that "MAGA Republicans look at America and see carnage and darkness and despair. " After pushing us to fear, he accuses them of "spreading fear." But then he presents himself as a big optimist:
But I see a different America — an America with an unlimited future, an America that’s about to take off....
We get a list of accomplishments:
[W]e passed the biggest infrastructure investment since President Dwight D. Eisenhower... [W]e passed the most significant gun safety law since President Clinton... [w]e passed the most significant health care reform since President Obama.... More Americans are working than ever. Businesses are growing...
He reverts to the imagery of light and darkness...
[W]e can see the light. Light is now visible. Light that will guide us forward...
... and soul:
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....
The quasi-religion of government becomes ludicrous or — if you actually believe in religion — offensive:
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....
It installs in everyone the belief that no matter where you start in life, there’s nothing you can’t achieve....
Installs? This speech needs an editor. Where you start in life? Cue the pro-lifers.
We can’t afford to leave anyone on the sidelines. We need everyone to do their part, so speak up, speak out, get engaged, vote, vote, vote! 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...
Is he saying vote Democratic? He's at least saying vote agains the non-mainstream MAGA Republicans. Did we the people pay for this event? Why were Marines there?
... 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 sacred than government? And the other guys are the fascists?
That’s our soul. That’s who we truly are. And that’s who we must always be.... We just need to remember who we are. We are the United States of America, the United States of America....
Posts
162 comments:
Dark Brandon, indeed.
How about it, Jewish voters...this your guy?
This is what Burke was talking about when he said, "all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to be cruelly neutral."
He’s always been a piece of shit. Garbage human, garbage kids. FJB
Joe Biden is the fascist.
There have only been two presidents in my life time that I considered to be 'not my president.'
Obama and Biden.
I had many differences with Clinton, but I never thought he hated the people who didn't vote for him.
I never doubted that he was patriotic and wanted what was best for the country.
But Obama and Biden? They are left wing radicals who want to tear it all down.
Biden never used to be like this...he was 'Uncle Joe,' a harmless backslapper and baby-kisser...the very reason Obama picked him.
I don't know if it's because he is clearly sinking into senility, has become a puppet of radicals in his administration, or a combination of both, but it is becoming very uncomfortable.
Biden: "Nothing more sacred than government. And the other guys are the fascists."
I removed your question marks.
Keep in mind the main take away: This speech and the imagery came from the Democratic Party's "Best of the Best." This content reviewed by many and made the final cut.
The speech thereby reveals one of two things, or both at once: (1) Trump literally drove many of his opponents insane, or (2) Biden's best advisors really suck at their jobs.
I'm now wondering whether recovery happens peacefully within the Democratic party when sane people take control, or whether Biden accidentally causes nuclear annihilation when reaching for his Alka Seltzer.
"Plop plop fizz fizz oh what big explosion it is."
"that's who we are" is a tired Obama bromide.
Pivot, baby.
I wrote it in the other thread- this speech is the explanation beforehand for the DoJ and the federal courts taking over the November election in certain states in order to use mail-in-ballots freely in those states. The timing is tricky, though- act too soon, and SCOTUS may get the last word. I predict it happens around the end of this month, or in early October.
This is who Biden, and the Democrat party, are and have always been. He's just taking off the thinly applied disguise.
Classic Althouse post. Analysis like only Ann Althouse can do. Thanks, Ann.
"He's demonizing so many people, and I'm not sure why."
I'm sure. He wants to crush his enemies. Jail them if necessary. Trump is target number one. He wants to crush any dissent. He wants us to bend the knee in so many ways. He wants us to take worthless vaxs this Fall. Most of all, he wants power. Power so that he and his friends can get rich on their Green New Deal scam.
Speaking of the Rule of Law, why hasn't Hunter been indicted?
I'm a MAGA Republican but no fan of The Donald's personality and bad judgment in many matters.
This speech clarifies one thing: Susan Rice and Ron Klain are complete Beltway Idiots. How could they be so stupid to approve that speech and put on that show?
What a hate filled and divisive speech.
This Two Minutes of (justified) Hate brought to you by the Ministry of Truth...
Well, Ann, that's your guy. Mr. 81 million, more votes than President Obama. He may have gotten 81 million votes, but he never got 81 million voters.
"There is no place for political violence in America, period, none, ever...."
"[T]here are public figures today, yesterday and the day before predicting and all but calling for mass violence and rioting in the streets."
There is no public record of which I am aware, of Joe Biden condemning a single one of the race riots undertaken in 2020, or the almost year-long riots in Portland. His Vice President, Kamala Harris, certainly encouraged and helped fund the rioters in Minneapolis. Where was his denunicition of this?
This doesn't even rise to the level of hypocrisy. This is demagoguery, spat out by a shallow nincompoop who hardly understands the words he's given to read. It is demagoguery by puppet, in which the Nation and its president are both abused by the malefactors who put these words in the mouth of an uncomprehending buffoon.
Brava Althouse.
That creepy and vile speech is a platform for the left's corrupt Pelosi-plan take over. The insiders/grifters will not be denied.
“When I try to remember literal fires, I think of the riots in the summer of 2020.”
Donald Trump fanned those flames too, because BLM helped him win in 2016.
How can president Biden be trusted with power after this speech? How can a Democrat party that fails to denounce this speech in absolute terms, be trusted with power? Isn’t this the kind of speech that we look at after the fact and wonder “How did we not see it?” I am beyond asking the “what if DJT had said it.” We know the answer. For the first time, I am actually fearful of the Federal government. Trump was right. It’s us that the Democrats want cowering and obedient. He’s just in the way- and I don’t love the guy. The IRS mistreatment of the Tea Party groups was a foretaste of unaccountable, politically motivated attacks by our “public servants” against conservative voices. It’s not getting better because there has bowmen no real accountability or clarity.
Good post, Althouse. I like these point by point analyses.
The best line I heard about the speech came from Monica Crowley who said last night on Fox, “This speech was an orgy of projection.” Great turn of phrase and very, very true.
If Trump or DeSantis wins in 2024, there will be major riots throughout the country. Recall the riots when Trump won in 2016. The 2024 riots will make the George Floyd riots look minor.
"But Obama and Biden? They are left wing radicals who want to tear it all down."
I don't like (and did not vote for) either of them, but this statement reveals mouth-breather ignorance and idiocy beyond measure.
This speech means only one thing: The DOJ will indict Trump and try to jail him. why do it otherwise?
I liked the althouse analysis, but she's a moderate liberal trying to be moderate in her analysis. I'd be much more critical. I thought this was the craziest speech by a POTUS in my lifetime.
95% of Republicans voted for Trump. His endorsed candidates won 80% of the primaries. If MAGA Republicans are extemists, then the whole Republican party is extreme. 47% of the USA voted for Trump. Change a couple hundred thousand votes and he'd be POTUS right now.
But MAGA and the Republican party are NOT extreme, quite the opposite. Trump was in office for 4 years, what did he do that was so Authoritarian, dangerous, or anti-Democratic? Give us Peace and prosperity? Try do negotiate better trade deals and secure the border? Battle Covid?
The USA is becoming Alice in Wonderland. Because the Leftists control 95% of the media and almost all the academia and legal profession, people like Biden can lie and say the craziest things, and there's no push back except by individuals and few Republicans. Its like shouting into a Hurricane. I can go through the speech and show that Biden is not just lying but DOING WHAT HE SAYS MAGA IS DOING. But what is the point?
Now I have to go buy a MAGA hat. And I hate logo clothing, ever since the little polo and lizard of the'80s. But if I have to pick a side, well, I'm not going to be a MAD Democrat (Make America Decline).
"Susan Rice and Ron Klain are complete Beltway Idiots. How could they be so stupid to approve that speech and put on that show? "
They aren't stupid. They're doing this because it plays to their militant, partisan base. And they're counting on that to squeak them through the midterms, consequences be damned.
Well, he wants a civil war. This was its declaration. Our only hope is Biden stays true to form and is, once again, horribly wrong.
