I should have guessed, because I've blogged about Meacham's input into Biden rhetoric a few times, but I needed this Politico article to jog my memory: "The seeds of Biden’s democracy speech sprouted long before the Mar-a-Lago search/But the actions of Trump and his supporters, along with threats of violence, sped up Biden’s need to address the nation."
"Democracy speech"? Is that what they want it called? The speech where he demonized half of American voters?
President Joe Biden’s speech warning about an assault against American democracy — by Donald Trump and his core followers — was an election-season call to arms unlike anything in modern American history.
Ugh! Warning us about our fellow citizens. Accusing us of "assault." Claiming to represent "democracy." I hope that was "unlike anything in modern American history," because it was horrible.
It also was months in the making....
So they didn't just brainstorm and jumble everything into a first draft and decide it was fine as is? Hmph. They really worked hard on it? Plied literary and editing skills and all? They meant it. Or they're bullshitting now, trying to shore up the President's reputation.
The actual writing of the speech started about three weeks ago, with Jon Meacham, the historian who has had a hand in a number of Biden’s most sweeping speeches, helping the framing....
He was one of the framers. Who knows how much he did — whether he envisioned the entire arc of the rhetoric or whether talentless hacks rifled through his "Soul of America" book for phrases to upgrade their drivel?
The Politico article goes on and on with mindless assertions like "the belief inside the White House is that the address was simply unavoidable."
There's nothing more about Meacham, so let me go back into my archive and pull out the 3 old posts where I'd discussed Meacham's contribution to Biden's rhetoric:
November 10, 2020: We learned that Meacham contributed to the writing of Biden's victory speech (and also went on MSNBC praising the speech and not disclosing that he'd worked on it). I quoted a NYT article:
In [his victory speech], Mr. Biden spoke of a mission “to rebuild the soul of America, to rebuild the backbone of this nation, the middle class, and to make America respected around the world again” and was widely credited with striking the right tone about bringing the country back together. The language echoed the title of Mr. Meacham’s 2018 book, “The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels,” which has long served as a touchstone for Mr. Biden, who has reached out to Mr. Meacham in the past to discuss passages he liked.... Mr. Biden’s reliance on a historian stands in contrast with President Trump’s lack of interest in the past....
November 11, 2020: I said Biden's victory speech, with its Meacham material reminded me of "The Grapes of Wrath," the part where Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) expresses the belief that there's just one big soul: "A fellow ain't got a soul of his own, just a little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody." My comment (ad libbed during a podcast in which I read the text of my November 10th post):
What do you think of the idea that a country has a soul?... I like to think of the idea that individual human beings have a soul, and when I hear of this composite soul of an entire country, I'm skeptical.... That's what makes me think of fascism.... especially if you're not acknowledging the soul of individual people, and so often, from the Democratic side, I get the sense that they view their opponents as being soulless... and I feel that they're also antagonistic to individualism. Everyone needs to think the same thing, and people should be cancelled if they don't all say the same thing.... I read that as a rejection of the sense that individual people have a soul, and then you come at this with the idea that America has a soul. There's just an Oversoul to America....
This idea of the nation's soul has bothered me for a long time. It purports to express what America is, but it's out of line with the American values of individualism and also freedom of religion and the separation of religion and government. It's latched onto by shallow politicians trying to sound deep. Or... I hope that's all it is. If he's serious and actually believes deeply in this deep-appearing notion, then we need to worry that he's stumbling down the road to fascism.
February 17, 2021: I quote something Biden said during a CNN town hall. He was rambling on the topic of living in the White House:
And I feel a sense of — I must tell you, a sense of history about it. Jon Meacham, who you know, and several other presidential historians helped me with my — I asked my brother, who's good at this, to set up the Oval Office for me.... And what you realize is, the most consequential thing, for me, is.... I always in the past looked at the presidency in the terms of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt and George Washington, and how can — like they're superhuman. But I had to remind myself that the really fine men that I knew well, the last seven presidents, and at least there are people who I knew well enough to know that I could play on the same team with. So, it took away the sense of, this is — my God, I'm not Abraham Lincoln. I'm not Franklin Roosevelt. How do I deal with these problems?
