Biden's anti-MAGA speech dodged any responsibility for division, left big questions about who is in charge

"Anger." "Chaos." "Carnage." "Darkness." "Despair." "Fear." "Political violence." "Present danger." "The shadow of lies." "Dagger at the throat of our democracy."

Thursday night in Philadelphia was President Biden’s Enoch Powell moment. Like the British Member of Parliament infamously did back in 1968, he came an inch short of prophesizing "rivers of blood." Still, it was exactly what the rapidly shrinking percentage of Americans who feel Biden should run again in 2024 wanted to hear.

The speech’s content shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise to anyone. Progressives have been marching through the institutions for the past several decades in order to finally be in a position to unimpededly pump out rhetoric that portrays at least half the country as maniacal. This trajectory has been marked especially over the past decade or so. 

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In 2008, then presidential candidate Barack Obama referred to all those who refused to fully subscribe to the left’s radical agenda as "bitter" clingers "to guns or religion or antipathy." 

In 2016, then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton described the same vast cohort as a "basket of deplorables." 

Now in 2022, the Democrat in the White House sweepingly labels anyone who supported or continues to support the prior, duly elected commander in chief as "authoritarian" and "white supremacists."

By the way, is anyone else’s neck sore as well? I might hire a personal injury attorney for the whiplash I suffered. Biden bounced back and forth from paragraph to paragraph, and not just in terms of tone, but message as well. 

Part of the speech actually sounded like it could have been delivered by Donald Trump or any other patriotic person. There was some admittedly terrific, soaring rhetoric about indisputable truths (e.g., the inextinguishable "flame of liberty")—the time-tested virtues of everyday citizens and the exceptionalism of our nation, namely our intrepid experiment of self-governance. The other parts, however, were brought to you by MSNBC and ethnic and gender studies programs everywhere. I can imagine Biden’s woke, millennial speechwriters gagging on their own vomit as they punched out those patriotic words.

To be sure, there was reverence for America’s founding documents. But Biden in practice has exhibited extreme prejudice toward both the universal and particular rights enshrined in them. Scrapping the 1776 Commission, which was created to support historically accurate education, during his first full day is an act that stands in stark contrast to the words delivered steps from where the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776. 

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There was also inspiring talk of unity. "I’m an American president. Not a president of red America or blue America, but of all America." Nonetheless, that was negated by his overt loathing of red America. He additionally hailed freedom of expression, then called the behavior of protestors outside the venue—which by all means seemed peaceful—"outrageous."

"There is no place for political violence in America," Biden further stressed. "Period. None. Ever." 

Yet what about BLM? Antifa? You know, those outwardly left-wing groups that literally spent entire months inflicting countless injuries and destroying property to the tune of approximately $2 billion? 

A word of advice: If you’re criticizing people you’re also trying to persuade, you should engage in at least a bit of self-reflection, too. To that point, Biden did say he believes in "the give and take of politics." Yet he located no blame for the nation’s division on his side of the fence, whatsoever. 

All this rhetorical confusion goes to the question about the Biden administration. Who’s really controlling the levers over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? 

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Perhaps Biden is an old-school, blue-dog Democrat who still harbors some respect for the incomparable pairing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, or, as Abraham Lincoln put it, the apples of gold in pictures of silver. But his thousands of political appointees certainly do not. They’ve been brainwashed by corrupt education and debased popular culture to believe that these documents are mere pieces of parchment drenched in racism and ready to be discarded. (Sorry, recycled).

Biden insisted that the Republican Party is being "dominated," "driven," and "intimidated" by Donald Trump. Leaving aside that it’s the American people who chose and continue to back the former president, Biden is the one being "dominated," "driven," and "intimidated." 

He boomed as many words as possible without exploding his lungs in a vain attempt to feign ownership over a speech he clearly neither conceived nor wrote.

If only he were a bit younger, a bit healthier, a bit stronger, and a bit more coherent, he would be able to resist the ideological pushes and pulls of his zealous underlings, not to mention the physical pushes and pulls of his wife at public gatherings. 

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We’re living through "The Truman Show" presidency. The scores have been composed. The sets have been painted. The script has been written. The main character blithely goes about his daily business believing he is in control when in fact he has no agency. 

It’s fitting that in perhaps the least transparent presidency in modern history, we still don’t know the identity of the true creator up in the control room. 

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