On repeated occasions, Joe Biden has intentionally used incendiary language to oppose legislative measures that deter cheating on elections. He has similarly used inflammatory phrases in response to those urging him to address the growing crisis on the Southern border.
“The 21st-century Jim Crow assault is real … We’re facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War—that’s not hyperbole.” The president has also stated that America is “backsliding into the days of Jim Crow.”
None of the measures Biden used this language for is, in any manner, discriminatory or racist. Requiring proper identification to vote, and mandating that a clear chain of custody and transparent vote counting is common sense and common decency. Securing a border against illegal entry is a fundamental responsibility of the national government.
That reality has not stopped the White House from making its bizarre and dangerous comments.
In addition, Biden has employed deliberately insulting phrases to characterize his political opponents, calling them Neanderthals, racists and similar phrases.
While statutes exist establishing penalties for “inciting to riot,” (example: “Code of the District of Columbia § 22–1322. Rioting or inciting to riot. Whoever willfully incites or urges other persons to engage in a riot shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than 180 days or a fine of not more than the amount set forth in § 22-3571.01, or both”) the protections of the First Amendment limit the application of the concept. That’s fortunate for Democrats in general and Biden in particular.
Writing in the New York Times in 2018, Gerard Alexander, a professor of political science at the University of Virginia, noted: “Liberals often don’t realize how provocative or inflammatory they can be. In exercising their power, they regularly not only persuade and attract but also annoy and repel … Racist is pretty much the most damning label that can be slapped on anyone in America today … Yet some people have cavalierly leveled the charge against huge numbers of Americans.”
Why has Biden, who campaigned on a pledge to unite the nation, adopted such harsh rhetoric?
Today’s Democrat Party is dominated by its hard-left wing, which is banking on extreme claims to distract the public from its growing failures in deterring crime, restoring the economy, and establishing a foreign policy that addresses Chinese and Russian aggression.
Clearly, Democrat Progressives seek to dramatically alter the United States, but lack the public mandate to do so. They must find support by creating the impression that the nation is racist, economically unbalanced and generally unfair.
However, the public, at school board meetings and other forums, is expressing resentment over Progressive allegations about America being inherently racist. Further, leftist emphasis on woke issues, (which pronoun to use socialism, defunding the police and military, canceling of contrary views, etc.) are not finding receptive ears with voters.
The Democrats’ woes are getting worse. Foreign affairs, which had been on the backburner of political debate, are moving steadily to the forefront. The Wuhan-originated pandemic substantiated Trump’s claim that China was a malevolent presence, a reality made even more obvious by Beijing’s establishment of concentration camps to oppress religious and ethnic minorities within its borders. The dramatic arms buildup by both Russia and China has been all but ignored by Biden and his party.
Recently, the Cuban peoples’ quest for personal freedom, and the startling failure of key Democrats to sympathize with them, has exposed the Progressives’ affinity for both communist policies and authoritarianism in general.
Rather than engage in a long delayed and urgently required period of self-examination about their policy failures and growing distance from the general public, Democrats, lead by Biden, are doubling down on inflammatory comments and outrageous charges about their opponents. Inevitably, this will both further divide the nation and lead to an electoral debacle for the Left in the next election.