Meacham was just a stray, non-nutritious nugget in that word salad. All you can say is that if you ask Biden to name a historian, he'll probably say Jon Meacham.
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78 comments:
"A fellow ain't got a soul of his own, just a little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody."
Commie soul.
Sure it was a "democracy speech" and the electric cars for affluent Democrats bill is called the "Inflation Reduction Act."
"Who wrote Joe Biden's blood-red "soul of America" speech?
I think you mean hot pink.
“But I had to remind myself that the really fine men that I knew well, the last seven presidents, and at least there are people who I knew well enough to know that I could play on the same team with. “
Really fine men? On either side?
"All you can say is that if you ask Biden to name a historian, he'll probably say Jon Meacham."
The runner up would be Michael Beschloss. Back in the day, he would offer some insight that was worth listening to. That was until November 2016.
You have to wonder if Meacham was behind the cancer will be cured during Biden's tenure. That, of course, will go down the memory hole.
I would bet that all Meacham is to Biden and his people is the citation for the proposition that the country has a soul.
Is it ethical for a historian to make history on this scale? Minimally, he’d have to recuse any survey re the Biden years, possibly others. I imagine, after a time, the historian’s ego must want in on these current stories or events.
Jon Meacham, historian.
Hallmark, poetry.
Thomas Kincaid, Sistine Chapel.
---I hope that was "unlike anything in modern American history," because it was horrible. [AA]
That was just the speech. The actions are far worse and they have been going on since the FBI was recruited into the Russian hoax. The preparations for a fraudulent election. The suppression of any evidence that could damage the Democrat candidate. The execution of a fraudulent election. The censorship by social media. All the cancellations. The first purge under the use of the Jan6 events as a "threat." The break-in at Mar-a-Lago.
This speech may be setting up the next act or it may have been just part of the reveal they seem unable to live without -- like the "fortification" of the election as reported in Time a couple months later. Or, more probably, both.
But the actions have been going on for years and they are not slowing down in any way. These people are no different from the Bolsheviks. They "know" they are right, they are determined to take power, and they are showing that to us over and over. The Constitution is just an obstacle to them. They have no feeling for its value.
It is past time to worry over the actions.
From Meacham's wiki page: "In his biography of (Thomas) Jefferson, Meacham identifies qualities that would be helpful in the current political arena, "Jefferson repeatedly reached out to his enemies and showed ideological flexibility."
The United States is often referred to as a melting pot which sounds to me like a dish consumed using a spoon or straw -- it's all the same. I prefer to believe that it is a stew with bits still different and identifiable. Better yet a zesty salad with a little dressing holding it together and a crouton or two for interest.
Soul just means the narrative that the audience prefers to live in, focusing in particular on threats to it.
The audience, for all it matters, could just be following Liz and Richard's life, so long as there's no reality call on the narrative.
"Mr. Biden’s reliance on a historian stands in contrast with President Trump’s lack of interest in the past...."
Trump's rally cry was "Make America Great *Again*." If doesn't reflect an interest in the past, I'm not sure the writer understands words.
The casual he's-everything-bad not-our-kind-dear editorializing is still infuriating.
Tina Trent said...
"Jon Meacham, historian.
Hallmark, poetry.
Thomas Kincaid, Sistine Chapel."
Much said in few words.
Remember when they spent six months and a focus group to come up with "Ultra MAGA?" Was that Meacham too?
What Kai said.
What Kai said!! That sums it all up nicely.
“ to rebuild the soul of America, to rebuild the backbone of this nation, the middle class, and to make America respected around the world again”
Inflation has crushed the middle class. After the Afghanistan withdrawal, the world has little respect for the United States. Both intentional actions by Biden show what an idiot he is.
The idea that America has a soul is pure fascism. Our individual souls are not conflated with the nation’s. KJP thinks people who dissent are dangerous.
Calling out an abusive bully and his small cadre of loyal minions was long long overdue. Also, calling the civil war insurrection bluff was a reasonable and necessary warning that your next armed revolt cosplay performance art flash mob extravaganza will be appropriately dealt with by force if necessary.
