Joe Biden is bringing out the greatest hits again as he gears up for the 2024 election. During a recent speech to performers on Broadway, the president warned that "democracy is at stake" if Democrats don't prevail at the ballot box and retain power.
During the speech, Biden cited "Trump and his MAGA friends," claiming they would bow down to Vladimir Putin and other dictators if put back in power. That's an odd critique coming from a guy who just paid off Iran to release hostages and who handed the nation of Afghanistan back to terrorists with his foreign policy ineptitude. But who's counting, right?
Here's a bit of what he had to say.
“Maybe Trump and his MAGA friends can bow down, but I won’t,” the president said as he pivoted to attack his predecessor, whom he said he “without question” defeated last time “because of people like you.”
“I’m running because democracy is at stake, because in 2024, democracy is on the ballot once again,” Biden said. “And let there be no question: Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans are determined to destroy American democracy. And I will always defend, protect and fight for our democracy.”
The president also returned to a theme from his 2020 campaign: That his decision to run for president was spurred by a far-right rally held in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017, which resulted in one death and dozens of injuries after a car rammed into a crowd of protesters.
There's a great irony in Biden and other Democrats constantly proclaiming that "democracy" will literally cease to exist (within our republican system) if they lose an election. Why do I say that? Because their pursuit to "save" democracy is actually the greatest threat to democracy.
The reason is simple. When politicians convince themselves that only they stand between salvation and total collapse, they can then justify anything to meet their chosen ends. Look at what's already been done. Democrats have arrested and charged their opposition party's frontrunner for the presidency. They've tried to institute more illegal orders than one can reasonably keep track of. Then there are the attempts at election and information manipulation with the changing of voting laws and the censorship of news stories. Meanwhile, they are still stumping to blow up the filibuster, and they want to "reform" and pack the Supreme Court because it hasn't ruled their way on some big cases.
Those are just a few examples, but rest assured, there are many more. There appears to be nothing Democrats won't do to win the next election. Everything is on the table, which is a common theme among authoritarians throughout history. How many dictators began as politicians who justified illegal and illiberal measures for the "good" of their respective countries?
Biden is going to keep pushing this nonsense. He's going to keep cynically using a barely-attended white supremacist rally in 2017 (that Donald Trump condemned) to push his political wants. He's going to give more speeches like the infamous "red speech" he gave in Philadelphia in 2022. The rhetoric is going to be turned up to the stop.
That's the real threat to democracy. It's not the risk of some barely-there spending cuts or a slightly more secure border, but the risk of a political leader in Joe Biden, backed by a large percentage of the country, who is willing to do anything to remain in the White House. Never trust a man not named Jesus who claims he can "heal the soul of the nation."
