Addressing the public from what he rightly described as the “sacred ground” of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, President Joe Biden unleashed vicious and undemocratic partisanship on Thursday.
Veiled as a defense of democratic values against rising authoritarianism, Biden’s speech instead offered a divisive screed against his political opponents. This was a homage not to American exceptionalism, but rather to midterm election activists. The divisive quality of the address seems to have been its exigent purpose.
After all, Biden’s backdrop was plucked straight from the wardrobe of dystopia. Belying the defining moral virtue of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution that were adopted in the building behind him, Biden bathed that hallowed ground in a blood-red light. True, blue light shone on either side of the red, but it was cropped out by the film crews, and photographers rightly focused on Biden.
Then there were the two Marine sentries, standing post behind and on either side of the president. This was a truly shameful use of the Marine Corps, the nation’s most aggressive maneuver assault force, as a partisan tool. Indeed, it is at least as bad as former President Donald Trump’s dragging of Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on his obviously partisan June 2020 St. John’s Church walkabout. By this act, Biden presented a key element of the nation’s lethal power as a tool only of autocratic partisanship. That the commander in chief would use these Marines — very talented Marines, you do not get assigned to the White House Military Office with poor reviews — as props dishonors their patriotism, the honor of the Marine Corps, and the nation’s highest ideals. It plainly breaches the Defense Department’s prohibitory guidance on nonpartisan activities.
Absurdly, the entire stated purpose of Biden’s speech was a gallant defense of the values he so undermined on Thursday. There was little actual virtue in Biden’s speech. The president instead decried all of Trump’s supporters as representing “an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” Biden explained that only those Republicans “I’ve been able to work with” are acceptable. This linking of Trump’s most fervent political activists with the great mass of tens of millions of his supporters was neurotically divisive.
Then came the darkest line. Biden declared that pro-Trump Republicans are the new 1775 British. That is to say, mortal enemies of the people. As Biden put it, “MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. … MAGA Republicans are destroying American democracy.” Again, he’s not just talking about those members of Trump’s inner circle at Mar-a-Lago. He’s talking about Trump’s supporters across the nation. These voters, we are told, are determined to ensure there is “no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.” In contrast, the guardian of the democracy proclaimed his own policies as articles of a better patriotic confederation. The rank partisanship was obvious.
The president called on his fellow citizens to decide whether they want “a nation of hope and unity and optimism or a nation of fear, division, and of darkness.”
Indeed.
Whether Biden’s words were the product of arrogant delusion or a darker motive is unclear. But this speech shamed the president and stained Independence Hall.
