It’s offensive to me as a Southerner, but more importantly, it’s offensive to me as an American. It’s disheartening we have a president of these United States looking for a way to get laughs at a rally. I’m insulted that he refuses to recognize the tremendous progress made by Americans coming together to fight for the rights of every single man, woman to vote.
Senator Tim Scott on Biden’s speech
I think we all know why President Biden made his vitriolic comments on Tuesday; he wakes up to a failed presidency every day, reflects upon his defeated legislation, and chooses loathing. It’s a self-perpetuating death spiral, where sinking polls, mean comments, and failure now come fast and furious. Biden’s in political quicksand, and the sad result is an angry old man.
A Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday reported Biden’s net approval was -20. 53% of voters disapprove, 33% approve, and he stinks in four key areas; 34% approval of his economy, 35% for his foreign policy, 39% for his handling of COVID, and only 42% think he’s “trying to unite” Americans. Biden’s alienating 66% of the electorate, and he knows it.
On the face of it, the President spoke Tuesday in Georgia to tout Democrat “voting rights” bills and call for the end of the Senate filibuster, but such a speech wouldn’t be knowingly divisive. No, Biden knows the bills won’t pass, the filibuster is safe, and a shellacking awaits his party in the November midterms.
In reality, Biden’s speech was a cover-up for more of what took place in Virginia last November; losing Congress in 2022 and the presidency in 2024. By sowing seeds of doubt about the integrity of elections to come, he’s blaming the GOP of repression now to distract from his inept handling of COVID and the economy. Of course, it’s a political “hail Mary” pass, but Democrats need something.
Biden’s Georgia speech hoped to convince his 2020 voters that Republicans are evil and GOP victory means the end of democracy; thereby firing up his base (and his donors). Furthermore, there’s no short-term cost to what he’s saying. He can lie and not be impeached. He can smear and the press will yawn. He can incite and not be banned from social media.
The guardians of our democracy, anti-Trump bureaucrats and reporters, protect Joe Biden, and every Democrat knows it. Thus, Al Sharpton panned Biden for a “you’re going to hell speech” that was no “vote-getting speech,” MSNBC’s Wille Geist dissed Biden for “virtue-signaling to activists,” and Speaker Pelosi ridiculed his reference to “Bull Connor.” They know it just doesn’t matter, because Biden is safe until the GOP holds Congress.
A quick recap of the President’s words, beginning with hyperbole: “In our lives and the life of our nation, there are moments so stark they divide all that came before them from everything that followed. They stop time.” Sorry, but Georgia’s election-integrity law didn’t stop time.
Biden sees “forces in America that value power over principle; Republicans in Georgia [who] choose the wrong way, the undemocratic way [that] suppress the right to vote [and] subvert the election.” Georgia Republicans are “Jim Crow 2.0…insidious…power you see in totalitarian states, not in democracies.” The US Senate is “a shell of its former self [because] the filibuster has been weaponized and abused.” Does Biden bring out the forces of evil or what?
Biden marched into Georgia like Sherman, which is why senior White House official Cedric Richmond crowed, “We are going right to the belly of the beast, or ground zero, for voter suppression, voter subversion and obstruction” (source: Politico). Really? After Georgians elected Joe Biden and sent two Democrats to the US Senate a year ago, why go after 74% of the state’s voters that support voter-ID laws? A “vote-getting speech” was maybe a better idea.
The fact of the matter is Democrats designed the “For the People Act” and “Freedom to Vote Act” to outlaw state voter ID laws, mandate universal mail-in ballots, and legalize ballot harvesting – – nationwide! It’s not clear these laws promote “open and honest” or “free and fair” elections, but why trust the party behind Clinton’s Russia Hoax in 2016 or Marc Elias’s Grand Strategy in 2020?
Shame on them, but Democrats are now stuck with Biden, a “next election” liability. Even more so than Jimmy Carter, he’s a lightning rod for failure, not honoring his “restore dignity” to the office and “respect from our allies” pledges. Mind you, these are his failures alone: walking out on reporters, high gas prices due to his executive orders, not giving the Brits and French a heads-up on Afghanistan, and record low voter approval.
And THAT is why Joe Biden is an angry old man.