The Runback: "I Want Everybody to Remember Why They Need Us!"
Biden's Thursday speech gave off a vibe that did not help their cause
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Shameless Plugs
My latest for The Baltimore Banner: If you are on the ballot and running for Governor, you belong on the stage.
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The Monday Thought
The only graphic novel I have ever read was V for Vendetta, the 1980’s Alan Moore and David Lloyd. The graphic novel was a critique of Thatcher-era British politics, with the protagonist fighting against a post-apocalyptic fascist British government in an effort to bring forth a style of anarchism.
A movie was made in 2005 by the Wachowski Brothers1 that was based somewhat on the book and was much a pastiche of the Bush 43-era as it was about anarchism or libertarianism.
Norsefire, the ruling party in the story, makes extensive use of red and black in their displays of fascist imagery when propping up their government.
Toward the end of the movie, High Chancellor Adam Sutler tells his leadership team the following.
“…what we need right now is a clear message to the people of this country. This message must be read in every newspaper, heard on every radio, seen on every television. This message must resound throughout the entire InterLink! I want this country to realize that we stand on the edge of oblivion! I want every man, woman, and child to understand how close we are to chaos! I WANT EVERYONE TO REMEMBER WHY THEY NEED US!”
So imagine my surprise when President Joe Biden, in his “speech to the nation” decided to roll with this imagery.
In a speech warning about the dangers of extremism and fascism, the Biden Administration decided to go with dark, fascist imagery. Completely with uniformed Marines in the shot.
That is not to say that parts of Biden’s speech weren’t 100 percent accurate, either. From Biden’s prepared remarks:
And here, in my view, is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people.
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.
Nobody being honest with themselves can disagree with that assessment. Unfortunately, Biden in the next second decides to spit this out:
MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards — backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.
Biden lumping in every pro-life American with the MAGA movement is an absurdity beyond the pale. When you consider that Biden is still ostensibly a Catholic, he just basically said that every faithful Catholic is part of the MAGA forces trying to take this country backward. Back before our nation allowed almost 70 million unborn children to be legally killed. The absurdity becomes even more obvious when later in the speech Biden said:
The soul of America is defined by the sacred proposition that all are created equal in the image of God.
A proposition Biden agrees with unless you are an unborn child.
But I have to come back to the imagery. Is Trumpism in its current form a danger to the Republic? Yes. Are too many politicians willfully dismissive of elections unless they are declared the winners? Yes. Are too many Trump supporters ready to cosplay their way into a Civil War? Yes. Is Donald Trump egging them all on with his Lucy-holding-the-football proclamation of pardons for the January 6th dopes? Yes.
But when you decide that you are going to put yourself in front of this type of imagery. When you try to fight demagoguery through demagoguery. When you fight divisive politics by being divisive, then what was the point of it all?
Trump of course did Trump things:
The only people convinced that Biden’s speech was a success were people already supporting Biden and the Democrats. That’s it.
If the President is serious about trying to fight against demagoguery in defense of the Republic, this ain’t it. I know that Biden is a fifty-year career politician at this point. I know that his entire life has been in public service to the Democratic Party. But if the argument that Biden and company want to make is “Our country can only be protected from the evils of tyranny” is by making a political speech that shares imagery with a tyrannical soul, it means that the Democratic argument is no better than the MAGA one. It’s as if this message of the speech was less about protecting the Republic as much as it was "I Want Everybody to Remember Why They Need Us.”
Before they decided to be the Wachowski Sisters.
Somebody has to try to be an adult in the room. That is the role that Joe Biden is playing. He is right to call out the maga republicans. The world will not turn on a single “Mr McCarthy, have you no shame, sir” incident like it did in the 1950’s.
Somebody has to try to be an adult in the room. That is the role that Joe Biden is playing. He is right to call out the maga republicans. The world will not turn on a single “Mr McCarthy, have you no shame, sir” incident like it did in the 1950’s.