It's hilarious. You people love to strut around puffing out your chest talking about your plethora of firearms and ammunition and how you will defend the death all things Trump. So a 1 millionth fraction of the population decides to invade the Capitol building in order to overthrow the election. They get busted for it and you people scream and cry and whine oh they weren't doing any harm it was just a mild protest they were just tourists on an ad hoc tour of the Capitol building.
After further talk and threats of Civil War and violent response to the very legal and appropriate investigation and prosecution of trump, once confronted with your outlandish braggadocia, you deny that you ever had those thoughts inclinations or ever talked about it and failed threats and warnings on the internet oh we're so innocent we would never do that why or why are the Democrats being so mean and forceful.
Time to shit or get off the pot, fish or cut bait, put up or shut up...
Crickets.
FWIW, Steve Hayward also suspects Meacham had a hand in Brandon's blood-red rant, since it had the laundry list of "I'm a better Democrat than ..." (though he did throw Eisenhower in the list) since Meacham has been telling Biden that he could be a President in the mold of FDR or JFK. That's catnip to a mediocrity like FJB.
Excellent. I think there is a problem here for people who believe in Heaven. Does each saved person keep her/his distinctive soul, but then there is no real disagreement or disharmony? Or does the "perfect harmony" part imply all one soul, with anything like personhood disappearing? Socrates says in Plato's Republic that justice requires each citizen feeling the same pleasure and pain, at the same time (weirdly echoed by Billy Clinton, "I feel your pain"). This brings out the potential for fanaticism in the quest for justice: not only do I not care about you as a person, but I can say you're wrong to bring up your individuality. The evangelical religions have the potential for this kind of fanaticism on a bigger scale.
Thoughtful Christians I believe teach (despite some ugly historical episodes) that the individual human soul is something precious that cannot be wished away for the sake of any group. Individuals choose sin; only individuals can save themselves from sin and its consequences. In practice this should give Christians (and I hasten to add, thoughtful readers of Plato) good reason to resist fascism, and to prefer liberal democracy with all its faults.
Do the Bidenistas actually prefer liberal democracy? That is the question you are highlighting so well. As for caring about "history," Biden babbles about Washington and Lincoln, Trump has actually said the statues are worth preserving. Great individuals are not necessarily morally worthy in every way, but they can teach us great and important lessons, in contrast to whatshisname, Meacham.
Joe said, "I asked my brother, who is good at this, to set up the Oval Office for me..." I wonder which brother....Frank? or Jim? Both of whom have traded on the Biden name to secure deals and positions. I'm surprised he didn't give the job to Hunter, "the smartest man I know".
Before Meacham, there was Schlesinger. Arthur Schlesinger wrote a two volume history, "The Age of Jackson", that won a Pulitzer. That was back in 1945. The white working class was at that time the core of the Democratic Party, and Schlesinger's book extolled Jackson's class politics and how Jackson integrated the working class into American democracy. In two volumes, Schlesinger failed to mention "The Trail of Tears".....Then Meacham. In 2009, Meacham won the Pulitzer for his bio of Jackson, "American Lion, Jackson in the White House". That book took note of Jackson's flaws and prejudices. As I remember reading it, Jackson's deficits obscured his grandeur.....Jackson certainly wasn't on the side of the Indians, Mexicans, or the Negroes, but they weren't part of the Democratic Party back then. Jackson was a founder of the Democratic Party. It is instructive to note how his prejudices are ignored by one Democratic historian in one era and then highlighted by another in the following era. Historians don't follow the American Flag, but the Democratic Party.
Bravo Howard!
Do the Bidenistas actually prefer liberal democracy?
Of COURSE they DO! They believe, that ALL people; should be REQUIRED to support Democratic ideals.
And THAT, to them; is The Definition of liberal democracy
And, of course, The Definition of Democratic ideals, is THAT WHICH FURTHERS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
'All within the Party, Nothing outside the Party, Nothing against the Party'
"Mr. Biden’s reliance on a historian stands in contrast with President Trump’s lack of interest in the past...."
Yes, Biden, student of history, Trump, busy watching Shark Week on TV. Thanks for clearing that up NYT.
I always thought the Antichrist was supposed to be vibrant and charismatic. Not this "Nazism with a whimper" bullshit.
