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Biden Warns That MAGA Republicans Pose ‘Clear and Present Danger’ to Nation
It was fitting for Joe Biden to deliver Thursday night’s Independence Hall speech at a venue lit by gas lights. Backed by a blood-red background and two military men shrouded in darkness, the president condemned half the nation as insurrectionists who pose a “clear and present danger” to the United States.
The language was deliberate as it was divisive. “Clear and present danger” is a legal doctrine created by the Woodrow Wilson-era Supreme Court to curtail the free speech of Americans. At the time, an antiwar activist was jailed for advocating draft resistance during World War I. In Schenck v. United States (1919), Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., wrote for the majority:
The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that the United States Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree. When a nation is at war, many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right.
Thereafter, courts employed the “clear and present danger test” to limit citizens’ First Amendment rights. That is, until Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) replaced it to address only “imminent lawless action.”
Notably, Biden resurrected this extinct phrase to attack his political enemies just as the authoritarian Wilson used it to attack his detractors. He floated a legal pretext to silence Republicans heading into the midterm elections. The administration has already directed tech companies to ban dissenting voices on social media, so such a move would be in character. Not to mention using the FBI to raid Trump’s home and the DoJ to harass Trump’s legal team.
The speech, titled “Soul of the Nation,” was an attempt to reframe the November elections as a battle between the virtuous bearers of light (like himself) and the sinister, Ultra MAGA semi-fascists. His serial message-switching between good-vs.-evil rhetoric and bipartisan unity was jarring.
“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic,” Biden said, adding they “are determined to take this country backward … promote authoritarian leaders and fan the flames of political violence.”
“For a long time, we’ve reassured ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed. But it is not,” Biden said between coughs. “We have to defend it. Protect it. Stand up for it. Each and every one of us.”
Having dropped back to a 38 percent approval rating, the president and his allies are obviously sweating the election looming two months away. Joe “he’s gonna put y’all back in chains” Biden has thus reverted to form, spreading hatred and division in the name of “preserving democracy.”
But a one-party state isn’t democracy. It’s an oligarchy at best and authoritarianism at worst.
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I think it was “y’all,” not “you,” but yeah, same old jerk.
FJB and the Never Trumpers he rode in on.
Fixed!
He has always been a drooling moron. He has always been quick to be a thug. Now he’s all that and senescent and president.
He seems kinda Hitlery.
And Gina Carano was right.
Every time I think I can’t possibly dislike him anymore, he does something so inexplicably stupid and harmful that I find new depths. Abraham Lincoln had plenty of cause to demonize the enemy, but at least in the speeches I’ve read, he took great pains not to. Even now, the DNC focus groups are hard at work to give him his next talking points. If there is a brain in that large cranium, I’ve yet to see any evidence of it.
Let’s go John Gill!
I begin to suspect this guy might not be the moderate centrist national healer we were promised.
So are the communist totalitarians that are in control of the Democrat party.
Maybe we should Impeach. Remove. Bar from Office.
And in case you were morbidly curious, Jonah is on Team Palpatine.
What was even the point of this speech? Why did he call for a prime time address? What occasioned this?
Can anyone tell me?
Replace every use of “MAGA” with “Jews” and it all becomes crystal clear.
Oh, that’s good! I’ve not seen that insult until now, but it’s perfect!
But no mean tweets!
Don’t read the replies. A guy I follow retweeted a photoshop of a topless Jonah holding a book, Goodbye Testicles.
No, I think he’s had mean tweets, too.
But we don’t even have that now. The administration bragged that they hired a young girl to run their social media and being the snark.
I think it is the fascist totalitarians that are in control of the Democratic party. Fascism was, and maybe still is, a thing with elements and characteristics that the Democratic party exhibits. For instance, government direction of private companies. Like telling Facebook and Twitter what to censor.
To be granted prime time network access a speech is supposed to not be political. Of course Biden lied and it was a campaign speech. Will the networks be upset and chastise the administration? Ha.
Nice to know that they will be coming for us to kill us because we are a clear and present danger.
But seriously? What was the point? Incitement? An attempt to provoke violence to give them an excuse to start rounding up and executing conservatives? (You know, like the FBI and the capitol police provoked the demonstrators outside the capitol on January 6th?)
Why did he do this? What was the purpose, except to further divide the country and incite his followers to kill a few Republicans. Maybe some SCOTUS judges. Maybe some Republican candidates. Maybe some sitting House Members, like they’ve been SWATting MTG this week. Maybe wind up another James Hodgkinson to take care of a few Congressmen.
For who? Satan?
I was a reluctant Trump supporter. Turns out, his enemies and my enemies overlap quite a bit on the old Venn diagram. They’re pushing me so far into his corner my arms have folded behind my back and may, in fact, be broken.
I still hope Trump doesn’t run, but if he’s the nominee, I’m on the team.
The evil mediocrity in the White House has to be defeated. There is no justification for supporting this mental midget…uh, LITTLE PERSON.
Probably.
Never Trump thinks this is OK.
Nothing Biden does is too much.
Never Trump are all traitors to the conservative cause, and to America.
Edit: Let me clarify:
Support by anyone for Biden after this show they are not a conservative, but a supporter of tyrants and deserve to be called as such.
Anyone.
Seems that way.
Now would be time for Nordlinger to compare this to a beer hall speech instead of Trump’s inauguration speech. Once again Biden is the embodiment of what they feared Trump would be.
What they claimed they feared Trump would be. Their total acceptance of Biden shows they were nothing but liars.
Nordlinger, Goldberg, Krystol, Podhoretz, Williamson, : Liars. All Liars. Total black hearts that only want to cling to their power.