In the new year, Biden already has made headway in blowing away the right-wing canard that he is enfeebled and out to lunch. The president’s strength and decisiveness in support of U.S. interests stand in stark contrast with Trump, who cozied up to dictators, undermined NATO and allegedly purloined national security secrets at the end of his presidency.
In the foreign policy realm, Biden answered the Houthis’ Red Sea attacks with military strikes. Decisive action and tough rhetoric undercut the claim that he is feeble. “The operation, short and limited to military targets, and in a nation that cannot control the piratical acts of an unwelcome group, falls well within the legal as well as the traditional requirements for the use of force by members of the international community,” military expert Tom Nichols wrote for the Atlantic. “So far, both American political parties, even with a bit of GOP grumbling, have made the right call to support action against the Houthis.” It didn’t hurt Biden that hysterical voices on his left flank made constitutionally unsupportable demands that he seek permission from Congress before acting.
Also, expect to see Biden’s whirlwind visits to war zones in Israel and Ukraine featured in more campaign ads and speeches. “Twice now President Joe Biden made the decision to visit active war zones not under U.S. military command,” professor and journalist Steven Beschloss wrote on Substack. “These trips, to Kyiv in February and to Tel Aviv … are without precedent in modern American history.” Beschloss added that voters can appreciate the “vigor and guts — and principle — it took to meet American allies in person to demonstrate American support, despite genuine danger.”
Punchy speeches with sharp barbs aimed at Trump also show the sort of instinct for the jugular rarely seen during Biden’s first three years in office. Delighting in calling Trump a loser, Biden no longer hides his contempt for his likely November opponent. During his speech last week at Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, S.C., Biden declared, “Let me say what others cannot: We must reject political violence in America. Always, not sometimes. Always. It’s never appropriate.” He added about Trump, “Losers are taught to concede when they lose. And he’s a loser.”
The Biden campaign has also embraced the “Brandon” meme, transforming an obscene chant into a winking affirmation of Biden’s strength. As Axios reported, “‘Dark Brandon’ — an online meme that portrays the 80-year-old president as a two-steps-ahead Machiavelli — is driving the Biden campaign’s merchandise sales.”
Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign now openly mocks Trump for “confused,” rambling utterances. And when late-night comics pick up the refrain, news outlets and voters alike begin to look for more instances of unhinged, incoherent tirades.
Collectively, the predominant “narrative” might shift to match reality. Biden is old but sharp; Trump is out of shape and out to lunch.
Distinguished person of the week
GOP caucus-goers in Iowa demonstrated on Monday what many have long known: Most Republicans want to empower a would-be authoritarian. They want someone to pop off about “blood purity.” They want a champion of white Christian nationalism. They want a bully, a liar and a narcissist in office because he somehow makes them feel better or connected to something powerful. The history books are replete with countries whose people leaped at a tyrant’s invitation to unleash their worst impulses.
Biden correctly explained that you cannot love both Trump and American democracy. Because millions have chosen and will choose the former, the future of our constitutional system rests with everyone else — those terrified by the former president’s dictatorial impulses, repulsed by his racism and frightened by the chaos he will inflict if elected again. It’s those voters whom Democrats must energize, not with anger and hate but with righteous indignation and appeals to patriotism and decency.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) is among Biden’s best surrogates, as he recently showed on the Senate floor. Seizing on Trump’s claim to absolute immunity, Schatz explained, “What does that mean as a practical matter? It means that the president could commit any crime up to and including ordering the United States military to murder a political rival, and there would be no way to hold him accountable as long as 34 United States senators stood ready to vote to acquit.”
Schatz also pointed out that during Trump’s second impeachment, his lawyers claimed criminal prosecution was the proper remedy. Now, they claim impeachment is required to deal with presidential crimes. “So what they are really saying is ‘our guy gets to commit crimes.’”
The senator implored Americans regardless of ideology to think through what this means: “Donald J. Trump was president and does not believe in American-style democracy. He believes that when, when and if he becomes president again, that he will exact revenge, that he will be a dictator from day one, and that if he is held accountable for his crimes, there will be bedlam. Now, does that sound like a rhetorical flourish? Sure does, doesn’t it? Except that I’m quoting him.”
That powerful message must be repeated. If Biden wants help to carry it home, Schatz would be among his best choices.
Some nonfiction works so exhaustively cover a topic that they become the subject’s definitive text, such as Robert A. Caro’s series on Lyndon B. Johnson and Taylor Branch’s trilogy on the civil rights movement. They cover the immediate subject but also provide unusual insight into whole decades of U.S. history, telling us much about what defines America.
Beverly Gage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century” certainly joins the pantheon of definitive works on American history. Gage probes some of his most jaw-dropping contradictions. The man whose fraternity was a bastion of Lost Cause reverence and who carried out the infamous Palmer Raids and counter-intelligence operations against a slew of domestic groups also opposed the mass imprisonment of people of Japanese descent; the figure who championed the Lavender Scare maintained a lifelong intimate relationship with aide Clyde Tolson. The same man who defended and enforced racial hierarchy, wiretapped and threatened the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and set up the largest surveillance state in history developed working relationships periodically with the NAACP and ACLU. (Thanks to the Venona project, which decrypted Soviet communications, he was right more often than his critics imagined on Cold War spies — and yet loathed Sen. Joe McCarthy as a loose cannon and crank.)
Gage’s deeply researched account of one of the strangest, most reviled figures of the 20th century also explores the growth of the administrative state, the United States’ periodic bouts of xenophobia and the century’s two Red Scares, which played into our tendency to abandon civil liberties in wartime. Whether it is the influence of white Christian nationalism, the national obsession with masculinity or the role of racism in shaping attitudes toward crime, the issues Gage explores remain entirely relevant. (She also offers an amusing portrait of D.C. — its evolving social structure, neighborhoods and growth spurts over a century.)
Gage’s prose is lively, vivid and compelling. Don’t let the book’s length deter you. It’s a fascinating read.
Every Wednesday at noon, I host a live Q&A with readers. Read a transcript of this week’s Q&A or submit a question for the next one.
Guest: Can you explain Rupert Murdoch’s fealty to the GOP? In 1997, conservative papers owned by Murdoch famously came out in support of Tony Blair and New Labour. Labour won a resounding landslide and kept power for 13 years. But Murdoch’s American entities never deviate from the GOP line. Why is that?
Jennifer Rubin: It’s a racket. They cultivate an angry viewership that comes for reaffirmation of their views. Narrow-casting and radicalizing viewers turn out to be quite profitable.
Credit: Source link
