Dark Biden Speech on Democracy

How bloody was it?

I watched it so you don’t have to. (But you might want to. It’s not long. Here’s C-SPAN’s link. For a transcript, go to the Whitehouse site.)

First, the setting. You’ve probably heard that Biden’s team went hardcore “Dark Brandon.” Ominous blood-red lights, grim-looking storm troopers behind him, a call to crush Republicans like sniveling worms under Biden’s gleaming jackboots. Only it wasn’t really.

Yes, I’ve seen the pictures.

But that’s all camera angles. Scroll back to my much tamer C-SPAN shot. And if you pull the camera farther back you realize the whole theme was red, white, and blue America, not Dark Brandon. Patriotism!

People made a fuss about the two marines right behind Biden, but their closeness is a camera depth of field illusion. They were actually a long way back, standing at respectful attention, flanking the doors where Biden walked in. I don’t think people concerned about using our military as a backdrop are completely wrong but it seems an overreaction to a mild display of pomp at a site central to American identity.

(If you still don’t know what Dark Brandon is all about, here’s a quick explainer.)

What about the speech itself? It was fine but flawed.

The central message was that certain people in today’s America are a threat to our Democracy.

Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.

Biden tried to make it clear that when he attacked “MAGA Republicans” he was not attacking all Republicans.

Now, I want to be very clear, very clear up front. Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. I know, because I’ve been able to work with these mainstream Republicans.

But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country.

Two questions naturally follow: Did Biden successfully differentiate “MAGA Republicans” from “mainstream Republicans” and is America’s democracy truly threatened?

On the first question, meh. It’s a hard thing to do, rhetorically separating millions of people who voted for Trump because they wanted to, well, make America great (who doesn’t want that?) from those who have built an unhealthy cult around Trump the populist demagogue. Maybe “Trump Republicans” would have been better? As it is, many Republicans were offended—at least on Twitter—claiming that Biden was really attacking all 74 million Trump voters.

Now are Trump and his hardcore supporters truly a threat to our democracy?

MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election, and they’re working right now as I speak in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.

This all seems basically accurate to me. I could quibble about how much of a threat Trump and his cronies were and are (and sometimes I do) but Trump and his enablers refused to concede the election (Trump still hasn’t) and they worked from November 2020 to January 6, 2021, to stop the peaceful transfer of power. If you think pressuring Pence to not certify the election isn’t undermining democracy, we have a very different view on what happened on January 6 (and in the two months leading up to that day). I know there are many who still don’t accept this but if you do (and I do) Biden’s argument rings mostly true.

But then he had to tarnish his case by immediately pivoting to politics.

MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards, backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love. They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fanned the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.

The second part of this paragraph is fine, but the beginning is pure partisan politics. I support full abortion rights and same-sex marriage but I’m a liberal Democrat. Many patriotic Americans who believe in democracy and the rule of law feel differently. If what you’re trying to do is tell Republicans “I’m only talking about people who stand in the way of elections,” you shouldn’t bring up Democratic talking points. There should have been a laser-tight focus on election integrity and democracy.

Biden’s speech was strongest when he focused on issues surrounding January 6.

They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, brutally attacking law enforcement, not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger at the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots. And they see their MAGA failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election as preparation for the 2022 and 2024 elections.

Sound overdone? Look at this bodycam image of convicted rioter Thomas Webster trying to gouge out the eyes of police officer Noah Rathbun.

Trump has suggested he would pardon such men. “If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly. We will treat them fairly. And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.” And more recently, “It’s a disgrace what they’ve done to them. What they’ve done to these people is disgraceful.” More than 350 rioters have pleaded guilty and at least 115 have been imprisoned.

Did the speech work?

If you don’t think Trump was doing anything wrong, my words, and Biden’s speech, won’t make you believe otherwise. For those on the fence, the ones who see Trump’s behavior on January 6 and earlier as bad but aren’t quite sure it’s a threat to democracy, was Biden convincing? I’m inclined to say, “no.” The distracting mention of Democratic Party positions, while a small part of the speech, didn’t help. Biden also should have laid out more specific charges, the pressure on Pence, the shenanigans with Georgia electors. He needed to make a stronger case than he did. Not for me, I’m convinced, but for those in the middle.

There’s also the reality in the back of my mind (and not mine alone) that there’s a lot of politics going on here. Democratic Party-affiliated organizations have spent tens of millions backing MAGA Republican candidates in 2022 primaries. Their goal is politically reasonable—they want extremist candidates to win because they think those people will be easier to defeat in November—but it undercuts the message that we must unite to stop an existential threat to democracy. It smells an awful lot like standard issue political hypocrisy.

Biden’s speech wasn’t helped by Father Time. He’s coming up on his 80th birthday and it shows. His walk to and from the podium was stiff, a bit careful. His delivery was fine, with a few minor stumbles, but lacked the energy a younger man would have brought to the moment. He’s not senile, I’m not in that camp, but we age at different rates and I wish Biden had 80-year-old Bernie Sanders’ ornery energy.

And this part should have gotten more play:

Empathy that fuels democracy. The willingness to see each other not as enemies but as fellow Americans.

Empathy, absolutely, but that’s a two-way street. Biden could have tossed critics of the Democratic Party a small bone and said that empathy applied to both sides (yes I went there). Absolutely, the lion’s share of undercutting democratic norms has been from Team Trump, but Democrats cannot demonize Republican citizens simply because they pulled a lever for Trump. That is not empathy. If Biden had rebuked that kind of behavior it might have provided some balm for Trump voters who are feeling buyer’s remorse.

I did like his response to hecklers, whose distant cries you could hear during the speech.

Look, our democracy isn’t perfect. It always has been. Notwithstanding those folks you hear on the other side there. They’re entitled to be outrageous. This is a democracy.

This is telling. For those claiming that Biden’s speech is the beginning of a new American dictatorship (yes, people are saying that), the fact that this alleged dictator had to tolerate boisterous critics while he talked is a testament to America’s practice of democratic norms.

Late in the speech, Biden also offered a dose of optimism that was counter to far-left caviling:

The idea that America guarantees that everyone be treated with dignity. It gives hate no safe harbor. It installs in everyone the belief that no matter where you start in life, there’s nothing you can’t achieve. That’s who we are. That’s what we stand for. That’s what we believe.

The idea that an American can start anywhere and achieve anything is the classic Horatio Alger¹ trope that runs counter to the idea fashionable in some parts of today's left that America is dominated by systemic oppression. When I hear folks say Biden has been captured by the far left, I wonder if they’re listening to the same guy.

So, for the tl;dr skip-to-the-end crowd, it was fine, but probably didn’t get the job done. The backdrop imagery wasn’t as 7th Circle of Hell meets Leni Riefenstahl’s Nuremberg 1934 as some photos have shown. Biden’s words were serious but also held a dose of optimism. He shouldn’t have brought up partisan Democratic talking points but he was right to say that Trump’s attacks on the peaceful transfer of power are unacceptable in a democracy. The speech won’t, however, convince anyone who wasn’t already on board. Unfortunately. In the end, it felt underwhelming. Twitter was all aflutter, but that’s what Twitter does. When the history books are written, this moment might rate a short footnote.

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1. “Horatio Alger Jr. was an American author who wrote young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through good works.”