With his party’s political prospects fading fast ahead of next week’s midterm elections, President Biden delivered what sounded like a closing pitch to voters Wednesday night in Washington D.C.’s Union Station, declaring that Americans are morally obligated to vote for Democrats to save “our democracy.”
The bizarre speech overlooked the issue that matters most to voters: the economy. According to Biden, what really matters is that “dark forces” in the Republican party imperil “the very soul of America itself.”
Biden makes desperate closing pitch
As is typical, Biden’s comments were riddled with platitudes, veiled threats, and contradictions. Even as he demonized a large part of the nation, Biden urged Americans to stop seeing each other as “entrenched enemies.”
He introduced the speech with a reference to the recent attack on Paul Pelosi, which he tied to January 6th, making clear his object from the jump: to paint Republicans as violent, illegitimate extremists.
Biden proceeded to belabor tired talking points about Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” and “our democracy,” using the word “democracy” 37 times during his 20 minutes of remarks.
“But there’s something else at stake; democracy itself,” he raved.
“Our Democracy”
There were notable omissions in Biden’s rant. Nowhere did he mention that he questioned the legitimacy of the midterms earlier this year, nor did he acknowledge that his party rejected Donald Trump’s 2016 victory and subsequently smeared Trump as a Russian spy.
Nor did he note the many times Democrats have encouraged or downplayed political violence, including massive riots in 2020 they called “mostly peaceful.”
Biden instead warned that “election deniers” are on the ballot this year and asserted, “You can’t love your country only when you win.”
An unsettling warning
Even as he went on and on about democracy, Biden appeared to coach listeners to lower their expectations of next week’s elections, pre-emptively declaring that the results probably won’t be available on time. According to Biden, “that’s how this is supposed to work.”
“It takes time to count all legitimate ballots in a legal and orderly manner. It’s always been important for citizens in democracy to be informed and engaged. Now it’s important for citizens to be patient as well. That’s how this is supposed to work,” he said.
Most polls indicate that Biden’s party is facing a crushing rebuke next week. But Biden’s message to voters thinking about dumping the Democrats is that they will somehow usher in the death of “democracy” by voting. It’s hard to imagine a more desperate or absurd closing argument than that.