Are you an extremist? A threat to our democracy? If you voted for President Trump and supported his policy of “Making America Great Again,” according to President Biden, it seems you are.
On September 1, 2022, at Independence Hall, President Biden charged,
"Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic." "MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of the law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election."
The following Thursday, Biden added in a tweet, "Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are a threat to the very soul of this country."
On Thursday, prior to Mr. Biden’s speech, his spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre, explained the President’s view of Trump voters:
“The way that he sees it, is the MAGA Republicans are the most energized part of the Republican Party. This is an extreme threat to our democracy, to our freedom, to our rights.”
Who exactly are the Make America Great Again Republicans? In both the 2016 and 2020 elections, Mr. Trump’s platform was: “Make America Great Again!” In 2020, 74,223,369 Americans voted for Mr. Trump. Weren’t his voters, at the same time, voting for and endorsing Trump’s MAGA platform?
So, who exactly is Mr. Biden labeling as “extremists” when he charges MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution? They do not believe in the rule of the law?
Is he referring to the 74 million voters who voted for Mr. Trump? Or is he referring to the relative handful of January 6th fools who broke into the Capitol?
Note Jean-Pierre’s “explanation” of the president’s remarks “the MAGA Republicans are the most energized part of the Republican Party.” Was she talking about the Capitol rioters? If so, aren’t almost all of them at the present either in jail awaiting trial or in prison? If Mr. Biden is indeed referring only to the January 6th fools, why not explicitly say so? Why label 76 million people who voted to “Make America Great Again” as “extremists?” “Semi-fascists?”
But then, criticism of Trump’s supporters has a long history. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton used the phrase "basket of deplorables" to describe “half” of Trump’s supporters.
But Donald Trump and his supporters are not the only extremists. Mr. Biden would include the six Supreme Court Justices who voted to overrule Roe v. Wade. Following the Dobbs decision, Mr. Biden condemned the six-judge majority and their ruling, labeling it as “a realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error. … This is an extreme and dangerous path the court is now taking us on.”
And, of course, if the six justices who returned the abortion question to the states are “extremists,” it must follow that Americans who oppose all or some abortions” are also “extremists.” Jean-Pierre faithfully jumped in, and broadened the attack to include pro-lifers:
“When you are not with what majority of Americans are, then you know, that is extreme. That is an extreme way of thinking."
But if a May Gallup poll, and recent PEW poll are accurate, under Jean-Pierre's definition, it would seem the pro-abortion side is the minority, and therefore, the “extremists.”
Nor are parents who oppose school board policies spared being labeled “extremists.” Indeed, their fate is worse. The Heritage Foundation, in a commentary by John Malcolm, details how even parents of school children have been labeled “extremists” and “domestic terrorists” for opposing mask mandates and the teaching of “critical race theory.”
“In a Sept. 29 letter to President Biden, the president and the interim executive director and chief executive officer of the National School Boards Association claimed that “America’s public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat.”
Citing a spate of disturbances at school board meetings, "by individuals who were upset about mask mandates and critical race theory curricula, … and stating that such incidents were impacting the delivery of educational services to students and families,” the letter requested Biden to deploy the Justice Department, the FBI (including its national Security Branch and Counterterrorism Division), the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Secret Service (including its National Threat Assessment Center) to combat the supposed threats.
The letter stated, without providing support, that “extremist hate organizations” were showing up at school board meetings, and that these protests should be characterized as “equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes."
The letter demanded that “federal law enforcement authorities should employ the full array of tools at their disposal, including the Patriot Act, against these perpetrators of ‘domestic terrorism.’”
President Biden’s platform was that, if elected, he could heal the nation; bring Americans together again. He was a man who would work “across the aisle.” Were those just “campaign promises?” With all his name-calling, it’s as if he has forgotten that he won the 2020 election, and as if he is still running against Donald Trump? If indeed he has had a stellar two years as president, why isn’t he ballyhooing his triumphs?
First Published in the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus on October 9, 2022
Copyright 2022, John Donald O'Shea
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