President Joe Biden must be scared to death about his political future.
His is now coming out with a new attack against Congressional Republicans: they are worse than actual racists.
During a fundraiser on Wednesday, Biden said, “I’ve been a senator since ’72. I’ve served with real racists. I’ve served with Strom Thurmond. I’ve served with all these guys that have set terrible records on race.”
Side note, he has not been a senator since 2009. Perhaps he forgot he’s the president.
“But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys do not believe in basic democratic principles,” he added.
Biden goes off on GOP Congress at a fundraiser tonight: "I've been a senator since '72. I've served with real racists. I've served with Strom Thurmond. I've served with all these guys that have set terrible records on race. But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys do not…
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) February 22, 2024
In one sense, perhaps we should be thankful for Biden inadvertently pushing back on notion that people in history should viewed as horrible people because of beliefs they held that were abhorrent regardless of what good and honorable things they did.
By his argument, all criticism of Jefferson and Washington and the Founding Fathers should end because they upheld democratic principles. Yay!
OK, back to the matter at hand.
This writer has not been a fan of the performative, clownish, conspiratorial, nature that has dominated the House Republican majority. But come on! Are you for real? To say that Republicans, who sure say and do a lot of really dumb and embarrassing things, are worse than actual racists, who deny everyone is created equal, is so outlandish and outrageous.
Whether Biden actually believes current Republicans are worse than racists and segregationists is unclear. He tends to just say things in fundraisers when there are not a bunch of cameras and he seems to think he can say whatever, like in a 2022 fundraiser when he claimed the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” was at its highest point since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
However, his latest comments seem to reflect his view of people who oppose his policies. Recall that in 2022, he suggested those who opposed Democrats’ voting legislation would be “on the side” of Jefferson Davis or Bull Connor.
Then he claimed so-called “MAGA Republicans,” a label which seems to Biden to include even rather traditional Republicans, represent an “extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
So, according to Biden — Captain Unity and Mr. Empathy — if you oppose his policies, you threaten the country, are worse than racists, and are basically Jefferson Davis.
This is just a level of fear-mongering and intolerance that should have run its course years ago. Yet, unfortunately there probably is still a sizable portion of the country so arrogant and self-confident they think anyone who doesn’t share their views is a backward, racist person who wants to destroy the country and establish a regime similar to that of the one in “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
And there’s sadly a good chance it will work to convince Democrats, and even independents, angry about Biden’s response to Israel’s war against Hamas or concerned about his age to crawl over broken glass to vote for him and help him secure re-election.
This kind of rhetoric is only going to get worse. So get ready for another roughly eight months of this nonsense — but on steroids.