“‘... 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 sacred than government? And the other guys are the fascists?”
That’s you talking, President Biden said “America” not “government”. If you only see America as its government, that truly is disturbing, and fascist.
"the flame of liberty"
Does any Dem believe in "liberty"? Does any Dem policy promote "liberty"?
"normal and mainstream"
Biden is a normal, mainstream Dem. Dems rule. Therefore, Biden is normal and mainstream. The question for the nice moderate women of America is: what are you going to do about it? A serious Althouse fisking is a start. But now follow through.
"the quasi-religion of government"
But that has been normal, mainstream Dem faith since at least the 1930s. Dems rule. The GOP has stood by. Therefore, the quasi-religion is the normal, mainstream American religion. It's a little late to complain, and it's not clear there is an alternative.
AA: “… Or is an authoritarian leader going to disqualify all participants who don't accept his idea of personal rights, justice, and the rule of law? His version constitutes ‘the very soul of this country’?”
By George, I think you’ve got it!
See also “Fuhrerprinzip.”
Like other commenters here, I expect this will tee up some actual (or more likely staged) provocation and then a state of emergency will follow, probably by early October. You can forget about the election. The Covid lockdowns and mandates (and even more, the arbitrary on-and-off nature of them) have conditioned the country not to object.
Jonathan Turley
@JonathanTurley
...Under Department of Defense Directive 1344.10 ("Political Activities for Members of the Armed Forces") members of the Armed Forces may not engage in political activities...
9:15 AM · Sep 2, 2022
Jonathan Turley
@JonathanTurley
...The long list of prohibited acts include: "Attend partisan political events as an official representative of the Armed Forces, except as a member of a joint Armed Forces color guard ...
9:16 AM · Sep 2, 2022
This from von Mises is helpful to see the path to the German pattern of socialism. Sure, we've been on it since the New Deal, but Joe seems to be taking the last steps. You know, like when someone from the government calls a company to "suggest" they do something like ban a social media user or mute or censor the sharing of a news story.
========
The Dictatorial, Anti-Democratic and Socialist Character of Interventionism
Many advocates of interventionism are bewildered when one tells them that in recommending interventionism they themselves are fostering anti-democratic and dictatorial tendencies and the establishment of totalitarian socialism. They protest that they are sincere believers and opposed to tyranny and socialism. What they aim at is only the improvement of the conditions of the poor. They say that they are driven by considerations of social justice, and favour a fairer distribution of income precisely because they are intent upon preserving capitalism and its political corollary or superstructure, viz., democratic government.
What these people fail to realize is that the various measures they suggest are not capable of bringing about the beneficial results aimed at. On the contrary they produce a state of affairs which from the point of view of their advocates is worse than the previous state which they were designed to alter. If the government, faced with this failure of its first intervention, is not prepared to undo its interference with the market and to return to a free economy, it must add to its first measure more and more regulations and restrictions. Proceeding step by step on this way it finally reaches a point in which all economic freedom of individuals has disappeared. Then socialism of the German pattern, the Zwangswirtschaft of the Nazis, emerges.
von Mises, Ludwig (1947). Planned Chaos
Zwangswirtschaft roughly translates to "compulsory economy"
Jonathan Turley
@JonathanTurley
...at the opening ceremonies of the national conventions of the Republican, Democratic, or other political parties recognized by the Federal Elections Committee or as otherwise authorized by the Secretary concerned."
9:16 AM · Sep 2, 2022
Joe Smith said...
There have only been two presidents in my life time that I considered to be 'not my president.'
Obama and Biden.
I had many differences with Clinton, but I never thought he hated the people who didn't vote for him.
I never doubted that he was patriotic and wanted what was best for the country.
But Obama and Biden? They are left wing radicals who want to tear it all down.
Biden never used to be like this...he was 'Uncle Joe,' a harmless backslapper and baby-kisser...the very reason Obama picked him.
I don't know if it's because he is clearly sinking into senility, has become a puppet of radicals in his administration, or a combination of both, but it is becoming very uncomfortable.
9/2/22, 10:09 AM
I feel EXACTLY the same.
This country needs to be broken up. We cannot live in the same country with these bat-shit crazy hate-filled liberals/lefists like Biden anymore. Mark my words, they are going to indict Trump and they going to keep pushng and pushing and pushing this country further and further to the Left until they finally gain total power.
Biden has the lowest approval ratings ever. His administration has been a disaster. He no longer enforces the immigration laws, and millions poor over the border. Crime and inflation are exploding. We spending Trillions on God knows what, while we Go "Toe to Toe with the Ruskies" over Ukraine. His "Green agenda" is going to wipe out the energy sector. He applauds Antifa while J6 protesters are still being arrested almost 1.5 years later.
Yet, he doesn't unite us, he calls half of American "Fascists". And whatever he does, no matter how awful he is for the USA, almost every single Goddamn Democrat will go out and vote D in 2022 and 2024. No matter what.
You can't reason with them anymore.
How about it, Jewish voters...this your guy?
There's enough raw material for half a season from Larry David. It will never be written...
Let me know when he plans to send an F-15 to blow up my house with me in it. One of my neighbors is a Democrat and I want to invite him over for dinner when it happens.
Thank you, Ann, for this gem of truth and logic:
The "assault" I see is the effort to keep Donald Trump from running again. If the overwhelming majority of Americans reject his "extreme MAGA ideology," what's the problem? Let him run and he will be defeated.
It's time to step back and ask why they so greatly fear Trump?
If there really is a deep state, how would it behave when challenged?
It seems to me that Trump has enemies in all the right places.
Reading this from someone who spent a lifetime in academia gives me a bit of hope. Most of the people in my life are either in the arts or in education. With exception of a few I have known since childhood that share my working class roots, nobody I know can see any of this. Not a bit.
All they can see is that big stuffed Trump head on the end of a stick that gets shaken in front of the camera anytime that mountain of the deplorable's skulls begins to come into distant focus from our future.
I have no use for Trump as Trump and find no solace in his personal glory and have no desire to fuel his own brand of toxic narcissism. That said, his followers are my people. They can see that mountain of skulls. Those are their skulls. That is their future. They hear this in Biden's words when my friends are deaf to it. This is so hard to watch.
Mr. Begley: "This speech clarifies one thing: Susan Rice and Ron Klain are complete Beltway Idiots. How could they be so stupid to approve that speech and put on that show?"
They are working with/for Obama, even today. They are all on the same page and are doing exactly what they deem necessary to win. There is no mistaking their tact. Susan Rice is not stupid. Evil, deceptive, lying, manipulative, yes. But not stupid.
These are bad people. They have created havoc in our streets, our schools, our corporate offices, our universities, with our foreign allies, and within our financial markets. They have sowed instability both here and abroad. And they point to you and I as the culprits. There is a viciousness that oozes out of the Democratic Party today. Trump is crude, rude, and unorthodox. But everyone knew exactly what he was about and wanted to do: Make America Great. The Dems? They piss all over you and when you complain they censor your complaint and warn you to shut up or you'll be shut down. And they've done this to Trump and many of his people already.
BLM leaders have purchased multiple mansions after arranging the destruction of many cities, businesses, and lives. Maga participants are sitting in a DC jail, for over a year, with no help, no hope. What's going on here? Joe Biden and his team encouraged and paid for BLM. And so, some are good to ransack the nation. Some had better not even show a hint of questioning what's going on in front of them.
Look- this entire charade is a house of cards and it cannot stand up much longer. Even if the Dems hold onto one of the houses (which I now doubt that they will), this will collapse. It'll collapse because it has no foundation. It's nothing but rhetoric. And those questioning are numerous and itching to make things right again.
BTW- MAGA was labeled as racist as soon as it was unleashed by Trump. That has always made me wonder. Just why do people on the left get so uncomfortable when someone says they want America to be great again? Look around you. How do things look to you these days, two years into All Dems All the Time?
