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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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We just had a sitting freaking president with a backdrop that not even Hitler would have dreamed of declare open warfare against 74 million US citizen voters and you think this is a freaking campaign messaging exercise? How GD dense can you be? Yeah that’s the response to Biden calling YOU a clear and present danger, is “look at the inflation.” Do you realize that clear and present danger has a specific meaning in the military world? Do you understand exactly what the Commander in Effing Chief just said to the Nation? But sure let’s hit that recession button. Bloody idiots the whole lot of ya.
I too am baffled about who thought this whole thing was a good idea. Somebody did. A large group of important somebodies. The divisive, hate-filled rhetoric, not just this speech, but repeated in multiple settings over multiple days, including at least one in which the President suggested that he’d be willing to use warplanes to attack citizens of the USA;. The visual setting so clearly evocative of totalitarian force, including the color, the lighting, the inclusion of the military.
I know there is a high level of ignorance among the younger people who probably had a big hand in the details of putting this together. But that visual setting has been used so much in relatively recent history and in media to illustrate totalitarianism, that it is impossible to believe that the people who put the whole thing together were unaware that it would be seen as a sign that totalitarian rule is here or on its way. I might believe that some of the people who prepared the speech and its setting are so ignorant that they truly think “MAGA Republicans” is some tiny fringe, and do not recognize the parallels the speech language brings up to past mass extermination events, but there are supposed to be adults somewhere around the White House to point that out to the ignorant.
There have been several suggestions here of sinister and evil motives. Do we really think that such evil has so thoroughly penetrated the government that they really do think evil is good and good is evil? If the objective truly was to get large numbers of Americans killed or arrested, then evil has taken over, and we have on our hands an even bigger problem than we thought.
But assuming there are still not evil people in our government, some group of them thought this speech (including its setting) would accomplish some societal good. I’m not seeing how. But maybe someone more familiar than I am with what the popular culture is saying can enlighten me.
This is a community of mostly like-minded people. If you want to be a part of it, I suggest you tone it down.
Also, your previous comments indicate you’re taking the bait. The opposite of being “clever as serpents.”
Yes, this speech is appalling and probably signals the end of the Republic. It was nice while it lasted. And the economy isn’t *everything*, I happen to agree with you. There are likely better ways to combat these true fascists in the Democrat party. Suggest some.
Here’s mine. When you talk to your Democrat-voting friends and family, ask them if they think you should be locked up for your political opinions.
Also, I wonder what Larry Arnn is thinking/planning. He and his friends are some of the smartest thinkers and strategists I know of (Michael Anton, et al).
The visuals and rhetoric are practically lab-tested to produce radicalization on both sides.
This won’t end well.
I fall back on “They know all the evil such imagery evokes. And they know we know it, too. They do it on purpose as a display of how untouchable they are, and dare us to react to it.”
Because, after all, they have tight control on the media, the military, and all the institutions in this country as well as their own gestapo. They also control the outcome of all elections. Who can challenge them?
And . . . they may be right.
Yep.
Some of us have been saying for a while that the Left is an existential threat to the country — and specifically to people who think like we do. The NTs, among others, have been unable or unwilling to acknowledge how dire the threat is.
Absolutely I believe that evil has taken over our culture and society. When you see how rabid people are about being able to kill their babies, or people calling chemical and surgical mutilation of socially infected, sexually confused kids “affirming care” — calling evil “good” and good “evil” — yes, evil is prevailing.
Fight back smart, not angry. Effective countering needs to be executed on a number of fronts: “it’s the economy stupid” can effectively co-exist with “don’t be a Fascist like Biden Democrats”. What is the theme today? Everyone is drawing the Hitler-Dork Branden comparisons. This did not come off as intended by them. They’ve befouled themselves again. So long as we don’t take the bait this ugly, nasty, evil episode is a full and complete negative for the Democrats.
Righteous anger is right. Calmly and clearly calling Biden a Fascist and articulating why is right and accurate. But cool heads need to be maintained. Fight to win, ruthlessly, not to feel better.
This episode presents a wedge opportunity to use against Democrats. Provide them with a gold path to retreat from the ugly Fascist place their leaders have brought them to. I intend to be putting the uncomfortable questions to our Dem politicians who will be campaigning for re-election this weekend here in NH. It will be fun to make them squirm and hopefully push them to denounce Dork Branden. FFB (F*** Fascist Biden). It will be really fun to engage all the “respectable” Democrat-voting suburbanites with the cold reality of their political actions. They will think they’re speaking to one of their own, and then…
Sorry to do this, but FJG
I fear that we’ll have a lot of tut-tutting about this incident and then the GOP will sweep it under the rug and let it be forgotten as a momentary embarrassment on the part of their honorable counterparts.
No, this really should be the death-knell of the Democratic Party. We should never let them forget that they went Full Nazi.
Been that way for going on ten years.
Don’t be sorry. Instead, be resolute. And never let him forget it. Let the name stand as a warning to all pundits about what happens when the acquisition of fame and money become your most hardcore principles.
There is an old saying that if a man isn’t liberal in his youth he has no heart, and if he isn’t a conservative in older years he has no brain.
