Another Biden Watershed Speech-- Don't Miss The Forest For The Trees

Another Biden Watershed Speech-- Don't Miss The Forest For The Trees

President Biden is homing in on an important new political initiative, one that I've campaigned for and which is somewhat overdue. He is asking Congress to force transparency and accountability on social media platforms which are enabling white supremacist hate speech and advocating violence. 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/15/biden-united-we-stand-summit-innitiatives

His speech at the "United We Stand" summit, as summarized in "The Guardian" piece linked here is more comprehensive and far from limited to this issue, but his call will resonate. He was not specific in his condemnation, but I and many others have highlighted the role of Telegram, Gab, and more recently Kiwi Farms in inciting hate crimes and political violence, and the degree to which hard core MAGA candidates are using these platforms for this purpose. (Such as in the case of the fascist Incel Elmer Fudd from Pennsylvania Douglas Mastriano's paid campaign presence on the Nazi-friendly Gab) There is also the old standby of 8 chan, the descendent of 4chan as a platform enabling coordination and propaganda for violent Nazi extremists. They are a case study in how hate speech translates to incitement to violence. 

Also, it is important to highlight that part of Biden's speech recalling his thoughts from 2017, when Trump openly endorsed the Nazis march in Charlottesville Virginia by saying, "there are fine people on both sides," the first of several obscene statements by him embracing white supremacist violence. Biden's appearance with Susan Bro, the mother of Heather Heyer murdered by Trump supporting Nazis through vehicular homicide, was not lost on his audience.

Also significant, but very underplayed in media coverage was Biden's revisiting his decision to run for President as then being motivated by the hatred he saw on display that day at the Charlottesville march, and Trump's praise for the Nazi murderers there. I wrote about this in particular at some length two  years ago.

The reason I focused on it was that then candidate Biden had come under massive attack by extremists among progressives, who identified as "Never Biden" activists. Their arguments were that he was no different than Trump, a privileged member of the white male "gerontocracy," a centrist who enabled fascist Republicans in the Senate, who was too old and could not relate to the issues affecting young voters, such as climate, guns, and student debt.  Frankly, their arguments were rooted in "ageism" and immature anti-establishment populism. 

While some were sincere in their opposition, others were of the view that allowing Trump to get re-elected would actually be good, because it would force people to confront America's conflicted legacy of racism, sexism, genocide against the indigenous peoples and climate denialism. They also argued that Biden the "centrist" was actually more dangerous, because he could more easily "sell" the policies of capitalism which would continue more of the same than Trump could, who was thought to be too repulsive to Democrats and Republican moderates. (similar to the 1930's German communists who argued that the Social Democrats were "red fascists" and therefore more dangerous than Hitler) They also bashed VP running mate Kamala Harris as a "Cop," who they claimed was a contributor to the policy of mass incarceration, due to her history as State Attorney General in California.  

Their purpose was to suppress the Democratic vote by encouraging voter cynicism, in the hope that the damage Trump would do in a second term would strengthen their growing movement to "burn it all down."  And as has been known, far-left anti-Biden progressives were being played heavily by Russian Trolls associated with the Internet Research Agency in a disinformation effort to divide Democrats and re-elect Trump. This was a compliment to Russia playing their assets in the Alt-Right MAGAsphere, to maximize the division and chaos leading up to the 2020 election.  If there is any doubt that this line of attack was prevalent back in 2019-2020, I have a large archive of links to articles from such folks I'd be happy to share, as I was on this story like "white on rice." 

My point then was that if Trump kept power, it would certainly be the last free US election, and that Biden-Harris was the only viable combination which could defeat Trump. I defended the choice of Harris, and I also defended Biden as having the decades of experience in governing which was needed, in particular his understanding of the dangerous shift underway in Russia behind Putin's revanchism and "religious conversion" and what that entailed. I highlighted his previous statements regarding his decision to run being motivated by his horror at Charlottesville, and why that made him uniquely qualified. Also very important was that through his reactions and statements in response to the murder of George Floyd, he showed himself to be a human being with a deep wellspring of empathy. And finally, Biden's identification with and depth of knowledge about FDR's New Deal was critical in my assessment that those progressives attacking him were harpies and idiots who had no idea what they were doing. Maybe, just maybe, some of them are finally getting it, and can see what babies they were two years ago. 

So, now we have a President who is evolving as I hoped, and is many things, including emphatically now, "Antifa." Let Tucker Carlson hear those words and watch the vein on his forehead pop.  We now have the Antifa President that the nation needs, and those who are reading his recent speeches should take note, he is just now beginning to warm up. This is why Trump is in effect threatening Biden's life with his rhetoric on a daily basis. And because he is fighting in a new and more effective way, he is driving our MAGA adversary and their spokespeople crazy. The Joe Biden we are hearing now is the one I knew was always there, even though at times I was frustrated with how long it took to emerge. That's why I fought the extremist/left progressives who were consciously or not, helping Trump toward a second term. 

So, when I read reports of Biden coming out swinging again, like in this latest speech, I feel a special satisfaction. Keep on swinging Joe, they are on the ropes.