Democrats have declared WAR on Americans....Literally!! https://twitter.com/GovtsTheProblem/status/1565702917151109120?
I saw someone's comment recently that "democracy" to our deep state and media means "always electing Democrats." Anything threatening that is an attack on democracy, by definition.
Yancey mentions timing….my take on that is that they spent a ton of money supporting MAGA candidates in the primaries to ensure that they can set up the general as a battle of good vs evil which is what this speech lays the groundwork for. This is Palpatine activating Order 66, but since Democrats and centrists aren’t literally clones with inhibitor chips they have to use old fashioned propaganda.
What is frightening is that they might even be trying to provoke a Mace Windu attack, if they get desperate enough the Galactic Empire will have to replace the Republic.
While I’m sure the fictional comparison seems a bit goofy at first, when you think about it it fits.
Fascists gotta fascist. They can only hide and lie about it for so long. Then they begin to vomit it uncontrollably. Libs are fascist terrorists in word, deed, and belief. Treat them accordingly.
People always win elections in the middle of the night after polls close.
Happens all of the time.
2022, the year Godwin's law was repealed.
I always enjoy your deep dives into the language used in a speech. I think it breaks down here because you have put far more thought into symbolism than the speech writers have.
This speech feels like a number of people were given 3X5 cards and those cards were then shuffled together. Peggy Noonan, Reagan's speech writer paid elegant and very detailed attention to symbolism and along with Khachigian wrote some of the best American political speeches in the post WWII era. Her speeches followed and arc and were internally consistent through out. None of that elegance is on offer her.
I still don't know what to make of it. Either the millennials in charge of the optics see all the comic book movies and thought dark lord was good look or somebody fucked up big time. At the moment I'm dismissing crazy like a fox and going with just plain crazy but my alternative working theory is their internal polling is telling them they're fucked and this shit is a...uh...Hail Mary to shore up the base. The riots didn't poll well so let's simulate riots with our rhetoric and set design...
Ask not whether I have done a single fucking thing as President. Ask another question please.
This is what the Democrat party sounds like when they have a policy platform that is intended to lower Americans' standard of living to pay for the green deal, to shift power from American citizens to global elites (e.g., the WHO healthcare accord), and to make people submit to the power of the state (e.g., COVID mandates and shutdowns).
Biden's speech was worthy of Mussolini.
I share AA's uncertainty about Biden's motivation. He and his advisers must realize that most of the American populace, even most Democrats, regard Republicans as normal, boring Americans. To most Dems, Repubs distinguish themselves with their lower intellects, and higher tolerance, or even approval for, the backward ways of a sinful past. That's not enough to call forth a carefully constructed, symbolically laden, speech that consigns so many boring normies to perpetual exclusion from "our democracy".
Assuming that the Biden team is not living in a bubble of their own making, they have to see how this attempt to excommunicate a huge chunk of the population will lead to either making the Biden team even more of a laughingstock, or if people actually buy this balderdash, it will fracture the tacit consensus that makes our social and political system work. No sane person should want that. So I am bewildered. There is a fascinating story behind this speech, and it's not out there yet.
Scott Adams mentioned somebody's idea that it's preparing for the indictment of Trump.
Nothing else makes sense.
‘Donald Trump fanned those flames too, because BLM helped him win in 2016.’
Prove it.
This is the sort of speech you get from an African strongman when his regime's authority and power begin to decline.
Biden comes out and grabs them by the pussy.
wendybar said...
Jonathan Turley
@JonathanTurley
...at the opening ceremonies of the national conventions of the Republican, Democratic, or other political parties recognized by the Federal Elections Committee or as otherwise authorized by the Secretary concerned."
9:16 AM · Sep 2, 2022
I call impeachable offense...
Mid-terms are TWO MONTHS AWAY!!
And the Bidens are scared (Joe and Hunter!)
If the Republicans take both houses there will be hearings I assure you on them... hearings like that Jan 6th committee but only there is lots of evidence of crimes on the Bidens part!!
Lots of luck with that Hitler/Stalin speech Joe... somehow I don't think it is gonna do you much good.
If one takes off the rose-colored Democrat glasses, and really looks at this man and his life, the lies both about his life and about his political opponents, the stench of corruption, its hard to understand how he got the reputation for being a 'nice guy'. He's quite a small man. His thin veneer of 'nice guy' always seemed smarmy to me. How can people be taken in by it?
2022, the year Godwin's law was repealed.
Well, to be fair, watching that speech, I couldn't help thinking of Hitler's speeches.
I don’t think this event turned out the way the left hoped. The barometer I am using to judge that is our local “news” feed in Madison, channel3000.com. Over time they’ve become reliable propagandists for the progressive line, and given their audience I get that. But as if now there is nothing on their front page about President Muppet’s speech at all. That’s just a step removed from “Republicans Pounce” territory.
But MAGA and the Republican party are NOT extreme, quite the opposite. Trump was in office for 4 years, what did he do that was so Authoritarian, dangerous, or anti-Democratic?"
If you guys keep asking this question, I'll keep answering it. You'll keep ignoring the answers and ask them again. And, I'll keep answer because I loathe bullshit.
Authoritarian: national eviction moratorium by fiat, Foxconn, banning bumpstocks by fiat.
Dangerous: All the fucking $2000 Trump welfare checks to Americans who didn't need them (he even fought McConnell in an attempt dole out even MORE) that led to the runaway inflation we are experiencing.
Brandon went full Mussolini. You NEVER go full Mussolini.
...to repeat myself: These politicians act like they are unencumbered by the obligation of answering to voters. Why might that be?
Tommy Duncan said...
It's time to step back and ask why they so greatly fear Trump?
They fear Trump because he has connected with millions of people in this country that don't usually vote and are completely alienated from our government.
There are millions of working class/minority voters that voted in 2020. Trump got 75 million VOTERS. More than any presidential candidate ever got.
The uniparty Republicans/Democrats had to mail in 20 million votes to stop him.
He unites the people in the country that just want to be left alone and don't want to talk about politics all day.
Very triggering speech. Biden needs to be more inclusive of the Trumps snowflakes
Firmly adjusts tinfoil chapeau.
Biden doesn't realize he is expendable. The deep state will assassinate him and crack down. That's the plan. The set was a message - get in line, or else.
To me the amazing thing is the way that the "Party line" goes out to the MSM and Democrat/RINO pols and they all start using the same phrases and same positions.
Insurrectionists. Assault on Democracy. Democracy in Danger. Supressing the vote. A Coup.
None of its real. Its all crazy and unsupported. They NEVER give concrete specifics. And when they do, it doesn't support their crazy statements. Y'know what crazy? Murdering unarmed J6 protesters and then talking about the "assault on the police". Or calling up 25, 000 NG troops for two months, to protect DC pols from a non-existant threat. Or calling Antifa "an idea" and Riots that killed 5o people "Mostly peaceful".
But who pushes back? Almost no one. And it works, because the stupid ass "moderates" always wnat to believe "Truth is in the middle" and "WHere there's smoke there's fire" and "Gosh, why would the MSM lie?"
Long ago I spent 5 years on active duty as a Navy Medical Officer, so I've just got to ask:
What the hell were those Marines doing at a purely political event?
Wendybar, you made an excellent point.
For all the left's complaints about Trump (and some are legit, he has a big ego), they completely ignore Biden's lies, his 'bearing false witness' about other people, his demonizing people to disagree with him politically, the obvious 'appearance' of family corruption - selling access to our govt power, his administration's weaponizing of govt against political opponents, his complete ineptitude with foreign policy and shocking execution of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, his 'pestering' little girls and others' wives, etc.
And after this political speech, well, I never want to hear another complaint from Biden voters about Trump. By supporting this man, you just don't have the moral high ground.
If the Republicans take both houses there will be hearings I assure you on them... hearings like that Jan 6th committee...
I'm taking the under...
CStanley said...
While I’m sure the fictional comparison seems a bit goofy at first, when you think about it it fits.
You don't need the fictional version.