It is entirely possible that Goldberg has neither after all.
Biden did an excellent job illustrating once and for all to all who have half a brain and eyes to see the danger is both clear and very present. If you ever doubted the existence of God, you must at least now be able to see Satan is very real. He always uses the same formula. There is nothing new beneath the sun. Fallen man will always have his Hitlers, Stalins, Maos, and Bidens and those who enable and worship them . Fallen man will always proclaim their sins are good and denounce good as evil. Exclaim, hate is love and love is hate. Satan mostly stays in the background, but he can’t help jumping in front of the camera from time to time yelling “It’s me!” I don’t know if Biden is smart enough to know who is pulling his strings, but I pray he comes to his senses and repents for his own sake. If we stay strong and steadfast with God, we’ll be fine. Keep your eye on the ball.
Hence my comment above. Yes let us sip our tea and munch our cucumber sandwiches and devise ways to convince the people that we only want corporate taxation decreased, oh and that inflation thing is such a nuisance. Tut tut and so forth. Because when the leader of the world’s largest terrorist organization–the US intelligence community–declares war on you, taking him at his word and meeting force with force is not preferred.
Yup. I agree with you on how propaganda works, and its purpose. They do not speak to convince, but to shut us up. They do not canonize nonsense because they believe, or want us to believe, but as a demonstration of power. The purpose of propaganda is to intimidate, not to convince. The more shocking and ridiculous, the better.
It is the bridge between words as provocation and actions. When we become suppressed by words, we will not resist actions.
Bingo!!
The question is where is the critical mass in the Republican political representatives? In the past when push came to shove the appeasers won over the fighters, because they were the majority. Also, the Appeasers had a greater number of more-competent leaders. Both have become steadily less so ever since the Tea Party. Coincident with that dynamic the fighters have become smarter, more talented, and increasingly self-disciplined. Without both of those trends in place we cannot expect Congress to take the necessary steps. I think we are at the tipping point where we can expect the dynamic to shift to where the Republicans in Congress can be come effective fighters. Importantly they will have the critical mass behind them to truly begin to address the “root causes” of the present predicament. And the internal dynamics of the party will encourage waiverers to help with the fight.
It’s never neat and tidy. It’s certainly slow. It’s often frustrating and damaging. But it is the nature of our system of government. In all cases effective leadership needs to be smart, disciplined, crafty, and ruthless. That will sometimes involve subterfuge, tactical retreats, and holding patterns.
Is it ever too late for God’s grace?
Because what’s running through my mind is “Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.“
Depraved Joe Biden is not in control. As I said above (or maybe it was another thread) sometimes I wonder if he is demon-possessed. And I don’t say that lightly.
The man is confused and incoherent, wanders around lost and shakes hands with the air. And then somehow his brain kicks in enough to make an angry, nasty, totalitarian speech calling for his followers to rise up and destroy the infidels who didn’t vote for him. And then the next day he’s wandering around confused again.
Is that when the demons or the drugs (or both) take hold of his mind?
This country is in a scary place as long as Demo(n)crats remain in power.
The right’s greatest flaw is thinking that wearing a red hat, voting for Trump, and pwning the libs on Facebook is the way to “make America great again.” Older generations, I’ve found, don’t get it. They really do believe that fixing the world’s problems is a matter of electing the right guy. No. False. It’s total war, and politics alone doesn’t cut it.
I mean, just look around at the human wreckage modernity produces. Look at the orgy of misery and nihilism. That is the evil of our time. Our civilization is literally committing suicide.
First Things recently released a video by the inestimable Carl Trueman, and in it, he talks about the multigenerational project of building cathedrals in the Middle Ages. He asks Christians to take the same attitude about rebuilding the culture. Well, that sounds great, Professor Trueman, but what happens when the next generation decides that cathedrals are bad and bulldozes the foundation you’ve spent your lifetime laying? Because that’s how things go nowadays.
But the key is how we resist actions. Fight them effectively, to win. No charges of the Light Brigade in Balaclava.
“When fascism comes to America, they’ll call it anti-fascism”.
Democrats have no guardrails.
“Old Man Yells at Cloud from Hell”
That is what puzzles me most of about this bunch – Biden is just a big a demagogue as Trump – his family is way more corrupt. His foreign policy has been a mess and economic polices even worse
These guys will never condemn Biden they way they did with Trump
I think with some of these guys (David French and Kristol), it about being “right” than policy
We shouldn’t, but the Republican party has already allowed a six month Kristallnacht during 2020 to be mostly forgotten, not to mention an ongoing Reichstag Fire since January 6th, 2021.
I realize that’s what you were saying, I just wanted to emphasize that this trajectory was already well underway, and most Republicans (as in elected or party officials) refused to acknowledge it.
Course, at worst I considered myself a ‘radical moderate’ during my youth, so I guess I have no heart, either. ;)
No it’s about serving your Leftist pay masters.
https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/29/leftist-dark-money-funds-conservatives-to-stab-trump-voters-in-the-back/
So, what do I, personally, need to do about it?
See the thing is, I am helpless. The enemy controls everything and everyone in power.
I have tried and tried to get Ricochet’s Leading Never Trumper™ to understand this.