You know this already. The 2024 presidential campaign is in full swing.
It’s not fully defined yet. Many twists and turns and candidates await. But the most interesting aspect may be the brazen gaslighting with which the Biden campaign and White House reaches new zeniths almost daily, unchallenged by the sycophants in the White House press corps (more like corpses).
We saw evidence of that with his basement-produced two-minute video. I do not recall any Presidential campaign announcement made with a short video—no audiences, speech, cheering throngs, or media cameras capturing the attention.
Even the newest GOP entry, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, provided that much. You’d be forgiven for not noticing since the press largely failed to cover it outside the Northwest Arkansas Times. For the record, I have met and greatly respect the charisma-challenged and dedicated public servant: another acquaintance, US Sen. Tim Scott, a very good man, will likely be next.
Let’s parse the President’s video. It won’t take long.
Personal freedom is fundamental to who we are as Americans. There’s nothing more important, nothing more sacred.
Okay, good start, but I wonder what President means by “personal freedom?” We’re about to find out.
That’s been the work of my first term; to fight for our democracy. This shouldn’t be a red or blue issue.
Change of subject, from “personal freedom,” still undefined, to that magic, obviously-well-poll-tested word, '“democracy.” As for the “red or blue” issue, it actually is. Some people on Team Blue are working overtime to undemocratically silence and censor the voices of many of Team Red. The Twitter Files have exposed a massive censorship industrial complex involving the axis of government agencies and media, especially social media, targeted at unapproved speech.
But the lies didn’t stop there. Take a look at these whoppers, all delivered within about 40 seconds, a land-speed record of misinformation and outright lies.
To protect our rights, to make sure that everyone in this country is treated equally and that everyone is given a fair shot at making it.
I don’t think gun owners feel their rights are being respected under the Second Amendment, as Biden pushes for so-called “assault weapons” bans (e.g., scary-looking guns). I don’t think crime victims feel their rights to justice are being respected in places like Philadelphia, St. Louis, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, all with Democratic non-prosecutors. And I don’t think the rights of immigrants who came to America legally, waited their turn, and followed the rules feel their rights are being respected, as over 6.2 million illegals have flooded across our southern border since Joe Biden took office.
As for a “fair shot,” I don’t think police and law enforcement feel like they’re getting a “fair shot” or parents whose public schools aren’t telling about their children’s gender confusion. At least the kind of shot that isn’t aimed at police under our “revolving door” criminal justice system.
But here comes a staccato of whoppers, spraying like bullets from an A-10 Warthog’s 30mm Gatling-style cannon on a search and destroy mission.
But you know, around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms, cutting social security that you’ve paid for your entire life, while cutting taxes from the very wealthy, dictating what healthcare decisions women can make, banning books and telling people who they can love all while making it more difficult for you to be able to vote.
Let’s be clear. No one has called for “cutting” an increasingly bankrupt Social Security system. Biden is clumsily employing Barack Obama’s oft-used Strawman Fallacy, stating an argument no one is making and then knocking it down. Talk about malarky. Sadly, Donald Trump sadly uses the same silly and disqualifying tactic against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Taxes have been cut for everyone for 40 years, except during the Clinton and Obama-Biden Administrations, when they were raised; nearly 40 percent of middle- and lower-income Americans pay nearly nothing in federal taxes. The Obama-Biden Administration is more responsible than anyone for “dictating what healthcare decisions women can make,” with no reference to the lives of unborn children. Calling abortion, except to save the mother's life, as “healthcare” is an insidious lie.
As for banning books, the only people doing that in earnest are The Left, who are feverishly removing books and movies - especially Disney - that might share the history and cultural perspectives from a time gone by. Good luck finding any network willing to air “Song of the South” or the 1930s classic, “Gone With the Wind,” a fictionalized account of the Civil War centered around a southern plantation (trigger word!) that some assert romanticized the Confederacy and unfairly depicted the Union Army. No, you must only watch approved and sanitized versions of America’s history, as depicted by the widely discredited 1619 Project or any historical hit job offered by Howard Zinn.
Therefore you must be denied the opportunity to watch it and decide for yourself.
What was that about democracy?
Even the Harper Lee classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” has sometimes been pulled at the insistence of people who believe some of the depictions are inappropriate for today’s younger children, including language and the absurd notion that it institutionalized racism. And that’s not all.
Biden is talking about his apparent support for keeping inappropriate, sexualized material in classrooms and libraries of elementary schools, not unlike his sniffing and inappropriate touching of young children and women. This debate goes back to JD Salinger’s “Catcher in Rye” and William Golding’s “Lord of Flies” from my youth in the last century. Those seem tame and polite compared to much of the “literature” being festooned in many schools that clearly push a cultural agenda many Christian and Muslim parents find offensive.
As for the “more difficult to vote” canard, what he means is more difficult to cheat.
As for “MAGA extremists,” this is your reminder that “MAGA” means Make America Great Again. Sounds good to me, especially after listening to Joe Biden and experiencing the result of his horrendous policies over the past two years, from 40-year inflation highs to 13 dead Marines in Afghanistan.
He also referred to the Democrat’s top legislative priority in the last Congress (117th) HR 1, the “For the People” Act, which would unconstitutionally impose a national voting system sans voter ID and a loosey-goosey voter registration and voting process that would make Joseph Stalin blush. Components of the bill don’t test well with voters, so I’m surprised he mentioned it, but for low-information Democrats, it’s the soundbite that matters. Again, it’s another big lie.
The gaslighting will continue until you believe it.
Sadly, we’re not done with Biden’s short video announcement, but I actually agree with his ending. Just not the way he intended.
Every generation of Americans will face the moment when they have to defend democracy. Stand up for our personal freedom. Stand up for the right to vote and our civil rights. And this is our moment.
Indeed.
We are at that moment. Our democracy is under attack from the censorship industrial complex and a media that is suffocating our individual freedom and liberty with a pillow until we stop breathing. Standing up for the right to vote that is legally cast is an American birthright. And our civil rights - all of them, including all our Constitutional amendments - are hard-fought, won, and under attack.
If only the Biden Administration were as hard on Russia and especially China as they are on American bedrock principles. Instead, they’re obviously on the take.
Take your pillow. Apply it to the face of the Biden campaign. Until it stops breathing.
Our next post will outline the announcement speech Biden should have given that might actually help re-elect him. I hope his campaign team ignores it.