Last week, Joe Biden gave a speech. Nothing new right? After all, he is the president. He has spoken about climate change, electric vehicles, and student loans so what is so special about this one? Simple, this speech was a declaration of war on the enemies of democracy. These enemies are in the shadows and are working to put America into the hands of a dictator. One Donald J Trump. Yes, this brazen speech was directed at Trump. This speech has been hailed and condemned by the liberal and conservative media sites respectively. What exactly made this speech so explosive? In today's edition of D&D, we will be breaking down Biden's "stark warning of the future", the true purpose of the speech, and the impact that it has had on America.
Before we get into the actual speech, it would be prudent to analyze the background first. We have the President of the United States standing in the American Independence Hall in Philadelphia something which he emphasizes very often. The room is dark with blood-red light in the background. He is flanked by 2 US Marines blurred into the background standing menacingly. Biden's face is contorted into one of rage. All in all, this looks like a dictator's rally. He looks like an enemy of democracy himself. The reason I bring this up is that everything about a president is scrutinized particularly the way that he manages his image. There are few people who will have watched his speech in its entirety. What probably will happen and has happened is that snippets of his speech (the sensational and controversial portions of course) will be published in the news cycle followed by an image of him. Hence, the need for clarity. People will misunderstand any good intentions that he might have had. From a cursory glance right now, it just looks like he is about to announce himself as the next king of earth and is about to declare war on other nations . Look as much as I hate to admit it, appearances do matter, and the media team really should have paid more attention to the way it would be perceived. The President of the US is one of the most powerful men in the world, every action that he does will have an impact and it is a shame that he has finished almost half his term and he still has not learned it.
Biden's Achievements
Now, putting the imagery aside, let's shift our attention to the actual speech, particularly the portion where he talks about the great feats that he achieved. His first achievement is the economic recovery package that he claims made "America’s economy faster, stronger than any other advanced nation in the world." This statement is factually untrue. Firstly, America is not the fastest growing economy in the world. According to CNN, while America had an economic growth of 5.7% in 2021, there were more than 50 other countries like India, China, and the UK that had greater growths. As to the idea that it was thanks to him, America has the strongest economy in the world, and America already was number one even before he passed his boondoggle. He also claimed that he made the most significant federal gun reform safety since President Clinton. This statement holds true because it includes money for school safety, mental health, state crisis intervention programs, and incentives for states to include juvenile records in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which would provide a more comprehensive background check for those between the ages of 18 and 21 who want to buy guns. These are all feats that the republicans never acceded to in the past so his actions here are commendable.
On top of that, he claims that he has made the most significant healthcare reform since ObamaCare.This claim is also true but upon further inspection is revealed to be meaningless and just meant to make him sound good. Why? Firstly, Obama was president till 2017. We are in 2022. It has barely been 5 years. The only person Biden is competing is with Trump. So yes, while his statement is technically true, this achievement is not really a big deal and is more about him trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. His final achievement was passing the biggest infrastructure investment since President Dwight D Eisenhour. This boondoggle is meant to will grow the economy, enhance their competitiveness, create good jobs, and make their economy more sustainable, and resilient. However, the Penn Wharton Budget Model, explains that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s $548 billion in new spending would have no discernible effect on economic output at the end of the day. (Basically, while the bill would have a positive impact on Public Investment, the increase in government debt would mitigate it resulting in a tiny net effect.).
In other words, of all the significant and ground-breaking legislation that Biden has claimed to have passed, only the federal gun safety piece lives up to its name. The rest of it is some form of half-truth as demonstrated above. But this sort of behavior is not surprising politicians tell half-truths all the time. (unfortunately). So yes, this part of the speech is just the usual misinformation spiel to prop up his campaign, the real problem is the next part.
The Enemy of Democracy.
Donald J. Trump. He and his MAGA allies are working together as an underground cabal to plunge America into a dictatorship and because of that America must band together before it is too late and the country plunges into the dark ages. At least, that is the snake oil that Biden is trying to sell. In truth, the real enemy is Biden himself. Now, the good thing about Trump is that for all of his nonsense, we know him to be untrustworthy and unreliable but we also know him to be out of office. Even if he was a problem, he was a problem of the past. The reason Biden is dredging him out now is to exploit all the hate and resentment towards Trump and channel it towards the Republican Party so that they will be hated as well. That's the thing, once you recognize that Biden is merely attempting to play and exploit your emotions you will see through his doubletalk because emotional outrage is the main substance of his speech.
Now I know what you are thinking, Biden has already qualified himself. He stated that the majority of republicans are good. (although I do not understand why you would follow his standard of good). He has qualified that the MAGA republicans are only a minority. Now, this might seem like a fair statement but Biden immediately adds that "today's republican party is run by the extremist force" essentially equating the two together. By conflating the two together, he is muddying the water. The only litmus test he offers as to who is a good republican and who is an extremist republican is those he has "worked with in the past to pass legislation." In other words, anyone who disagrees with him is an extremist Republican. So recognize that for the rest of the speech, the enemies of democracy he is referring to are everyone who disagrees with his policies or his beliefs.
