Biden's Observation

Editor-in-chief of online magazine The Federalist, Mollie Hemingway (seen below) unsurprisingly calls President Joe Biden's speech Thursday evening "easily the most disgraceful speech from a President in recent decades."

“This speech is easily the most disgraceful speech from a President in recent decades.” pic.twitter.com/JaaDFvz4Jk

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 2, 2022

That is a mere subjective judgement, albeit an extraordinarily bad one. She also claimed the President was "issuing a call to arms against every single American who didn't vote for him." That is a lie. This, however, is spot-on, valid even beyond Filipkowski's perception:

Normally, on Fox, Newsmax and OAN every day I watch hosts and guests call Democrats marxists who hate America, steal elections, recruit kids for sex trafficking, and want to impose a communist dictatorship. Today, I’m watching them call Biden divisive.

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) September 2, 2022

Hemingway is accusing of divisiveness the President who stated

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.

She disregards "I've been able to work with these mainstream Republicans" because "not even the majority of Republicans" embraces the extreme ideology.

Also. "These are hard things, but I’m an American president, not a president of red America or blue America, but of all America." It was an awkward rephrasing of Obama's famous line from the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which was 18 years ago, when it was a reasonable aspiration. Obama, with the realism borne of growing up bi-racial, probably realized it was simply great rhetoric, designed to bring the roof down and boost a run for the Presidential nomination four years hence.

By all indications, and by contrast, Biden really believes there is no red America and blue America, but one America punctuated by a minority of extremists wanting to defy the Constitution and overthrow the government.  That was his point of identifying and isolating MAGA Republicans. They're not all Republicans, not even most Republicans, but a rogue few (or at least our President believes so).

That is why Filipkowski's tweet captures the essence of the speech from President 46. It's also why Biden's was a good and necessary speech, yet fell short of being a great speech, an explanation awaiting a later post.

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