President Joe Biden's disastrous speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia last Thursday made headlines, not only for the backdrop of blood-red lighting (which made the building's decorative molding behind Biden look eerily reminiscent of the stiff-winged eagle used by the Social Democratic Party of Nazi Germany), but even more for the deceitful and inflammatory accusations Biden leveled at half the country.
The Democrats have been trying to paint former President Donald Trump as a "threat to our democracy" since he first announced his candidacy in 2015, throughout his first term in the White House and even after Biden took office. But Biden and his cronies have ramped up the attacks of late, going after not only Trump and politicians who share his "America First" agenda, but the Americans who voted for Trump (or wish they had) as well.
Biden accused tens of millions of Americans of being supporters of "semi-fascism," "full of anger, violence, hate and division"; of not believing in the rule of law or supporting our Constitution and of being a "clear and present danger" to the country. Like his other ham-fisted attempts at political showboating, this has backfired badly. Some are treating this as yet another Biden-esque gaffe, like his grumpy "you ain't Black" or "lying dog-faced pony soldier" outbursts -- tiresome and inappropriate coming from the president of the United States, perhaps, but typical of "Uncle Joe," now in his dotage and struggling with senility.
But this was no mere speechwriting misfire; the panic-pimping is deliberate.
And dangerous.
In the most extreme cases, governments which have pitted swaths of the people against each other have laid the groundwork for civil unrest, war and even genocide. Germany and the Balkan states are not the only examples. In 1994, horrific violence broke out across Rwanda, as Rwandans of ethnic Hutu tribal background took to the streets to slaughter their countrymen who were part of the Tutsi tribal minority. In just over three months, a million Rwandans were butchered with machetes, burned to death in their homes or otherwise slaughtered. This was the culmination of deliberate incitement; for decades, Hutus in government and media had called Tutsis "vermin," "cockroaches" and "snakes." Eventually, people responded as the inciters must have known they would.
America's Democratic Party has reasons other than fomenting violence -- or even keeping Trump out of the White House -- for the recent drumbeat of hysteria. The purpose of their outrageous and fabricated accusations is to persuade half the country that the other half poses an unprecedented threat that will justify the extraordinary power Democrats have every intention of grabbing if given the chance. And in typical fashion, they accuse patriotic Americans of doing things they themselves intend to do -- first and foremost, attacking the United States Constitution and the limits on government power that the drafters deliberately placed there.
This isn't speculation; we've watched them do it.
Exhibit A: Congress would not give former President Barack Obama the immigration "amnesty" he wanted, so he simply decided not to enforce existing immigration law. Biden has made this situation even worse, allowing almost 5 million foreigners to cross the Southern border illegally in the past 16 months, according to an analysis by the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Biden has usurped the legislative power of Congress with his own executive orders -- most recently, his federal student loan forgiveness, which some believe will raise taxes on Americans by hundreds of billions of dollars. Democrats want to eliminate the Electoral College and change the composition of the United States Senate, both of which were constituted to prevent raw majoritarian democracy, and give rural, less populated states a meaningful voice in governance. And if the Supreme Court will not hand down the decisions Democrats want, then they'll have a Democrat president pack the court with enough new members to create a new "progressive" majority.
Exhibit B: Democrats' template is evident in their treatment of Trump and his administration. They accuse Trump of something he has not done, and then use the accusation as a justification for doing things that are as bad or worse: lying to a federal court; using false and fabricated evidence to get warrants to spy on the president of the United States and other American citizens; entrapping Americans and then charging them with crimes; using social media companies to censor truthful information and otherwise engaging in unlawful activity to affect elections.
If one aging real estate developer is such a threat, how much more "urgent," then, will Democrats' cries for more power become when the "threat" is (insert hysterical tone here) 75 or 80 million Americans whose beliefs and political opinions pose a threat to our very way of life?
Exhibit C: We've already experienced the way those in power create a crisis and then use it to suspend our civil liberties, interfere with our lives, damage our economy, compromise our children's education and threaten our health. The COVID-19 pandemic, with its lockdowns, closed schools, shuttered businesses, forced vaccinations and widespread censorship was unprecedented. But it was just the beginning.
Today's class of political leaders are vampires with an insatiable lust for power. They swing from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis, gobbling up more of our lives with each go-around. Fresh on the heels of COVID-19, they've moved into climate change panic, pushing to eliminate the use of all fossil fuels, artificial fertilizers and nuclear power. Meanwhile, we watch as California's electric grid fails in a heat wave, organic farming in Sri Lanka results in economic failure and political collapse and Europe braces for a winter with insufficient heat without Russia's natural gas.
When the policies of the power vampires result in catastrophe, they demand more power to address the crises their policies caused.
It is Biden and the far-left Democrats who pose the real threat to the American system and our way of life. It is not enough to criticize Biden for his false and vicious attacks on Americans. He and his political cronies must be punished by removing them from positions of power for good.
To find out more about Laura Hollis and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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