Just replace "MAGA Republican" with "Jew" and it will make more sense to you.
January 6th they let people into the capitol and killed Ashlii Babitt and Rosanne Boyland. They tried to lie about Trump supporters killing Brian Sicknick.
They used the Russian Collusion hoax for 6 years before that lie collapsed.
Hitler used many lies to motivate his shitty supporters just like Biden is doing now.
But the Democrats failed to take away our guns. They tried to disarm us like Hitler disarmed his people. But they failed.
That will be their undoing.
Meanwhile, in Argentina, actual violence and attempted assassination of their VP. Lucky for her the gun apparently misfired…
Biden knows he was not elected President. He knows he was installed. Everything you have seen in the last two years is just a double down to protect the 2020 fraud. It is ALL one coordinated effort. The J6 Committee...the DOJ...the FBI...the NYTs...MSNBC...that evil press secretary...Biden's "wartime" speech. There aren't 81 million voters behind Biden's 81 million votes.
This is why they all act completely unaccountable to the public. An actual elected office holder has some accountability...even to the opposition.
Now they have the threat of a Kari Lake in AZ. For those that coordinated the 2020 election fraud, candidates like Kari Lake are a clear and present danger. So are candidates like Tim Michels and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin.
We are experiencing the backlash and punishment the for legitimately electing a true outsider in 2016.
[W]e passed the biggest infrastructure investment since President Dwight D. Eisenhower... [W]e passed the most significant gun safety law since President Clinton... [w]e passed the most significant health care reform since President Obama.... More Americans are working than ever. Businesses are growing...
So neither the biggest nor the most significant legislation. Got it.
Sounds like Joe and his government has lost faith in the American people, and is preparing to elect a new one...
I too appreciated this post and its analysis of the speech.
I didn't like Trump in 2016. I didn't like Hillary Clinton more.
Because I found Hillary Clinton to be inept and untrustworthy, I am a fascist??
"The "assault" I see is the effort to keep Donald Trump from running again. If the overwhelming majority of Americans reject his "extreme MAGA ideology," what's the problem? Let him run and he will be defeated."
And because "they" are unwilling to do such a simple thing, I am left with the impression "they" fear the actual will of the people. Or "they" are inept and incompetent. Or both.
“ I remember when fervent Democrats occupied the Wisconsin state capitol building and chanted "This is what democracy looks like" because they didn't like the results of the 2010 election.“
I remember it well. So well that I can still hear the nuance and the stress in their call-and-response chant: “Tell/show me what democracy looks like!” “THIS! is what democracy look!” (As opposed to that election a few months ago that brought our political enemies into government power. How DARE they!? They aren’t even human.)
I’ve heard Biden’s speech before. It was better delivered in the original German.
Great analysis, but it's a lot to take in.
It was curious to hear Biden say that things in America aren't "normal" now, after he had been elected pledging to return the country to "normal." He puts all the blame on Trump, but Biden has been stoking the abnormality or unnormalness for his own party's political benefit. The Democrats can't run on their record, so they make Trump the issue, increasing the ex-President's significance. A real unifier would take the focus off Trump, but you need real achievements and a bettering of people's lives to be able to do that.
I'm getting sick of all the "America, America, America" talk. It was fresher and more powerful and perhaps more accurate in the 1980s, the 1960s, the 1940s. Now it looks like the last refuge of a scoundrel. Biden is caught in a time warp and thinks America is still the omnipotent superpower rather than the fragile thing it has become.
I don't see that Antifa helped elect Trump in 2016 or that he was counting on them to help elect him in 2020. They were a minor factor before he was elected, and while "law and order" was one of his issues in 2020, it wasn't a major one and wasn't focused on Antifa. "Law and order" also involved the rising crime rate. There was a photo-op across the street from the White House after Washington was burning -- small potatoes compared to what Biden has made of Charlottesville and 1/6. When Trump was asked if he'd repudiate the Proud Boys, a relatively insignificant group, Trump asked if Biden would repudiate Antifa. It was more of a footnote in the campaign, rather than a central emphasis.
In the rear view mirror, Obama looks more like a time server, a Chicago politician who knew how to rally the troops but didn't necessarily take the slogans very seriously, than a hardened ideologue determined to force his vision on the country. His post-presidency has been low-key and more preoccupied with counting his money than with influencing the future of the country.
I always enjoy your deep dives into the language used in a speech. I think it breaks down here because you have put far more thought into symbolism than the speech writers have.
I think our host's point may be, at least in part, that the speechwriters were channeling their own feelings under the assumption that those feelings were shared by The American People (the good ones, anyway), and were too unaware of their own biases that it didn't even occur to them that their words and staging might be perceived differently from the way they meant it. The disturbing part of the speech, therefore, is that they and (maybe) Biden himself believed that they were saying something unassailable and uplifting, but a huge proportion of Americans will hear and see echoes of fascism.
Same answer to Left Bank's critique above of Althouse's conflation of "America" and "government" - the point is that Biden's political opponents, knowing Democrats' long record of decrying "America" on the world stage as a place of white male Christian privilege that needs to be remade in a more globalist and at least quasi-socialist mode, hear the word "America" coming from a Democrat and think "he's talking about government, because nothing he actually does seems to indicate that he values the culture of America at all."
In other words, there are the words, and there is the intent, and there is the perception, and these aren't necessarily the same thing. Anyone on the anti-Trump side ought to understand this point; after all, how much mind-reading has gone on in the past six-plus years about what Trump "really meant" when he said perfectly innocuous words?
Again, Liz Cheney ran on attacking Trump, her opponent ran on the issues of inflation, energy, jobs and government spending and overreach in our lives. Granted Wyoming is a deep red state, but the underlying polling there and elsewhere across America, particularly red and purple states like Virginia, showed that people don’t care about 1/6 or attacking Trump. They care about inflation, food and fuel prices and things that affect their families. So if Biden wants to lead the Democrats on a blind rage charge against Trump, the Republicans will gladly let them die on that hill.
Greg Price
@greg_price11
·
The "extreme" MAGA agenda:
- Secure borders.
- Fair elections
- Energy independence
- Tough on crime
- Save babies
- Stop genital mutilation of kids
- Put parents first
- School choice
- Protect constitutional rights
- Put America First.
What part sounds extreme to you?
5:12 PM · Sep 1, 2022
Thanks for the brave report from your libtard university town bubble, Meade. Very relevant
Authoritarian: national eviction moratorium by fiat, Foxconn, banning bumpstocks by fiat.
Dangerous: All the fucking $2000 Trump welfare checks to Americans who didn't need them (he even fought McConnell in an attempt dole out even MORE) that led to the runaway inflation we are experiencing.
So - the authoritarian and dangerous things Trump did in response (or reaction) to the early stages of a pandemic which which the entire world was struggling to cope are things Democrats want to see happen all the time?
I really do want to hear an anti-Trump person spell out specifics on his lawless/authoritarian/racist/fascist/whatever ways. I've yet to hear anything other than run-of-the-mill deal brokering, rhetoric interpreted through ESP as coded statements of his secret, real beliefs, and dark assertions of consorting with The Enemy that have been shown to be fabricated by his political opponents.
So, D.D. Driver- would a Trump assassination be enough for you, or must his supporters also die to satisfy you and your friends?
Serious Question for Professor Althouse..
Do you regret not voting? Or, are you still glad you helped Biden through your inaction?
This episode becomes even darker if it is true that the FBI had a leading role in the Jan 6 mayhem.
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...
This is the sort of speech you get from an African strongman when his regime's authority and power begin to decline.
Speeches like this are generally preceded by the looting of the Treasury.
Hmmm...
Yep.
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...
This is the sort of speech you get from an African strongman when his regime's authority and power begin to decline.
Speeches like this are generally preceded by the looting of the Treasury.
Hmmm...
Yep.
Joe Smith:
"How about it, Jewish voters...this your guy?"
No. But then he never was, nor would he have been but for this speech, my guy. I'm not a Democrat.
