I have some reason to hope that this piece will find its way to President Biden’s inner circle, where it might do some good.
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As the midterm elections now loom, a central question is: Will President Biden continue the Democrats’ long-running pattern of feckless response to the threats posed by today’s Republican Party?
Something has profoundly gone wrong with the GOP, but one must wonder what’s wrong with the Democrats whom we still occasionally hear referring to their “friends across the aisle.”
(“Friends?” Despite it’s having been a whole generation that the Republicans have treated Democrats as enemies—from the attempt to destroy Clinton’s presidency, to making it their top priority to prevent Obama and Biden from accomplishing anything, regardless of the costs to the nation.)
Biden epitomizes the Democratic attachment to the idea of goodwill and bipartisanship. One can sense his craving for a return to how things were when he was a young Senator.
That’s Biden’s great virtue: a guy who makes good human connection with everyone he encounters, from janitors to other heads of state.
But circumstances change: todays’ GOP is very far from the Party of Reagan, when that Republican President could be buddies with the Democratic Speaker of the House, despite their political differences.
In a world where circumstances change, a person – especially a President -- needs a repertoire of ways of acting.
Indeed, it is readily apparent that Biden is obligated by the Oath of Office he took– to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” against enemies “domestic and foreign” – to change his approach, i.e. to abandon his customary Mr. Nice Guy approach and lead the nation into battle.
Whether Biden likes it or not, his Presidency is occurring at a time when the when the American Constitution is under assault. And the attack is coming from Republicans who have changed fundamentally from Biden’s former “friends across the aisle.”
(Complicity in an attempted coup d’etat; refusal to accept defeat in an election; spreading lies to undermine the “will of the people”; disenfranchising larger numbers of voters to enable minority rule; stealing a Supreme Court seat, etc.)
Biden’s oath requires him to recognize and do all within his power to protect against this clear and present danger:
- Many of our most perceptive political observers are warning there’s a real danger American democracy will be gone by the end of this decade, having devolved into the kind of authoritarian regime, beyond the control of the American citizenry, of which the Republicans are already showing us the outlines.
- People worth listening to are saying that if the Republicans gain control of Congress in the 2022 Midterms, that could lead directly to “Game Over” for the constitutional order our Founders bequeathed to us.
- The futures markets are saying that there’s a 3:1 probability that the Republicans will indeed win these upcoming Midterms.
A clear threat.
Clear also is how that threat must be countered, if we assume– as we must, or our America is already lost – thata majority of Americans would not knowingly support a Party if they saw it for what it is. I.e. if they saw it as a Party that
- acts as an accomplice in an effort to overthrow the constitutional order;
- shows its utter indifference to the well-being of the nation with its indefensible choice to obstruct everything at a time of multiple crises, when it is especially important for all the people’s leaders to work cooperatively to find the best way forward;
- uses lies as its main communications to its public;
- continually tries to divide Americans against each other;
- continually blocks action on climate change, seriously endangering our children and grandchildren in order to further enrich the fossil fuel industry.
If that assumption about the American majority is correct, it follows that defending the Constitution requires Biden to fashion and to deliver the most impactful possible message to move a substantial numbers of voters -- who are now heading toward voting Republican, or staying home – to see the truth that will motivated them to keep power out of the hands of today’s dangerous Republican Party.
Voters certainly wouldn’t learn that truth from what President Biden has been communicating so far. (Just as Americans haven’t heard such truth from Democrats over these several decades the Republican Party has been undergoing this dark transformation.)
As these perilous Midterms approach, Biden’s sacred promise requires him to do everything in his power to help the American majority to see the real stakes in this election, and thus to safeguard our endangered constitutional order.
“Everything in his power” – because an oath isn’t a promise to “do something,” but to “go all out,” to do “whatever it takes.”
Does President Biden have it in him to reach into his repertoire and turn Mr. “Friends-across-the-aisle” into a leader like Churchill—i.e. a leader who inspires his people to fight against the forces of fascism, i.e. against the “domestic enemies” from which Biden pledged to protect our Constitution?
Perhaps we will soon find out, when the 1/6 Committee has presented to the American people a dark and compelling picture of the pervasive Republican involvement in an attempt to seize against “the will of the people” expressed through the legitimate constitutional process.
The moment will then be ripe for Biden to speak to the American people as he must, if he is to honor his oath of office.