@Howard You sound like an awful person, just seething with hatred and contempt. Maybe you want to rethink that.
I don't understand why people let that happen to themselves, over politics.
Hillary's comment about "deplorables" a few years ago was not all that bad. It was a stupid thing to say for anyone who has ever taken Marketing 101 but it was not as bad as what we have subsequently heard.
Although it appears almost "quaint" now, it lasted. People who had no interest in voting for Trump in 2016 still take it as an insult (myself included). It was an unforced error - something I have seen too people do.
If you win a football game 10-7, you have won the game. When you are still playing your first string in the 4th quarter with the score 49 - 7 in your favor, you are just an idiot. Is winning more important or crushing your opponent the real goal?
When it comes to soul I’ll take Sam and Dave over Horst Wessel any day of the week.
Who gives a fuck who wrote this stupid speech. It's pablum.
I want to know who the set designer is who thought it was a good idea to resurrect Nazi Germany and who taught Biden how to clench his fists exactly like Adolph Hitler when he was talking about gassing the MGGA Jews.
Who gives a fuck who wrote this stupid speech. It's pablum.
I want to know who the set designer is who thought it was a good idea to resurrect Nazi Germany and who taught Biden how to clench his fists exactly like Adolph Hitler when he was talking about gassing the MGGA Jews.
Inga and the Swetniks ofthe land swooned over the Nazi German Speech.
The D-hacks and the Soviet-democrats are making excuses for his Reichstag fire speech.
"...Jon Meacham, the historian who has had a hand in a number of Biden’s most sweeping speeches,..."
That's some serious fiction.
Quick! See if you can recall any single sweeping speech by this guy who has been on the public dole for over 50 years. Just one. Not just a comment, for we have numerous Joe Biden comments that rank among our favorites of putz politicians. But a 'sweeping speech'. I mean, you can't just look at a pile of shit and call it foie gras. Well, you can if you're a...wait for it...Journalist! and work for Politico, that stellar beacon of reportage, thought, and commentary.
Meacham is an embarrassment. I remember, not that many years ago, I thought guys like Meacham and Beschloss were interesting, fine historians. Then they started to appear regularly on left leaning cable news shows as 'experts' on topics. And not just history, but everything. Because you know, when you're an 'expert' on anything, you can pontificate on everything. Hell, we all do that here. We're just not on Joe & Mika hawking our latest books like Meacham or Beschloss do.
Anyway, by any objective standard, Biden's speech was horrifying- both visually and contextually. It could be the most off-putting speech in US Presidential history (too bad the 'historians' seem to have missed it), and will surely replace other bad Presidential speeches as the new standard. So I suppose in this way, Biden's speech does leave a large footprint.
And with any luck, the footprint will remain on his face for the remainder of his days.
So Howard is finally admitting that the J6 "insurrection" was a nothing-burger, but in the interest of smashing dissenters now and in the future it was important to treat it as real? It's not a good look when your authoritarian leaks out of your rhetoric.
Why this speech and why now?
Stray Voltage, perhaps. The Biden machine needs a huge distraction. Recent top stories in the news included:
- The Mar A Lago raid had back-fired on them.
- Aug.30 was the one year anniversary of the Afghanistan debacle.
- Energy prices in Europe were spiking to disastrous levels.
- Student loan relief had angered voters in battleground districts hurting Dem candidates in tight races.
- The CDC had just admitted their primary strategies against Covid had been a disaster.
- Zukabug publicly admitted Facebook was censoring political stories at the behest of the FBI.
They need to change the subject and to make people afraid. They need to make people feel the Dems are their only protection. It's their SOP, historically. This is a new low for the strategy though.
The actual writing of the speech started about three weeks ago, with Jon Meacham...helping the framing....
I wonder how Meacham feels about being tied to that speech?
Obama had Stray Voltage. Biden has Dark Malarky.
I think it was setting the conditions for a similar kind of election in 2022 as happened in 2020 and for a similar disregard of protests against unprecedented election practices.
America is a fondue because of sleazy, cheesy, lying socialist corksoakers personified by Meacham
Humperdink, 5:15:
"The runner up would be Michael Beschloss."