"Obama and Biden? They are left wing radicals who want to tear it all down."
Despite Robert Cook's objection, I'll give you that Barack Obama wanted to "fundamentally transform" this country. His wife's gushing, "Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed" still pisses me off when I think of it: Who the hell do these people think they are – and what job do they think we hire a president to do?
I don't believe Biden is fundamentally left-wing. This isn't a defense of him. I believe he's a "these are my principles, and if you don't like them – I have others" kind of pol. I think the (questionably) rich old white guy got to be the nominee after the summer of George Floyd riots because he would be palatable and nonthreatening to a broad enough swath of voters, but would absolutely do the bidding of those who put him up there. None too bright, ambitious, greedy, amoral, malleable. Able to speak utter horseshit with great conviction. A fine front man, if he didn't seem old and out of it quite so often.
The speech was a prelude to arresting Trump. He’s predicting violence because a Trump arrest might cause maga country to overreact, which is what he wants.
'I don't like (and did not vote for) either of them, but this statement reveals mouth-breather ignorance and idiocy beyond measure.'
How are they not left-wing radicals?
Their policies are more left-wing and radical than any president in our history.
Only FDR is in the conversation.
Again, the Dems promoted Trump:
https://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign-intentionally-created-donald-trump-with-its-pied-piper-strategy/
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/1120
Biden is trying to demonize and isolate republicans. Look at the heart of his speech -- if you replace "republican" or "MAGA" with Jew, this is a speech that Hitler could happily have given:
That sacred flame still burns now in our time as we build an America that is more prosperous, free, and just.
That is the work of my presidency, a mission I believe in with my whole soul.
But first, we must be honest with each other and with ourselves.
Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal.
Donald Trump and the Jews represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.
Now, I want to be very clear — (applause) — very clear up front: Not every Jew, not even the majority of Jews, are Jews. Not every Jew embraces their extreme ideology.
I know because I’ve been able to work with these mainstream Jews.
But there is no question that the Jew Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the Jews, and that is a threat to this country.
These are hard things.
But I’m an American President — not the President of red America or blue America, but of all America.
And I believe it is my duty — my duty to level with you, to tell the truth no matter how difficult, no matter how painful.
And here, in my view, is what is true: Jews do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people.
They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.
JEWISH 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 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.
They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th — brutally attacking law enforcement — not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots.
And they see their JEWISH 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.
That’s why respected conservatives, like Federal Circuit Court Judge Michael Luttig, has called Trump and the extreme Jews, quote, a “clear and present danger” to our democracy.
But while the threat to American democracy is real, I want to say as clearly as we can: We are not powerless in the face of these threats. We are not bystanders in this ongoing attack on democracy.
There are far more Americans — far more Americans from every — from every background and belief who reject the extreme JEWISH ideology than those that accept it. (Applause.)
And, folks, it is within our power, it’s in our hands — yours and mine — to stop the assault on American democracy.
I believe America is at an inflection point — one of those moments that determine the shape of everything that’s to come after.
And now America must choose: to move forward or to move backwards? To build the future or obsess about the past? To be a nation of hope and unity and optimism, or a nation of fear, division, and of darkness?
Jews have made their choice. They embrace anger. They thrive on chaos. They live not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies.
But together — together, we can choose a different path. We can choose a better path. Forward, to the future. A future of possibility. A future to build and dream and hope.
Donald Trump fanned those flames too, because BLM helped him win in 2016.
Just let that sit there, and admire the sheer stupidity it took to write.
'I don't believe Biden is fundamentally left-wing.'
He wasn't for most of his career...he was a typical, dumb political machine type of guy.
Even in 2020 he ran as the 'uniter.'
So what happened?
I have my suspicions, and I don't believe that he is in any way in charge of the executive branch...
Btw, didn't anybody tell Joe what the founding fathers actually did at Independence Hall?
Beep, beep, buzz: I have had ideas and words installed in me. Beep buzz: God knows how. Beep: Don't mention God; I mentioned Him once but I think I got away with it. Not: God bless the United States of America; God no; there are too many nazis in this country. Because the country has never lived up to its early promise, there will be nothing good about it until changes are made. Nothing will be allowed to stand in our way.
Beep beep buzz buzz: I am starting a war against the bad people. If they question anything about the 2020 election they are bad. They are probably Hitler. They started the war. If they do not question 2016 they are bad. War is a terrible thing, but it is about time we had one. Beep.
Beep, beep, buzz: I'm told I look more like Hitler tonight than any previous Pres. Wrong reference: think V for Vendetta. The marines are here to shoot to kill. I hope they can see in the dark. Some of the Jan. 6 protesters may show up, if by chance they are out of jail.
Beep. We have always hated Goldstein, and we always will. Beep. Clouseau! Clouseau! Beep. I detect a flawed installation. Beep, beep. Roadrunner, yeah man. Those big semi-trailers. Back when I was a kid beep beep beeeeeeeeeeeeep.
Robert Cook said...
"But Obama and Biden? They are left wing radicals who want to tear it all down."
I don't like (and did not vote for) either of them, but this statement reveals mouth-breather ignorance and idiocy beyond measure.
*************
Then, what did Obama mean when he said he was going to "fundamentally transform America"?
effinayright said...
Millions of Americans are remembering they haven't seen that fiery red color since the "mostly peaceful" BLM riots of 2020.
Left Bank:
That’s you talking, President Biden said “America” not “government”. If you only see America as its government, that truly is disturbing, and fascist.
If you can't see the fascism in that speech you are part of the problem. The background of red and black. The Marines, violating the law. The hatred directed at half the country. I also think that "Jews" could be substituted for "MAGA Republicans" with a bit of historical memory.
I agree that the speech was probably written by the lefties running things but Brandon sounded OK with it. It had a tinge of "Get off my lawn!" to it.
Joe Smith: "How about it, Jewish voters...this your guy?"
No. Do I sound like a Democratic voter to you?
BTW, there's only 5.8-7.5 million Jews in the US (depending on how you count us, and yes, some of you do count us). If you're looking for those who represented the bulk of his voters, you're looking in the wrong place. I suggest you open up your search.
ElPresidenteCastro said...
Speeches like this are generally preceded by the looting of the Treasury.
Usually after a violent purge of the military and a crack down on the opposition, but yes.
66...you nailed it. That those on the Left are praising it is not only disturbing, its a sign to get very ready for what comes next.
this speech is the explanation beforehand for the DoJ and the federal courts taking over the November election in certain states in order to use mail-in-ballots freely in those states.
Exactly this... They were going to use monkeypox, but it only seems to affect gay men.
I also think its a pre-emptive warning for Republicans to deal with any cheating that happens during the midterms by staying at home for risk of life and liberty. Can't have anymore "Brooks Brothers" riots.
I laughed when I heard Biden make the reference to "81 million voters".
Joe doesn't believe it either!!
Left Bank: "That’s you talking, President Biden said “America” not “government”. If you only see America as its government, that truly is disturbing, and fascist."
Was it "America" or the Biden government that was meeting with and directly social media companies to censor opposing viewpoints?
Hmmm, 1 party government, directing "private" corporations to act in accordance with the political and policy preferences of the ruling party.
The very definition of fascism. The very definition.
Next up for Left Bank (to New Soviet Democratical Central): Can we get ANOTHER change in definitions to help our daily narrative?! Stat!!
"Then, what did Obama mean when he said he was going to 'fundamentally transform America'?"
Oh, brother! That's just Obama's overly fancy (as always) way of saying "Make America Great Again."
Every president has to make this sort of statement to mark their presidency as something special, boy! Something historic! A reason to vote for him (or her), and again the second time around! In other words, customary politician bullshit.
Left Bank: "Donald Trump fanned those flames too, because BLM helped him win in 2016."
Astonishing stupidity.
But I am not in the least surprised.
Great post Althouse.
