Reacting to a President Who Targets His Fellow Americans
President Biden delivered a speech in Philadelphia that has Americans of all political stripes shaking their heads and pondering not only what he said, but the backdrop and setting in which the speech was delivered. Billed as The Battle for the Soul of the Nation, the President came across not as one leading the nation forward in battle—but as an angry elderly man with multiple axes to grind. It was not pretty. Lacking the charm of a Reagan or even a Barack Obama who also saw themselves as leading a nation facing a crisis but did so with humanity and even a smile—not once did Biden smile, even as he claimed to be offering hope.
As a career military officer, I was offended (as are many of my fellow service members) by the positioning of two uniformed Marines on either side of the President. Military members are forbidden to show up at political rallies or participate in partisan events in uniform. In a strange way Biden’s speech was both of those. As Commander in Chief, he can order the troops to be wherever he wants them. However, I felt sorry for the two Marines who were used this way. Think of the media fallout if President Trump had done this. Military personnel and military bands are often in attendance at White House social events and ceremonies, of which this speech was neither. That is different. Having never served in uniform, President Biden does not understand the ethos of the U.S. Armed Forces and how inappropriate this looked. I suspect that Biden was attempting to appear strong and decisive. Instead, he looked like a fascist dictator.
President Biden took the opportunity to take a divided nation and divide them further—all in the name of unity of course. It was lazy labeling and stereotyping as he lumped half of the American people into a new “basket of deplorables.” Most conservative Americans support the concept of the greatness of America and also making America great again—even those who do not support Donald Trump. The President lumped them all together and implied that virtually 70 million Americans (those who disagree with him) are a threat to democracy. The President and his team have evolved in their beliefs to hold that any party or political opponent that does not agree with them is dangerous and a threat to democracy, that only their political belief system is legitimate. In the middle of this, his caveat that not all Republicans are this way was as insulting as it was disingenuous.
President Biden gave an extremist speech in order to counter what he views as extremism. Think about that for a moment. As he claimed America is threatened by Trump-led extremism, he offered us Biden-led extremism. Do we have to settle for either one of those? Is this our only choice? We witnessed the President of the United States push Americans into their political corners. Sadly, he thinks he is so correct, so righteous, that he does not even seem to be aware of what he is actually doing. This spectacle by the President did not call upon our better angels; rather he invoked our societal demons.
It seems President Biden is woefully lacking in self-awareness and the ability to recognize irony. For example, he claimed to reject violence as a political tool. Yet he was silent as American cities burned after the death of George Floyd. He was mum as federal buildings were attacked. The case can be made that Biden’s own verbal attacks, his own words, about the Supreme Court led to violent demonstrations, local Republican Party offices being vandalized, along with pro-life crisis pregnancy centers around the nation. An assassination attempt was made on a sitting Associate Justice of the Supreme Court due in part to the vitriolic language coming from the White House and numerous political leaders. Yet, in this speech, Biden said, “American democracy only works if we choose to respect the rule of law and the institutions that were set up in the building behind me.”
Mr. President, The Supreme Court of the United States is one of those institutions.
In short, it was a painful and shameful political display that disheartened all but the most extreme citizens of our country. It was not a pro-democracy speech; it was a pro-Democrat speech. In all sincerity, I felt sorry for our President. I felt sorry for the Marines who had to stand there as stage props. Most of all, I felt sorry for all of us as Americans. We deserve better from our President and his team.