Biden His Time

A few, brief takeaways from President Biden’s address to the nation about the threat to the country by extreme MAGA Republicans.

To be clear, I don’t think the speech will make a huge difference in the election (though it will be interesting to see if it impacts his approval at all).  Most Republicans will be outraged by it, most Democrats will applaud it.  But the issue is not that – it’s if two or three points of the electorate in the middle are taken by it.  And even just that small amount can turn a close election into a safe, comfortable victory.

The first reaction I had is that it took me by surprise how blunt President Biden was about specifically singling out Trump by name.  For the past year-and-a-half, he’s avoided that, generally referring to him as “the former president,” or the “former, defeated president,” or “the former guy.”  But he was relentless in calling Trump “Trump” and criticizing him in detail.

Second, it’s notable that he again called out Lindsey Graham (R-SC), once one of his best friends in the Senate (if not his best friend).  Again, he didn’t use Graham’s name (unlike with Trump), but if you even just partially follow the news, you know that it was Lindsey Graham who referenced violence if Trump was indicted, without condemning it.

But third, and most important above all, what stood out for me more than anything, and I think might stand out the most for many others, as well, is oddly something that wasn’t even written in the speech.  It was the heckler.  It stood out not just because people generally do not like when the President of the United States is heckled, whoever that president is (even if you disagree with his politics) – but even far more for how Joe Biden handled it.  Not only from the grace of him saying that that’s what democracy is, go ahead, but the unmentioned connection to Trump that we’ve all seen, telling his crowds to beat hecklers up.  There was Joe Biden, President of the United, being heckled, handling it openly and with welcoming grace.  Saying that this is what democracy is, and that the heckler was entitled to be outrageous.  That image alone might stand out more than perhaps anything else specifically said that people would remember in the speech.

As I wrote a week ago, I like that President Biden does his best to differentiate between “mainstream Republicans” and “MAGA Republicans.”  And he went further here in being accommodating to the GOP than in his “semi-fascist” speech.  A phrase I don't even recall him using here.  Mind you, I think there is less difference between today’s mainstream Republicans and the fascist MAGA Republicans than Joe Biden is presenting.  These others may not be fascist or “as fascist,” but they’re knowingly enabling the fascism.  However, for all I know, Joe Biden feels the same.  Or not.  Regardless, I think it’s smart because it allows Republicans who consider themselves fair-minded patriots (whether that “consideration” is justified or not…) to be more open to Biden’s words and not immediately be defensive. And Biden, in going further last night in being accommodating, gave them more wiggle room.

In the end, whatever the impact of the speech, it was a speech that needed to be made.  And now it’s on the record.