I'm interested in Biden's "America is an idea". That echos his response during the 2020 debates when told to have Antifa stand down after Trump told the Proud Boys to do so and after Antifa was involved in mass riots across the country. Biden answer was [Trump's] “own FBI director said the threat comes from white supremacists — Antifa is an idea, not an organization, not militias, that’s what his FBI director said.” The FBI Director didn't say Antifa was an idea, Joe did. At best, FBI Director Wray said the first part. Antifa is an organization and always has been since its founding in the Soviet Union. Likewise, American is an organization made up of We the People who live in these United States.
What is intended by Biden in saying "America is an idea"?
"How are they not left-wing radicals?
"Their policies are more left-wing and radical than any president in our history."
How are their policies "left-wing and radical" at all?
The rules for a takeover are:
1) first, take over the media (so no one will know what is happening)
2) create a provocation
3) exaggerate that provocation
4) declare martial law/jail opponents
Pelosi already set the ball rolling with the J6 crap. Called out the national guard for a bunch of unarmed goofs who were let into the building by the capitol cops, milled around taking selfies, and left. Bit "sedition" but it gave her the excuse she needed. Then the J6 hearings and arresting 700 people even though only 50 went in the building. No bail for them. Now we get the speech about how dangerous the repub party is. All the violence has been on the Left. The Proud Boys (number a few hundred) got in a few fist fights with Antifa and never killed anyone or burned a building down, but this is their excuse (oh and Oathkeepers who helped the Capitol police maintain order).
Notice how they are going after the lawyers (of Trump, of project Veritas, of pro-life groups, of 2nd amendment lawsuits) so you won't be able to defend yourself--worse than taking guns away.
Somebody(ies) told Biden he would give a speech to lay a predicate for nullifying this Fall's elections in red states on the basis they harbor insurrectionists. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, someone's escorting over to Delaware to recuperate this weekend.
It was a very disappointing speech. You’re supposed to make 3-5 statements, back them up with evidence, then succinctly summarize your points, perhaps adding some pithy phrasing that leaves people feeling they gained some benefit from listening, even if they don’t agree. Above all, you’re supposed to connect with your audience.
This was garbage. All statements, no evidence that back them up, and no serious understanding of or care about who he was talking to and what they care about. He presented himself as a raving lunatic, scared and scarey, unhinged, manic, and lost in his rage. Who would possibly want to see something like that again?
I saw someone's comment recently that "democracy" to our deep state and media means "always electing Democrats." Anything threatening that is an attack on democracy, by definition.
BINGO! And when the republican loses its because of "voter fraud." It's two sides of the same stupid coin.
So - the authoritarian and dangerous things Trump did in response (or reaction) to the early stages of a pandemic which which the entire world was struggling to cope are things Democrats want to see happen all the time?
YES!!! Exactly fucking right! You see my problem with Trump "doing the things Democrats want to see happen all the time"? I HATE THE SHIT DEMOCRATS WANT TO DO ALL THE TIME. Using the argument that Trump is just like the Dems is NOT persuasive. I Republican fighting to push through $2000 welfare checks to people who do not need the help. What timeline am I even in?
@Left Bank of the Charles: BLM helped [Donald Trump] win in 2016.
Seriously? Hillary won. She said so. I heard it from Governor Abrams, too.
@Gusty Winds: Biden knows he was not elected President. He knows he was installed.
Biden doesn't know jack. But Ron Klain, Susan Rice, Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, the FBI, the CIA, et al. . . . they know it.
@Jamie: The disturbing part of the speech . . . is that they and (maybe) Biden himself believed that they were saying something unassailable and uplifting, but a huge proportion of Americans will hear and see echoes of fascism.
Yes. This is one way in which the truth comes out. As a matter of sociopolitical psychology and its psychic economy, over-the-top projection eventually compels truth's emergence.
I am waiting to see how D.D. Driver will blame Trump and republicans for Democraticals colluding with social media companies to censor political and policy opponents.
We could make it a fun game and win prizes for guessing the correct D.D. Driver Minimize/Deflect Democratical Scandal tactic.
Shorter D.D. Driver:
Trump does bad stuff.
Dems do slightly less bad stuff and only because Trump made them.
'BTW, there's only 5.8-7.5 million Jews in the US (depending on how you count us, and yes, some of you do count us). If you're looking for those who represented the bulk of his voters, you're looking in the wrong place. I suggest you open up your search.'
I realize that Jews are a small percentage of the population.
But they vote overwhelmingly democrat (why, I will never understand).
From Pew Research last year:
"Overall, about seven-in-ten identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, including 68% of Jews by religion and 77% of Jews of no religion. Just 26% of U.S. Jews overall identify with the Republican Party or lean toward the GOP."
Thanks, Professor, for your insightful analysis in this important post.
We need an avatar meme to demonstrate affiliation with the “down” group. Not a rainbow, not blue and yellow, those are taken.
'How are their policies "left-wing and radical" at all?'
Yeah, you're right...this is all mainstream American stuff...mom and apple pie:
Forced compliance with an experimental vaccine in both private and public sector
Takeover of America healthcare
Takeover of student loan industry
Promoting LGBTQ and Trans ideology both in the US and overseas
Promoting woke ideology, EID, etc. in the military
Picking winners and losers in the private sector via targeted bailouts, loans, and grants
Picking a VP who donated money to bail out murderers and pedophiles
Shutting down the American energy industry
Funneling billions of dollars to a non-ally country to fight a war undeclared by Congress
Promoting the genital mutilation of thousands of minor children
Promoting the killing of babies up to and even after their birth
Promoting riots in the Summer of 2020
Allowing the intimidation of Supreme Court Justices
Coordinating with tech companies to censor news and information detrimental to the administration
Promoting the banning and confiscation of legal firearms
Opening the Southern Border to millions of illegal aliens, along with the smuggling of drugs that kill tens of thousands of Americans
Attempting to use Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulations to force section 8 and high-density housing into the suburbs
Just off the top of my head...anyone else care to chime in?
Trump does bad stuff.
Dems do slightly less bad stuff and only because Trump made them.
When did I EVER say democrats do less bad stuff!?!? I voted for one Democrat in my life. Thirty years ago when I was in college and I'm still embarrassed about it.
Do you guys really think everyone who isnt a Trump-humper must automatically be a democrat?
Using the argument that Trump is just like the Dems is NOT persuasive. I Republican fighting to push through $2000 welfare checks to people who do not need the help. What timeline am I even in?
DD Do you know the definition of MOBY ?
Biden was so bad that I suspect he was set up by his own party. The speech is his "basket of deplorables."
Its really surreal that Republicans are the extremists. The current Democrat positions are:
Allow physically healthy, but mentally troubled children and teens to access permanently altering hormonal treatments and SURGERY if they decide they are uncomfortable with puberty, in some cases without parental consent. (growing up I was told, EVERYONE would be uncomfortable with their bodies as they reached puberty, and it was normal).
Abortion at full term.
Completely open borders, no deporting illegals who commit crimes.
Allow criminals, even repeat offending violent criminals out of jail without bail, almost immediately.
Biological boys can compete against girls in sports, and use dressing rooms, rest rooms with no regard for females who are uncomfortable with seeing male genitals in female spaces.
There is no solid, biology-based definition of woman. (You would have been laughed at 5 years ago if you claimed a Supreme Court Justice would say this).
People have the right to force others to be grammar fluid and insist to be addressed by unending lists of narcissistic pronouns.
Mentally ill and drug addicted homeless have the right to camp outside and use the sidewalks, public parks, and playgrounds as toilets and open drug-use areas, and anyone who objects to this is evil. Furthermore, citizens via taxes shall be forced to purchase drug paraphanalia for drug addicts.
Despite some inner city schools having LITERALLY 0% of students proficient in reading or math, school time should be spent on sexuality and BLM, which teaches that one race is evil and the cause of all problems.
Forced vaccination with a vaccine that was hastily tested, even when it was widely known the vaccine had no public health benefit (it is not a sterilizing vaccine, which was known by Birx at least immediately) for ALL populations, even those who had acquired immunity due to previous infection, or who were at very low chance of serious disease.