For starters, right at the beginning, he lists tragedies like " Civil War, Suffrage, Great Depression and WWII" and he ends the list with "Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans"
During the Civil War and WWII, millions of lives were lost in battle while in Great Depression and Suffrage, even more, suffered. He is trying to equate all that pain with Trump and the Republican party.No matter how much you hate Trump, there is no way he is on the same level as those catastrophes above. On top of that, he further asserts that Trump and his Maga allies are working to strip Americans of their "right to choose, to privacy, to contraception and to marry who you love". This has to be broken down to be better understood.
The right to choose is a complicated issue but only the most extreme of republicans believe that Abortions should never be allowed. The right to privacy is another issue that has only been brought up by extremist right-wingers. As for the right to contraception and the right to marry who you love, the Republicans were not trying to strip the rights, they merely did not want it to be codified into federal law. This has less to do with their conservative nature and more to do with their fear of government overreach. Republicans at the core like the idea of states being able to make their own decisions which is why right now there is no republican state that has banned or is working to ban single-sex marriage or contraception. Recognize that what Joe Biden just did was to overgeneralize the controversial issues of today just to get you to hate on the Republican Party even more.
So right now, you have the current president of the United States essentially calling those who oppose his view extremists and using his platform to build up hate and resentment towards them. But the speech gets worse. He starts to incite violence. Sure there are built-in qualifiers for his speech like how he adds that " And this is a nation that rejects violence as a political tool."," We do not encourage violence. There is no place for political violence in America, period, none, ever." or "We can’t allow violence to be normalized in this country." All this sounds like he is trying to damp down the situation but this is deeply contrasted by statements like these "They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fanned the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights" or " it’s in our hands, yours and mine, to stop the assault on American democracy" and even ". to confront extremists who put their own pursuit of power above all else." While I am sure that Biden has no interest to stir any actual political violence and that all this was just done to re-energize his base for the coming elections, one cannot overlook how confrontational this message is. He has just described the opposing party as a threat to personal rights and as people who are looking to end democracy in other words as a national security threat. Is that really something that can be taken lightly? What do you do with an extremist force? You take them out.
So why? Why would exactly would Joe Biden do this? What was the impact that he was trying to achieve? Simple, he was trying to bait out Trump. As highlighted earlier, Trump is resented and hated and so is anyone who supports him or even associates with him by extension. Trump had gone into the woodwork slowly after he had lost. the elections. The main reason why Biden even won was that the person he was competing with was Trump. Hence, right now, Biden's poll numbers are low and the only way to bolster them is to bring his old nemesis back into the game. Once Trump was out and about spouting nonsense and moronic rhetoric, Biden would poll better because people would immediately veer away from the republican party on instinct even those who are pro-republican because of their resentment of trump.
Naturally, Trump took the bait and hosted his own rally where he ranted and raved denouncing Biden. Key quotes "The danger to democracy comes from the radical left, not from the right.” or that Biden will feel "backlash the likes of which nobody has ever seen.” or Someone should explain to Joe Biden, slowly but passionately, that MAGA means, as powerfully as mere words can get, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! If he doesn’t want to Make America Great Again, which through words, action, and thought, he doesn’t, then he certainly should not be representing the United States of America!" or "If you look at the words and meaning of the awkward and angry Biden speech tonight, he threatened America, including with the possible use of military force. He must be insane, or suffering from late-stage dementia!", these are the rants that everybody loves about Trump. The garbage that makes for sensational news. After all, who wants to talk about boring and dry policy issues when we can all rip on how stupid and terrible trump is?
Honestly, Biden's speech just reminded me of what a terrible leader he is. Politics aside if you were going to be a president of a country. You should not be the one spreading misinformation and worse you should not be spreading rhetoric. It does not matter to me who wins or loses the election. But what angers me and outrages me is the fact that Biden is playing with real feelings that belong to real people with real problems. And rather than trying to solve these problems, he tries to divert the attention away from his incompetence. they trusted Biden to unite them, and at the end of the day, he is just spewing more divisions. Look if your policies are bad that is one thing but to actively try and manipulate the people under you just win? That is just disgusting.
Do you want to know who are the enemies of democracy? It is not just Biden. It is not just Trump. It is every political leader who forgot that their main duty was to serve the people who put them in power and instead try to cling to their power no matter what it takes. It almost makes Biden worse than trump because at least we knew that Trump was a wolf but Biden is a wolf in sheep's clothing and I can only hope he realizes that he is playing with fire by exploiting people's feelings. He is certainly raising the temperature. Global Warming or not, things are about to get heated in America.
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