Beschloss is a disappointment to me. When I was a teenager I read his "Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev, and the U-2 Affair." I thought it was excellent. Then in the last few years, most of what I've heard from him has been nasty political quotes that make me think he was more interested in being fair to Khrushchev that to Donald Trump.
Dark Malarky. Heh.
Oh jfc .. CBS Sunday is now going on about Nazis and anti semitism, the Holocaust ..get it, folks? Get it get it get it?
The Dark Night of Fascism once again Descending on America means it must gonna land in Europe somewhere right?
Where now?
Howard. Bad ass with a computer. He so bad.
The seals clap.
So now Biden is so important (or so far gone), he hires speechwriters to plagiarize for him. presumably they're better at hiding it.
What creative writing from Politico. So “threats of violence” (said without offering proof in order to smear Trump supporters) led to Joe making his “democracy speech” at this time but the “democracy speech” is actually a “call to arms” for Joe’s forces. Wasn’t Joe just bragging for the umpteenth time how his F-15s are so much more powerful than our AR-15s? Yes just a few days ago.
Fuck Joe Biden.
The Biden regime is one big psy-ops run by the masters of color revolutions. The Democrats just follow and make supportive comments because a color revolution is the only way they stay in power.
There was no more telling reveal of how Biden is just following orders than his complete reversal of opinion about Republicans and Trump supporters the very next day after the speech he was told to deliver. Biden could not even remember what he said the night before, not because of his obvious mental impairments, but because he only reads the speech put in front of him and gets to add a few personal but unrelated lines.
I’m increasingly concerned about the Democrats’ repetition of “our Democracy” when democracy is not mentioned even one time in the Constitution. America is a Constitutional republic. History teaches that democracies fail because the temporary majority imposes tyranny. It seems like the color revolutionaries are portraying their side as the majority in a classic democratic play for their version of the tyranny of the majority that our Founding Fathers so much feared.
The Althouse blog is perhaps the finest example of American Free Speech that exists today.
Outstanding comments above!
Earlier on the day of Biden’s speech, I was watching a speech on YouTube by Milton Friedman. He spoke with reasoned logic, giving examples to illustrate his arguments, using humor and even self-deprecating humor. At the end, he took questions from the audience. He spoke with calm confidence. Then I watched Biden’s speech on Real Clear Politics. Biden was yelling at the audience. The difference in speaking styles was jarring.
Jon Meacham is next to Jeff Zucker as one of the men most responsible for the collapse of good media in the last 25 years.
He was the editor of Newsweek and led it from being a insightful magazine to something quite else. The biggest sign of this for me was when he pushed out their extremely good religion reporter (who really knew his stuff) Kenneth Woodward, and started taking over the sections, making pseudo-intellectual articles based on his own fluffy beliefs, which then gave him confidence to turn to history, in which he wrote very popular books not because they were good but because he said what the gatekeepers wanted to hear.
I am fairly accepting of people but the way Meacham's trash work and subpar intellect helped to degrade popular discourse in a way that's really Geraldo Rivera put into a cap and gown always makes me spit.
Woodward was doing amazing work and that was the end of an era for Newsweek when good, thoughtful reporting was replaced by self-inflating egos. I hope this speech makes Meacham as toxic as Zucker going forward.
It's hilarious. You people love to strut around puffing out your chest talking about your plethora of firearms and ammunition and how you will defend the death all things Trump.
No, we will defend our families and ourselves. You little Hitlers think you will rule without resistance. Trump did a lot of good things for the country although I did not ever watch his speeches. Biden, with no thought of his own, destroyed the good things. Buying votes gave us horrendous inflation. I am old enough to remember inflation. Volker and Reagan stopped it with 21% interest rates. With the size of the national debt now, that is not an option. You dummies have destroyed the economy. I doubt we can ever recover and now you want to start a war.
Maybe the problem is thinking that Biden isn't "an abusive bully," albeit an uncharismatic one.