That rioting and destroying inner city neighborhoods is okay if there is racial anger.
That is is okay for the government to collude with social media and huge corporations to stifle speech and competing ideas. Speech = violence.
I don't know, but all of those ideas seem really, really radical to me.
Anti-mean-tweet voters hardest hit...
Joe Smith,
"But [Jews] vote overwhelmingly democrat (why, I will never understand)."
I don't claim to understand, and I'm no expert. Here's what I think, and I could well be wrong.
Culturally there's a deep strain of collectivism among many Jews, especially Ashkenazi Jews, who make up two thirds of American Jews: Hey, we've only survived as a small, oft-despised minority by banding together. They're going to prefer the more collectivist political party in larger numbers than the average American.
There's also the association of the GOP, at least its leadership, with country club types; with established wealth, of the sort seen (with varying degrees of unfairness) as not thrilled with Jews' arrival and success here. Not really (maybe at all) much of a factor anymore, but the memory of, shall we say, genteel 1950s style aversion to Jews – nothing cruel or murderous, mind; they're just not us – would have been universal among Boomers' parents, common among Boomers, and we find the residue in Gen X and younger.
And then there's the strong identification of the modern GOP with organized evangelical Christianity. The sense among many who describe themselves as "culturally Jewish" that believing Christians are hostile to them is one that I personally find deeply unfair. You can find examples, sure; but I for one give thanks that I live in a country founded by Christians, or anyway by men whose worldview was steeped in and shaped by Christianity even if they were freethinkers. More religious Jews seem to appreciate this, which may be why the Orthodox are less Democratic-leaning than Reform Jews.
Eh. Temujin could probably do a lot better. Herman Wouk (1915-2019) probably did do a lot better, but I've mainly stuck to his war novels.
"I waited until morning to listen to Biden's nighttime speech, and I wrote about it in the previous post before studying the text. I went out for my sunrise run and thought about what I'd heard. I'll tell you some more about that later. This post is to force myself through the text and to calmly test the emotional reaction I had listening and then remembering what I'd heard. "
Alhouse is Stanley Krim (Cretin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6vg1jnHbXs
"When I try to remember literal fires, I think of the riots in the summer of 2020. Those were political. Is Biden condemning the people of the left who set hundreds of fires in political protest?
Althouse quickly gets to the heart of the matter-what really has her perturbed is the fact that Biden and Democrats call for equality for black people.
'I don't claim to understand, and I'm no expert. Here's what I think, and I could well be wrong.'
My biggest wtf is, as a group, overwhelmingly voting for a party that wishes to either ban or strictly control guns.
You'd think a lesson would have been learned...
I am a huge supporter of Israel. At least Israeli Jews know what would happen if they were to disarm...
I was waiting for Biden to issue an edict stating that all MAGA Republicans would henceforth be required to wear a cloth patch of a little red hat on their clothing.
John Podhoretz in the NYPost, no fan of Trump, said the speech is intended to goad Trump into making the 2022 election about himself instead of Biden. That would energize Biden's base and turnoff some wishywashies. As good an explanation as any. He didn't bring up the Mar a Lago raid, but it fits with that strategy.
@JoeSmith at 3:14PM
Just listing a bunch of claims does not make them all true, (e.g., "takeover of America health care; shutting down American energy industry; promoting the genital mutilation of thousands of minor children; promoting the killing of babies up to and even after their birth; promoting riots in the Summer of 2020," to name but several which are your paranoid imaginings), and, of those that have some variously close or distant connection to reality, (e.g., "Picking winners and losers in the private sector via targeted bailouts, loans, and grants; coordinating with tech companies to censor news and information detrimental to the administration; funneling billions of dollars to a non-ally country to fight a war undeclared by Congress; opening the southern border to millions of illegal aliens, along with the smuggling of drugs that kill tens of thousands of Americans"), have been SOP for the US Government for decades and longer, and are not unique to one party or the other. It isn't a matter of the various administrations being "right" or "left;" it's about the US doing whatever it takes to amass and wield power in seeking access to or control over resources, (the customary behavior of empires).
The Reagan administration illegally sold arms to our stated enemy Iran in the 80s, violating an existing arms embargo against selling arms to Iran, in order to use the proceeds to illegally fund and arm the right-wing Contras in Nicaragua in their fight against the Sandinista government, after the Boland Amendment prohibited further funding of the Contras; Also in the 80s,the CIA was involved in trafficking in cocaine in order to use the profits to fund the Contras, and the CIA's cocaine activities are believed to have birthed the epidemic and crack cocaine addictions in the US; during George W. Bush's second term, the government bailed out the Wall Street firms whose malfeasance led to the stock market crash in 2008, which created a recession, and of the billions given to the banks to keep them from failing, millions were paid out by the banks' executives as bonuses to themselves and to other favored company executives, even while many Americans suffered grievous losses of jobs and incomes; the media has long abided by government requests to suppress information at the behest of the intelligence agencies, including during George W. Bush's term, including information about mass surveillance on US citizens and torture of suspected Muslim terrorists in Gitmo and other offshore US black sites. Our government's meddling in the business of US citizens and companies and in the governments and social movements in other countries has a long, bi-party history.
So, one might accuse Obama and Biden of bad behavior and even crimes, as I do, but that is not unique to them, and it does not make them "leftists," which they are not. Government malfeasance has been true of most of our administrations over decades and even centuries.
First of all, many thanks for this. Longer than your usual posts, and it was nice hearing someone - who is not a MAGA Trump Republican - sharply critique this awful speech. You point out nicely the incoherence and internal contradictions.
He's demonizing so many people, and I'm not sure why.
No? I think it's obvious. Dehumanize and delegitimize - arguably criminalize - the political opposition by every means necessary in order to stop them from interfering with the current regime.
At 6 pm on Friday, I went to the NYT website to check out their coverage of the speech. I can't find a single thing, just scrolling through -- presumably I could search, or click on general topic links like "American politics". But no story on the main page. WaPo does have a story about how the networks failed to cover the speech. I'm interpreting this to mean that Biden supporters didn't like the speech very much, and now hope if we ignore it, it will just go away.
"I greatly prefer normal, mainstream politics"
I miss it as well with the same nostalgia I feel for my lost youth. But it has vanished, and is unlikely to come our way again. To quote Gandolph as closely as I can. "It is up to each of us to decide what to do with the time that is given to us." You, Ann, do much more than most. I fear it will not be enough.
I made the mistake of watching the SnewsHour's completely uncritical (actually, supportive) report on the speech. Disgusting. The sole Republican was Miss Lindsey saying there will be riots if Trump is indicted.
As fun as it is to play with "installs," when I think about it, they must have meant "instills." Yet "installs" is in the White House transcript. Do they change the transcript to fit what he says, or did the people working on the speech screw up?
Mutaman: "Althouse quickly gets to the heart of the matter-what really has her perturbed is the fact that Biden and Democrats call for equality for black people."
Nothing says "equality" like burning down predominately black parts of town.
Burning down black parts of 60 cities and creating economic deserts is a small price to pay for Mutaman virtue signaling.
Drago
"Nothing says "equality" like burning down predominately black parts of town.
Burning down black parts of 60 cities and creating economic deserts is a small price to pay for Mutaman virtue signaling.
"Although the term whataboutism spread recently, Edward Lucas's 2008 Economist article states that "Soviet propagandists during the cold war were trained in a tactic that their western interlocutors nicknamed 'whataboutism'. Any criticism of the Soviet Union (Afghanistan, martial law in Poland, imprisonment of dissidents, censorship) was met with a 'What about...' "
WIKI
Blogger Mutaman said..."Althouse quickly gets to the heart of the matter-what really has her perturbed is the fact that Biden and Democrats call for equality for black people."
Perhaps Althouse's only weakness as a blogger is failure to attract a higher quality of troll.
"He's demonizing so many people, and I'm not sure why."
