As the midterms approach, Joe Biden is accelerating his trademark attacks against Republicans-at-large and Trump voters in particular.  In his demented state, perceptions of conservatism as conventional political thought and ultra-MAGA as extremism are becoming increasingly indistinguishable.

For almost two years we have watched Biden make deliberate policy moves that advance socialist causes.  He has acted out of hatred towards his predecessor and the probable threat of his return to the ballot, then widening the net to include the ill-defined ultra-MAGA, then more generally to the Trump base, and now denounces anyone who votes Republican as semi-fascist. 

Last week, Biden was the toast of progressive Philadelphia, a poster city for his administration’s destructive policies.  He cut the figure of an angry old demagogue, weighed down by his unpopularity but still a useful vassal for the Obama acolytes tugging harder and harder on the strings to keep him on his feet.  Pomp was provided by the President’s Own Marine Band, and he was carefully escorted to and from the podium by his wife, who has added memory care to the duties of a White House hostess. 

The teleprompter gave him the words, but the emphasis he placed upon them resonated as more personal and with an edge that might inspire those who would seek to do harm to others because of their political views.  His vitriol and body language were the stuff of a Third World tyrant, insulting to both the Founders who made famous the cradle of democracy before which he stood, and the West Wing Marine sentries standing behind him, backlit in hellish red that evoked a darker image of authoritarianism.

Biden steered clear of his so-called legislative and policy achievements that have diminished family income, corrupted the education of our children, flooded the country with drugs and aliens, and shortened life expectancy.  There was no denunciation of the wave of more than five hundred riots cheered on by the vice president during Antifa’s Summer of Love, wherein downtown small businesses suffered billions in property damage and looting, two thousand police officers were injured, and twenty-five demonstrators and bystanders lost their lives.  He did not condemn the dozens of bombings of family pregnancy centers or the attempted assassination of a Supreme Court justice after numerous Democrat bigwigs, instigated by the Senate majority leader, gave a wink and a nod to violence in the aftermath of the Roe v. Wade decision.  Instead, the essence of the Philadelphia speech fell upon Biden’s political opponents, whose existence he views as an existential threat to democracy.

Biden is now hopelessly cornered by his own incompetence and unpopularity.  No occupant of the Oval Office has gone as far as to publicly stigmatize such a large voting bloc over their right to choose their political leadership.  The impact of his words will not be forgiving to members of his party struggling in tight down-ballot races.  If the Democrats achieve any midterm victories, it will be in the absence of a White House endorsement of their candidacies.

Biden’s Philadelphia rant has cemented his legacy as the Great Divider, someone who finds comfort in coddling foreign adversaries, inflicting hardship on his own people, and encouraging his followers to turn on their fellow citizens.  The policies of his administration are brick and mortar upon this foundation.  

No political party has been gifted such a target-rich opportunity before a critical election as the Democrats have offered the Republicans.  Their corruption is conspicuous in words and actions.  The Biden administration has put a heavy thumb on the scales of justice and Americans are frustrated that get out of jail free cards have already been handed out to Hunter Biden, Hillary Clinton, and the corrupt FBI agents who used a fabricated Russian dossier to con the FISA court and abuse their snooping powers. 

Drawing off the most divisive speech ever given by an American president, there is no greater opportunity for the GOP leadership to turn up the volume on these wrongdoings, Beltway Democrats and media pundits, taking a cue from Biden’s speech, will continue to descend upon Republican voters, but this tact is resonating poorly with most apart from the readers of Vanity Fair and the Atlantic. 

In a prebuttal to Biden’s Philadelphia speech, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, speaking on Scranton Joe’s home turf, castigated Biden for fanning the flames of political hatred and took the high road in focusing on the issues of import to all Americans -- economy, crime, and inflation.  Unfortunately, Mitch McConnell has not uttered a word from the Upper Chamber, a slap at Donald Trump from a party leader who derided the quality of his own Senate candidates and has all but turned the expectation of a majority victory into a coin flip. 

Biden’s nonstop attacks on Republicans are exacerbated by the raid on Mar-a-Lago, exposing an Achilles Heel that the Biden administration will go to extremes to destroy a future presidential nominee and his party.  It also foreshadows a strategy by the DoJ to follow through with an indictment highlighted by the public humiliation of a perp walk.  It beggars belief that the White House and the chief executive, even given his debilities, was so out of touch with subordinates in the Justice Department that he might learn of such a momentous event while leafing through the Washington Post over a bowl of Special K. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre, in one of her more harebrained explanations, suffered the press corps for fools by saying as much.

With the latest generic congressional polls showing an almost even split between Republicans and Democrats, the battle for the soul of a nation will once again hang on the independents and undecideds.  With forty percent of the electorate seated in the Democrat column, a base willing to withstand any personal and family inconvenience or deprivation to keep their party in power, there is little wiggle room for Republicans to rest on the strength of their convictions. The intensity of the barrage upon Trump and his supporters are tilting some independents to the Left, but will soon boomerang with most Americans who need Republican solutions for kitchen-table issues.

Biden has shown a willingness to govern way beyond his presidential authorities and to abuse constitutional limitations on his power, a dangerous tendency that should keep state governors on high alert.  Congressional attempts to federalize state elections have failed and state election reforms have alerted the populace to fraud and abuse, now leaving Democrats few other options but to broad brush Republicans as holding beliefs antithetical to democracy.  That is Biden’s battle cry for the soul of our nation.  The Republican leadership can win the day by dominating the public discourse and promising a better life for all Americans.    

Image: Petri Damstén