Sleepwalking into a Fascist Nightmare
Republicans warn of the rise of a Christian America; Democrats want to push Biden out but can't find him because he is in bed by 8. It's like we are living in amber.
President Biden delivered a polished speech at the 75th NATO celebration, reading flawlessly from the teleprompter. However, the spontaneous, engaging conversations everyone had hoped for post-debate have yet to materialize. The only certainty is that the president’s bedtime has shifted earlier, which some might view as a positive change.
I love Joe Biden. I have long been saying he has been one of the most productive, if not transformative, presidents, if not in our history, then at least in the last 75 years. Despite all of his legislative accomplishments, which are many and all geared toward truly making America great again, Joe Biden was the first president in our history to follow the absolute worst president in our history — a president who led a mob to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
An ex-president who spent his entire time continuing to push his big lie about supposed voter fraud, which he says denied him his rightful victory in 2020. Today, More Americans believe that the election in 2020 was stolen right after the election. These Americans now believe that violence against Democrats is now a suitable policy instrument to regain the power they were denied. We are heading toward the most frightening election in our nation’s history, possibly the last democratic one. The only people found guilty of voter fraud in 2020 were Trump supporters, and some of those cultists today are warning that if Trump loses, blood will be shed.
As George Stephanopoulos said inadvertently yesterday when asked by a passerby on the street in New York City, Joe Biden is not fit to serve the next four years. But he is fit to be re-elected and then to step aside eventually to make way for Kamala Harris (in my dream world, this would be Gretchen Whitmer or Gavin Newsom). I have been looking new at Kamala, and I like the upwelling support she is getting from Democrats all over the country. However, Joe insists he is not going anywhere. Now, Biden’s campaign team seems more focused on fighting off internal party criticisms and less on communicating the president’s many accomplishments to Americans.
Many voters aren’t giving Biden credit when they do see positive benefits.
When he signed the infrastructure bill into law in 2021, Biden famously succeeded where Trump had failed. But asked who has done more to promote infrastructure improvements and job creation, nearly as many voters said Trump (37 percent) as Biden (40 percent). Twelve percent said they’ve both done about the same, and another 12 percent had no opinion.
Unsurprisingly, party identification is the key driver on this question. About three-in-four Democrats, 74 percent, said Biden has done more to promote infrastructure improvements and jobs — but an almost identical number of Republicans, 70 percent, said it’s Trump who’s done more. Among independents, roughly the same number picked Biden (34 percent) and Trump (32 percent) (Voters Doubt Their Working).
70 percent of Republicans — understandable because they are glued to Fox — think that Trump did more for the infrastructure than Biden. 32 percent of independents think Trump did more, while only 34 percent believe Biden deserved credit for the improvements. What the hell is going on that 32 percent of independents don’t realize that Biden has been getting things done while Republicans, including four years under Trump, are doing nothing but blocking legislation? They could not pass legislation when they controlled Congress and had the White House. Biden, as he says in an ad running seemingly to no avail, “got it done.”
Even before Biden took office, the right started calling his presidency failed. So when inflation began to squeeze household budgets, the right’s “predictions” were proven correct for many Foxified Americans. It is so crucial that the message about Biden’s presidency break through the right-wing propaganda. Our economy is the world’s envy, and the most significant weak spot is the debilitating debt, which has grown by $3.8 trillion thanks to Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. If Trump gets elected, the debt will grow by another $3.8 trillion as he promises to make the tax cuts permanent. This will increase interest rates and, ultimately, inflation. The wealthy will again benefit, and the middle and working classes will pay for it. Thanks to an amazingly skilled president, America is sitting pretty in many ways. But as Paul Krugman says:
Here are three true things about President Biden: He has done an excellent job as president. He has been ludicrously mistreated — his every verbal or physical stumble dissected and analyzed to a degree far beyond any scrutiny applied to the incoherent torrent of lies and vileness routinely issuing from Donald Trump. And he should step aside as his party’s nominee for president, probably in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Anyone who has been following American politics and policy has to be aware just how remarkable Biden’s achievements have been. For decades, America seemed incapable of acting to secure its future. But Biden, despite having only a razor-thin legislative majority, enacted major investments in infrastructure, advanced technology, and green energy (Please, Mr. President).
