“We all know who Donald Trump is,” Biden declared in an address that repeatedly referred to George Washington, who rallied American Revolutionary troops nearby. “The question we have to answer is: Who are we?”
Jujitsu is defined as using the strength of an adversary against him. If Trump’s ability to dominate American political conversation has made it impossible for Biden to keep his promise of a more civil and peaceful politics, the president intends to make clear where the blame lies for the country’s distemper.
And if Trump’s radicalization of the Republican Party made Biden’s pledges of bipartisanship seem rooted in hollow dreams of yesteryear, the incumbent will argue that it is the likely GOP nominee who is forcing the country to choose between “solidarity and division,” between “possibilities” and “carnage.”
But the president’s focus on democracy cannot be separated from the choices and potential crises a divided government in Washington confronts in the coming weeks.
There was good news Sunday that House and Senate leaders had struck a bipartisan agreement on overall 2024 government spending levels. But the deal — which is likely to face resistance from the GOP’s most extreme members — does not settle the battle over aid to Ukraine in its struggle against Russian aggression. House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.) and the Republican right are demanding draconian immigration policies as the price for bolstering Ukraine.
In the workaday world of Congress, Senate Republicans and Democrats have been trying to secure a compromise on immigration that would open the way for a bipartisan agreement to get assistance for Ukraine through.
Such an accord is necessary to get the votes required. But a conversation centered on democracy’s future at home and abroad has the potential to shift the debate’s spotlight back to where it belongs: Away from migrant issues that have paralyzed Congress for two decades and toward the “sacred cause” of democracy that Biden lifted up on Friday.
The question needs to be called: If House Republicans kill assistance to Ukraine, they will hand a large victory to Vladimir Putin and disrupt the alliance of democracies that so far has helped Ukraine keep Russian troops at bay. “We’ve got a Putin wing of the Republican Party that is eroding support for Ukraine and democracy,” said Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.) in an interview. Will the Putin wing be allowed to win? Does Johnson want such a “victory” to be his first major achievement as speaker?
Biden plans to follow Friday’s speech with another on Monday in Charleston, S.C., at the Mother Emanuel AME Church, where nine of its faithful were murdered by a white supremacist in 2015.
As a matter of politics, Biden’s visit will remind many Black voters that the president is their ally in the battle against racist fanaticism. But the speech will also underscore two other aspects of his argument that might be easy to overlook, given the ferocity of his attacks on Trump.
Biden’s case is against not only the man himself, but also an extremism that Trump has cultivated and helped to thrive in the Republican Party. Biden, in his Pennsylvania speech, thus spoke about book bans and noted how remarkable it was for a candidate even to have to mention the issue. He denounced the power of “politics, fear [and] money” and those who “abandoned the truth and abandoned our democracy.”
Extremism was a potent issue that divided Republicans in the past, especially in the early 1960s with the rise of the John Birch Society, the Minutemen and other right-wing groups. It poses a challenge to Republicans now, especially in suburban, middle-class enclaves.
A senior Biden adviser who briefed journalists before the president’s speech noted that “political violence is on display in a way that really unsettles the country.” Encouraging an extremism of deed as well as word is part of Trump’s political legacy. Calling it out will be central to the next 10 months. “When there’s an extremist threat in the country,” the aide said, “you have to name it, you have to say what it is.” Naming the violence that is part of its repertoire is key to this task.
For Biden, democracy is now the foundation of his campaign. He needs to make it a centerpiece of the arguments that will roil Washington in the coming weeks.
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