Schlesinger wrote that whole Pulitzer Prize awarded biography of Jackson without once mentioning The Trail of Tears (save perhaps very obliquely in a footnote that may or may not have been in the original book). Still, as I tried to say about Wilentz on the other post, Jefferson and Jackson are a part of our history, and not an entirely disreputable part. They aren't my heroes, but they were a major part of the move towards the democracy that we claim to believe in.
With Meacham and Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, I'd always look at the meager productions that Time and Newsweek turned out to be and wonder why they thought anyone would be interested in anything they would ever say about anything.
Wait, Biden didn't write it?
I forgot, he can't even write his own name these days...
'After further talk and threats of Civil War and violent response to the very legal and appropriate investigation...'
You are a moron of the highest order.
I haven't heard a single person agitate for civil war (not capitalized btw).
If there is one, it will be started by your folks...BLM grifters and Antifa types.
Threats of violence spun by the spider for the fly. Come in to my parlor, so that I may assault, and sequester you in cold blood.
Remember Democrats have access to all the best visual and media talented 'experts' in Hollywood, advertising, social media.
"Democracy speech"?
Well, that's what the National Socialists would have called it if their guy had given it back in the day
America does not have a soul. As you say, that is creating an in-group. The collective, the Motherland, the Fatherland.
America lives in souls of men and women. Like Christianity, it lives inside the individual. That is what makes it strong
Many who carry America in their hearts have never set foot in the United States. Have not enjoyed the benefits of American citizenship. But America burns in their hearts, lives in their souls.
You want to freak out those like Meacham, point out Americans own their allegiance to the Constitution. They only have an obligation to the United States government as long as it is acting in compliance with the Constitution.
Meacham's "soul of America" is men trying to have ideas. Men don't have ideas, ideas have men. Men and women will fight for the America that lives in their soul. How many will fight for this idea of the soul of America as defined by some writer or speech?
Sanctimony how much can you tolerate.
Think of it as a test of character.
Also, Biden has used some of the exact same lines without attribution.
Poor Howie doesn't recognize a setup. 1/6 as well as Joementia's taunt with military to his back. Ironically, in front of Independence Hall.
And his sense of history ignores the big hug dems gave to nation-wide violence such a short time ago and is unimpressed by recent threats to wrong-thinking SCOTUS justices.
He's on the pot with clenched sphincter. Be careful with that heart rate, buddy. All those jabs can mess with ya at the strangest times.
Semper Fudd!
The "nation's soul" reminds me of a favorite Barry Dunham line about "that's who we are" or "that's not who we are". Said with collectivist and absolute truth certainty.
President Joe Biden’s speech warning about an assault against American democracy
Roe v Wade was an assault against democracy. Unelected and unaccountable members of SCOTUS took an issue that had been decided by elected government, and imposed their personal beliefs on the entire country.
Obergefell, Windsor, and Lawrence v Texas are assaults against democracy. Unelected and unaccountable members of SCOTUS took an issue that had been decided by elected government, and imposed their personal beliefs on the entire country.
Isn't it amazing how the people who babble about "assaults against democracy" are the ones actually doing and celebrating them?
Bruen is NOT an assault on democracy, because previous voters had put in the US Constitution "the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
Enforcing what's actually in the US Constitution is a validation of democracy. Unelected and unaccountable "judges" making law based on their own personal desires is not"
Does Meacham remember alllll the way back to 2015-16, 17 when Dems expressed concerns over election process, including voting machines? The violent protesters ta Trump's inauguration? The dropped charges?
Shhhhh.
Gotta keep 1/6 alive to distract from Dem policies driving a stake through the country.
Jon Meacham won the Pulitzer Prize for a book he did not research and may not have written. He claimed to have discovered previously unknow letters between Andrew Jackson and his niece that had been used 30 years before in a biography; he made outrageious claims about Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun that no reputable historian has ever agreed with. It was not even a history book; it was a political primer for Barack Obama which was published a week after the 2008 presidential election. All of this was obvious; when Amazon asked me to review it, I gave it one star. They left the review up for 48 hours then took it down, and you cannot find it to this day.
Jon Meacham is a fraud. His only academic crexentials are a BA from the University of South. It makes me feel ashamed that my alma mater, Vanderbilt, has given him an endowed chair on its faculty.