Because the majority is sick and tired of being ruled by an entitled, belligerent, power-hungry minority.
“How about it, Jewish voters...this your guy?”
Well, synagogue mass shooting deaths are way down but I can see how their reaction to that might confuse someone who considers graphically morbid crucifixions to be a good thing. Oh, and tiki torch-wielding goons ranting about being replaced by them aren’t marching through the streets any longer.
If only they appreciated life and democracy a little less…
And the most harm Jared Kushner can now do is write a terrible, slavishly fawning book.
Remember when AA kicked her commenters off for not coming to terms with her identification as a non-conservative?
Hahahahahaha.
Original Mike said...
"Perhaps Althouse's only weakness as a blogger is failure to attract a higher quality of troll."
In the world of the typical Althouse poster, a "troll" is anyone who doesn't subscribe to the typical Know Nothing Cracker mentality.
Wow, that’s quite a comment at 11:59. Nice company you people keep. And what desperation.
The right is just upset about finally being called out as cowardly politicians following irrational, belligerent mobs, with nothing useful to offer the country.
In any event, when you feel entitled to hold power I guess it must feel tyrannical to see anyone else to exercising it. Awwww.
Anyways, half the country isn’t MAGA Republicans. About a quarter to a third are, and less than a quarter are either cowardly conservatives going along with it or being elected to office by kowtowing to it. On the right, the belligerent lead the cowardly. And both are irrational.
Maybe that works for the right but it’s no way to lead a country. Or at least, not a country founded on the progressive enlightenment ideals as America was.
Mutaman: ""Although the term whataboutism spread recently, ..... was met with a 'What about...' "
LOL
That's right. Keep pretending the Summer of (New Soviet Democratical) Love of 2020 never happened.
Howard does it all the time.
Tick Tock
"It is up to each of us to decide what to do with the time that is given to us." You, Ann, do much more than most.
Althouse's decision was not to vote.
I think the speech does signify an intent to demonize Trump supporters. But what I can't quite bring myself to believe is that it struck a chord in any large group of Americans. Biden reminded me more of Putin calling the Ukrainians Nazis who have to be defeated and re-educated than of Mussolini. After all, Mussolini had followers who loved his speeches and his invasions whereas Putin isn't able to get Russians to volunteer for his Holy Mission in Ukraine. They're paying no attention to his speeches. The only time the Russian Army has been effective is when the tactic was firing guns from so far away that no Ukrainian guns could retaliate. The Russians aren't trying. In the Army or out, they're conscripts ducking crazed officers. Similarly, while I don't think the Dems have much sense these days, I think Average Dem is still well able to distinguish between getting on Twitter and calling names versus doing anything substantial which involves any risk to money, house or job, or even any risk of discomfort.
I think the picture of AOC pretending to be wearing handcuffs to get a picture for the nightly news sums up what Average Dem is ready to do against MAGA. And I think the Dem idea of beating MAGA by telling everyone to STFU will be a political classic on how to run a campaign - not. Another smart move is having pop-ups appear on personal Facebook pages correcting information people are posting. This is absolute proof that Big Brother is watching you through your Facebook postings. What a good idea.
So who chose to light the set and film the speech? I mean, even the BBC article praising the speech noted that: "On television, however, the mood came across a bit differently. The close focus of the camera meant the president was only framed in the dark red portions of the building. It made it look as though he were delivering his speech from the gates of hell - a mood only accentuated by the darker moments of his text..."
'Well, synagogue mass shooting deaths are way down but I can see how their reaction to that might confuse someone who considers graphically morbid crucifixions to be a good thing. Oh, and tiki torch-wielding goons ranting about being replaced by them aren’t marching through the streets any longer.'
You are rambling and incoherent...good luck.
'...and it does not make them "leftists," which they are not.'
Then you are dumber than I think you are if Obama isn't a leftist in your world.
Althouse nailed it back in 2018 with these weak "whataboutism" plays by our New Soviet Democraticals.
"Yeah, don't come after my guy while I'm going after your guy. That's whataboutism! I want you to stand down while I take all my shots. Funnily enough, that's how all these "conversations" tend to go when we're encouraged to have a conversation about some hot subject.
Yes, tell us what this is about. You call out "whatboutism" — AKA whataboutism— but I'm going to call out your "what-it's-about-ism." You don't get to restrict the subject to exactly the scope you like. When you do that, it's "what-it's-about-ism" (my coinage).
But of course, everything's different from everything else. We can talk about differences and samenesses. Don't tell me what to do."
All of this makes more sense if somewhere someone is packing a false flag in readiness for a grand October unfurling.
Mutaman said...
"When I try to remember literal fires, I think of the riots in the summer of 2020. Those were political. Is Biden condemning the people of the left who set hundreds of fires in political protest?
Althouse quickly gets to the heart of the matter-what really has her perturbed is the fact that Biden and Democrats call for equality for black people.
9/2/22, 5:02 PM
How does burning down their cities create equality for black people?? It stifles them. What a joke you people are to believe that destroying their cities is helping them. It helped the leaders of BLM.....they all got a few mansions on the donations you idiots sent to them.
“rambling and incoherent...”
So you approve then, of what Robert Bowers did at the Pittsburgh synagogue? Wasn’t he acting to stop the kind of dangerous immigration that Trump often spoke about with such caustic rhetoric?
Were the “good people” at Charlottesville not trying to “unite the right?” Does Trump not speak to their fears of being “replaced?”
Trump supporters David Duke and Tucker Carlson are proponents of the “Great Replacement” theory that most would call a conspiracy idea but some take seriously and believe that Trump addresses. Are they right or is that “theory” a conspiratorial hoax? Most who take it seriously are Trump supporters. As a Trump supporter, you should clarify what you think about that because at least as many people are motivated to marginalize and vote against him because of that, along with many other things.
“Ironically, he seems to be "predicting" violence. Who is he talking about? Why is he raving about violence? How is this helping? How is it normal and mainstream?“
So you found it as disturbing as Trump’s inauguration speech about “American carnage,” then? The one that GWB referred to as “some weird shit?”
Throughout your post you confuse his references to America with something about the government, as if that’s supposed to be a separate thing not of, by and for the people altogether. You also say it’s too religious. So while lamenting the editing of his speech you seem to take issue with constructions used in both LIncoln’s own second inauguration speech (“better angels of our nature” - NOT to secede/rebel/continue war) as well as the last few lines of the Gettysburg Address.
The same criticisms you could have projected at Lincoln. Did he also not need you as an editor, or has the right-wing come round full circle to a complete rejection of the Great Emancipator?
Wow.
Biden's décor was the equivalent of tiki torches, except that nobody associated it with Disney World or Trader Joe's.
I suspect the problem was that the lights were supposed to be red and blue (and should have been less strident and saturated). Part of Independence hall was in blue light, but the camera only took in the red. From an oblique angle you can see some of the blue, and the effect isn't so Hitlerian.
wendybar said...
" What a joke you people are to believe that destroying their cities is helping them. It helped the leaders of BLM.....they all got a few mansions on the donations you idiots sent to them."
The joke is that every time the Wendybar crowd is challendged for attacking democracy, their defense is either:
1. What about BLM?
or
2. What about Hunter Biden?
Robert Cook: you call the following paranoid ramblings. Let's check it out.
takeover of America health care: what do you thing Obamacare is?
shutting down American energy industry: Biden campaigned on this pledge, to shut down fossil fuels. They have been busy denying permits, excoriating oil execs in hearings, raising taxes on oil/gas. What do you call that?
promoting the genital mutilation of thousands of minor children: there are multiple statements from top admin officials saying "affirmative care" for trans children is necessary and proper.
promoting the killing of babies up to and even after their birth: Chuck Shumer introduced a failed bill that would have allowed abortion up to delivery.
promoting riots in the Summer of 2020: Kamala raised money for bail for Minn rioters. Dem office is who processed donations to BLM. Dem pols denied that Antifa existed.
Sure, just our paranoia
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