Joe Biden dramatically elevated the stakes in the upcoming US presidential election campaign on Thursday with a stern and impassioned warning that Donald Trump, his probable opponent next year, poses a grave threat to American democracy.
Faced with stagnant approval ratings and concerns about his advanced age, the president of the United States attempted to rouse his dormant supporters and motivate the undecided by elaborating on the threats he claimed a second Trump presidency would pose to the United States’ position as the world’s leading beacon of democratic government.
Biden, 80, stated that the country’s character and future were threatened by the authoritarian values of Trump’s self-styled Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, which he described as “an inflexion point” in US history.
“There is something dangerous happening in America,” he told an audience in Phoenix, Arizona. “There is an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy: the MAGA movement … History has brought us to a new time of testing.
“Right now, we are all being asked: What will you do to preserve our democracy?”
Biden, whose voice occasionally dropped to a murmur to underscore his message, invoked the late John McCain, a former Republican senator with whom he had a close relationship, to emphasize what he described as the altruistic qualities of democracy. According to reporters in the auditorium, he was compelled to halt early in his speech when a heckler demanded to know why he had not declared a climate emergency.
The president responded, “If you will be quiet, I will meet with you immediately after this, all right?” As you have just demonstrated, democracy is never simple, he added. Despite mentioning Trump only once in his half-hour address, Biden sought to contrast democratic norms and traditions with behavior that appeared to represent his predecessor. He stated that democracy refers to the rule of the people, not the monarchy, money, or the powerful.
“This entails free and equitable elections, regardless of party, with reverence for the outcome, win or lose. It implies that you cannot only adore your country when it is victorious.
“Democracy requires the rejection and condemnation of political violence. Regardless of party, such savagery is never, never, never acceptable in America. It is undemocratic and must never be accepted as a means of gaining political power.”
Final Remarks Allude to Capitol Hill Assault on January 6th
The final remarks appeared to be a reference to the assault on Capitol Hill on January 6, when a throng inspired by Donald Trump attempted to prevent the ratification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory by the United States Congress. Biden warned that the peril had not passed despite Trump’s failure to overturn the 2020 election results. “Today, democracy remains in jeopardy. This is not exaggeration. “It is a simple fact,” he stated.
The threat of violence persisted unabated, he said, and was most recently directed at general Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of the United States armed forces, whom Trump recently accused of “treason” in a social media post. Biden remarked, “These MAGA extremists have no idea what they’re talking about.”
The pro-democracy speech was delivered at an event honoring McCain, one of Biden’s political opponents and twice a Republican presidential candidate who frequently criticized Trump prior to his death in 2018.
Biden portrayed his relationship with McCain as a fitting paean to American democracy because, despite being from different parties, the two men frequently engaged in across-the-aisle bipartisan cooperation when they were US senators, a feature the president said today’s Republican party has all but eliminated.
“There is no doubt that today’s Republican Party is driven and intimidated by MAGA extremists,” he stated. “Their extreme agenda, if carried out, would fundamentally alter the institutions of American democracy as we know it.” According to reports, Biden has frequently portrayed Trump as a menace to democracy to donors at fund-raising events for next year’s election. Thursday’s speech was the first time he addressed the topic publicly since before the midterm congressional elections last year, and it indicated that he intends to make it a central issue in his presidential campaign.
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Source: The Guardian
