(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Biden Draws the Battle Line For Democracy [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2022-09-04 In a 30-minute speech in the city where our democracy began, President Joe Biden made an impassioned plea for us to save it. Speaking in Philadelphia Thursday night, Biden rose to the occasion with a powerful, straight-forward address that left his critics with only whining and snarky comments in response, and the ongoing threat to our democracy squarely in the spotlight, where it belongs. Biden denounced former President Donald Trump and his MAGA cult for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election and their shenanigans to try to cheat their way to wins in 2022, 2024, and beyond. Make no mistake about it, Biden told the truth about a corrupt Republican Party, about our country, and about the danger it faces. Early on he pointed out that not all Republicans fall into the MAGA category. I’d counter that the MAGA segment controls the party, so that makes it the MAGA party. Until the “sensible” Republicans retain control that’s not going to change. Biden told us what we needed to hear. He challenged us the way we needed to be challenged. He not only tore Trump and the MAGAs to shreds, he gave us a vision of the future. That’s the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats, whether you agree with their positions or not, seek a path to a greater America. Republicans simply attack and offer no plan, no policies, no nothing. We need to make our country understand that it’s the Democrats who want to actually govern, to move our country forward, to address economic unfairness, to help people who need help, to protect the rights of all of us regardless of our race, religion, and sexual orientation and preference, to protect women’s reproductive rights, and to address important issues like climate change and gun laws. The critics have nothing. They mock and insult, but that’s childish foolishness. The pundits who have attacked Biden’s speech are either unable or unwilling to see the reality we deal with in this country every day. This isn’t a “both sides have a position” issue. This is one side wants to throw out the Constitution and the other side doesn’t. They said Biden was divisive. You mean he shouldn’t call out the segment of our population that is trying to tear down our democracy and rule of law and are threatening to use violence to do so? The same folks who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 to try to stop the certification of a free and fair election that their guy lost? They claimed the speech was political. Of course, it’s political. When one political party wants to protect democracy and the other wants to destroy it, then the situation is political. They questioned having U.S. Marines standing in the background. Why? Let those who would try to overthrow our government see that there’s a trained fighting machine ready to stop them. There are no rules here. There are no niceties. We literally have elected Republicans talking about rioting in the streets if the Department of Justice follows the law and indicts Trump for stealing classified documents and lying to authorities in an attempt to keep some of them. As Biden said last night, and many times before, this is “A battle for the soul of our country.” Emily Post can sit this one out. The president called on our nation to unite to protect democracy regardless of ideology. He implored us to say “This is not who we are.” But is this who we are? Are we the country that Biden believes we are? Will we justify his faith in us, or will we be the ones who are on hand when this 200-plus-year experiment falls apart? That’s a hell of a legacy. Will we stop the Republicans’ insidious efforts to ensure their victories in future elections with schemes like voter suppression and installing corrupt election officials and state legislators who’ll be willing to throw out the real results and declare their candidate the winner? Pay attention. That groundwork is already being put in place. If someone tells you otherwise, they’re either stupid or lying. Trump and the MAGA Republicans are our enemy. The talking heads and writers who lie for them are our enemy. The millionaires and billionaires who fund them are our enemy. They’re our enemy because they want to wreck our democracy and rule of law and ensure minority rule, which will ignore the wishes of the majority of Americans. They want to guarantee that the wealthy will always prosper at the expense of the poor and middle class. They want to mold us into a country that most of us don’t want to be. This is beyond petty differences. The stakes are astronomical. If we fail to see them as our enemy, we’ll fail to understand the danger they present. We’ll fail to grasp the moment of choosing we face. We’ll fail to comprehend that the urgency of beating them transcends any theories we have about campaigns, elections, or misguided civility that may hold some candidates back from turning on the firehose full blast. Biden told us what we must do when he said, “vote, vote, vote.” If we do, then the heroes in this story will be us. We’ll have stood in the breach, taken every lie, criminal act, and threat of violence, and beat them at the only place it counts on the only day it counts: the polls on election day. This is our test. Corny? Maybe. The truth? Absolutely. *** Thank you for reading my post. You can see more of my writings on my blog: Musings of a Nobody. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/4/2120718/-Biden-Draws-the-Battle-Line-For-Democracy Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/