This is what Americans, at least the Democrats and independents, should be reassuring themselves about right now. Do we permit a successful president who has little to no scandal and has successfully restored so much of what was lost under Trump to have four more years so his plan can continue to work? Or do we hit the brakes on this successful plan and return to the policies that were obvious failures for most of the country and greatly weakened us internationally? Let’s not forget also the daily venom and bile that overflowed from the White House thanks to the angry and hateful lying president.
There is time left before election day, and as the polls about who was more effective at improving the infrastructure, Biden or Trump, show, Americans don’t pay much attention to the details. Nonetheless, the final two or three months are crucial when the few undecideds start to take a closer look. Today, the message for the upcoming Fall is that Biden is unwanted by his own party.
“This week is going to be absolutely critical; I think the president needs to do more,” Mr. Murphy said, arguing that Mr. Biden needed to hold a town hall and participate in unscripted events because “the clock is ticking” for him to put to rest the doubts about his candidacy raised by a disastrous debate performance. Multiple times, Mr. Murphy emphasized his deadline, saying that he, as well as voters, must see more action “this week.”
Senator Michael Bennet, the Colorado Democrat who briefly ran for president himself, said Mr. Biden had to “reassure the American people that he can run a vigorous campaign to defeat Donald Trump.”
Senator Patty Murray of Washington, a senior member of the Democratic leadership team, put out a statement that passed for fighting words, saying that the president “must do more to demonstrate that he can campaign strong enough to beat Donald Trump.”
So far, Mr. Biden has done none of that (Democrats Panicking).
These concerns are all valid, and Biden has to do better. But can he do better? If he can’t, maybe we need to switch out Harris for Biden at the top of the ticket. If he can’t, then let’s stop talking about the next four years of Biden and talk about a year or so before handing it over to his VP — maybe we need to change his VP, but I fear if he chose a white woman or man to replace Kamala, the left wing of the party would go berserk. If Biden can’t get out there and do the off-the-cuff stuff we need him to do then every Democrat with a beating heart (Barack Obama, Hillary, Bill, Michelle, Chris Christie — yes, a Republican — Dick Cheney, George Bush, and so on) has to be on the trail barnstorming America for “Biden/Harris,” for Our America versus Trump’s America.
If all of those political superstars are content just to sit by and wait for the end of our democracy, then I hope when the shit hits the fan, the killing starts with them and not us. After all, the warnings about the “killing” are already being given to us.
The Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, let loose with this recommendation at a recent campaign stop: “Some folks need killing!” Robinson hollered this in a thoroughly paranoid and overheated speech inside a church, calling “killing” a “matter of necessity!” But even here, we can see Robinson trying to construct some wiggle room for himself, by being vague about which people “need killing (Some Folks Need Killing).”
If we think they are joking, just go to a Trump rally and listen to the way his cultists speak about the possibility of a Trump defeat in November. These are not threats of violence but promises and calls to action.
This current moment reminds me of the final years in Europe before World War I was ignited by that assassination in Sarajevo. So much attention was placed on the killing of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, and many wrongly claim it was the reason the war started. It was not the reason, but it was the match that was tossed carelessly into the powder keg. Europe was marching, almost waltzing, its way into World War I for years before the bloodshed on that late June day near the Latin Bridge in Sarajevo.
The world had many opportunities to prevent a war; everyone knew it was coming, but no one did. The status quo, life in general with its many trappings, was more important than rocking the boat further. That is where we are today, it seems. The monied are meeting and reassuring each other — “Don’t worry if Trump wins, our portfolios will be okay” — but no one seems truly willing to stop this march toward fascism.
And then, when it happens, the whining will begin. “How did this happen?”
Vote blue, please!