Biden (and Pelosi and Howard) claim there are threats of violence by conservatives. I'm sure there are some, even on this blog. HOWEVER it is always the Left that does actual violence, from the hundreds of bombings by the Weather Underground to the firebombs of Antifa. It is the current gov that is holding protesters without trial, that is arresting lawyers for groups it doesn't like (Oath Keepers, Trump, 2nd amendment groups, Project Veritas). Violating lawyer-client confidentiality. Breaking the law (fabricating reason for FISA warrants, spying on Trump Tower). No republican gov has done any of those things.
Can't decide whether to read Meacham's 2018 book or watch his 2020 documentary.
Keep running your mouth, Howard. No need to worry. It's just a bunch of people venting on a blog, right?
I mean, no need to wonder if the people who aren't talking might be up to something, right?
Insurrectionists!!
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/brett-kavanaugh-protests-washington-supreme-court-confirmation-vote-senators-a8569266.html
jvermeer51 expressed a thought about something that has always stuck in my craw and that is the Dems tendency to use the phrase "That is not who we are." My muttered response to myself upon hearing Obama saying that with such an all knowing and superior tone to his voice would be "Well, that's who I am." I don't like such generalizations about the collective.
“When it comes to soul I’ll take Sam and Dave over Horst Wessel any day of the week.”
Almost ready-made…
You didn't have to vote for me like you did
But you did, but you did
And I thank you
You didn't have to caucus like you did
But you did, but you did
And I thank you
“Can't decide whether to read Meacham's 2018 book or watch his 2020 documentary.”
Let your mom decide, it’s probably “her night”.
Wow, that really is a word salad at the end.
I too am skeptical about the soul of the nation rhetoric. Human beings have souls (a mental and emotional life particular to each person), but nations don't have souls.
The problem with Biden is he will not give an inch. He ran on the platform of saying Trump supported Neo-nazis at Charlottsville. He lied and attacked Trump as racist scum during the campaign. After the Election, he refused to give one damn inch to all of those who doubts about its legitamcy. No olive branch. No "I"m the POTUS for all Americans".
Then came J6 and he was full of hysteria "insurrectionsits" "Domestic terrorists", etc. barbed wire and 25, 000 NG troops to "protect" the White House from Trump Supporters.
What would've happened if after the Trump FBI Gestapo raid, Biden had asked Trump to White House? Or had said "Well, no doubt the AG had his reasons, but I think as an ex-POTUS, we just can't be doing this sort of thing? I've asked the AG if we can't turn down the temperature"
Instead Biden won't give one goddamn inch to the 47 percent of the America that voted for Trump. Instead doubles down on the hate and calls us domestic terrorists and fascists.
Incredible!
Per Meacham:
"history, which will surely be our judge, can also be our guide. From Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall, we're at our best when we build bridges, not walls".
Did Meacham tell Biden to build a "Bridge" to Trump and his supporters? I doubt it.
Interesting that Bush 41 chose this Leftwing historian to write what amounted to his autobigraphy. Or that Meacham, a leftwing Democrat, fell in love with Bush 41. Of course, Bush-I ended up voting for Hillary. Maybe, the Bush family are secret Democrats. it would explain a lot.
TypingTalker:
As I see it the 'melting pot' is how different metals are mixed to form a new alloy. Each contributes to making a better whole. As people, this done voluntarily.
E Pluribus Unum.
rcocean 5:47--You are absolutely right.
There is an absolutism which is both frightening and very odd.
He is apparently trying to walk back from the Ein Fuhrer speech, I guess.
But if Mar a Lago was (as they are now putting out) just some low level FBI people getting carried away, why not some statement like you suggest?
This is what makes it very hard as a conservative to say "This too shall pass." You are not allowed to shrug and think that the voters will have their say. He follows MAL, which even the RINO hacks initially were stunned by (they are weaseling their way back into the cocktail parties as I type this) with the single most politically divisive speech by a president in American History.
How is a rational person supposed to take this? (Well, I know how we are "supposed to" take this, but if one simply applies reason, it appears that the U.S. Government has openly declared war on the political opposition of the party currently in power).
It was a "democracy speech" that would work well for one of those "People's Democratic Republics" that are so well known for being great places to live.
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