Did Biden err in making this now infamous speech – in calling out MAGA Republicans and the Trumpite movement, and in identifying them as a threat to the country?
In some respects the speech could be described as tepid and
anticlimactic. One is led to ask, does Biden really believe the threat is real?
He evoked fascism days earlier in another speech but then in the grand moment,
his tone actually softened.
The threat is in fact real and a cause for concern and even
Christians who have little affection for the United States should take note.
Evangelical pundits like Albert Mohler are wrong and blind to what is actually
happening. Mohler said Biden is playing with fire. The Right and its Evangelical
allies are in fact the ones playing with fire.
The Trumpite movement is a form of American fascism – an
ultra-nationalist and militarist movement centered on a leader with a complete and
violent disregard for law, convention, and tradition – even while it plays to
these sentiments and appropriates the conservative audience. It's Right-wing to
be sure, but not socially conservative.
The other day I was driving behind a grandmother and I noted
her car had a 'Fuck Biden and Fuck You if You Voted for Him' sticker on her
tailgate. Grey hair aside, this is not a conservative person committed to old
values and traditions. But what she represents is Right-wing, an amoral if not
immoral approach to propriety, decency, and social convention – and the larger
ethos is socially, politically, and culturally dangerous.
Sadly, these people are often combining and conflating
Christian imagery and verbiage with this filth – and heedless leaders like
Mohler make light of it and don't realize what this means for the country – the
historical precedents for it, not to mention what this is doing to the Church
and its now destroyed testimony.
And to Biden I would ask – Why did it take over a year and a
half to sound the warning? This threat isn't something that has just arisen
over the past few months. If the Establishment meant to stop Trump, why did
they wait this long to move against him? Thus far all the focus has been on the
foot soldiers of the January 6 coup attempt. The big players, plotters, and
collaborators within the GOP have been largely ignored. And now these moves are
made just weeks before the mid-term election? It strikes one as disingenuous, a
political ploy, not a serious move to counter the threat.
Did Biden in fact alienate half the country as Mohler and so
many others have suggested?
Not at all. Given that only around half or at best about 60%
of the eligible population votes and that maybe two thirds of the Republican
Party is in fact fully committed to Trumpism, that's far from half the country.
A large section of GOP voters (and supposedly Mohler himself) indeed voted for
Trump put profess to not like him much – and were motivated primarily by being
opposed to the Democrats. So what we are really talking about is a hardcore or diehard
Trumpite movement that constitutes about 20-25% of the US population. These are
largely unreachable people that cannot be reasoned with, or bargained with.
Many are fanatics and a growing number of them are literally dangerous. And I
must admit that in some areas, such as the rural part of Pennsylvania where I
live, it seems like Trump support runs especially high but then drive into an
urban area and you scarcely see any visible support for his movement.
This means that at least three-quarters of the country is
non-Trumpite and given the polarizing nature of the man and his movement, many
of these people could actually be categorised as anti-Trumpite. Biden is trying
to energize these people and in particular non-voters.
But that won't eradicate the problem which is in fact a deep
cancer within American society and thanks to the miscalculations and ethical
myopia of leaders like Albert Mohler, it is now flourishing within the Church.
It is undoubtedly cynical for the DNC to pour money into
Trumpite campaigns. It's a political calculation but reckless and unethical. It
also demonstrates that the risk to the country is not being taken seriously or
that ideology itself has nothing to do with the Democrat's true concerns. It
comes across as sheer political calculation and the revelation of this
significantly detracts from the moral case Biden hopes to make. It's
self-destructive and decadent politics – ultimately cut from the same self-serving
cloth as Trumpism.
And so contrary to Mohler and others, MAGA does not represent
half the country. And yet the movement is radical, violent and fascistic – again,
the threat is real. This is amplified by the fact that many don't understand
what it is – nor do they have any real understanding of what fascism was. They
are ripe for manipulation.
Mohler whines that Biden is showing disrespect toward those who
voted for Trump. Why should he respect them? They don't respect anything as the
grandmother with the bumper sticker demonstrates. We see such stickers, signs,
flags, and clothing everywhere. Such sentiments are anti-democratic and
anti-conservative. It's indecent right-wing fascist filth that seeks to
dehumanize and demonize opponents. Biden's response by contrast is actually
somewhat civil if a dangerously delayed response to the threat.
Earlier I said the risk is to the country. I did not say (with Biden) that Trumpism is a risk to democracy for that in many respects
is illusory and has been for a long time. It's a risk to the system as it stands and the institutions which (though
utterly corrupt) are the glue that help to hold what's left of this society
together.
Do I want the US to collapse? Do I want it to continue as is?
It's an evil system, shouldn't we want it to collapse?
Such questions are too simple and shortsighted, and there is
in fact no good solution to the dilemma presented by the evils of the American
system and its international empire or the possibilities of seeing it end.
Continuity is wicked and yet a collapse will unleash a different kind of wickedness.
A steady decline might be preferred but it's an unlikely scenario as it will
become unsustainable and unthinkable in light of a crisis and as the decline
continues, the crises will multiply and come on at an increasing tempo.
There is no good solution. In fact there cannot be one is
this present evil age. I will not support Trump or Biden. I refuse to support
the system by participating in it and thus sanctioning it. Christians have no
business politicking and just as we should not utilize the courts, join the
police or military, or invest in the financial system – likewise we should not
vote. But what we need to do is challenge the heresy of Dominionism and thus we
must oppose the myriad errors of the Evangelical movement and labour to open
the eyes of the many people that have sadly fallen under its spell and its
massive misreading and misappropriation of Scripture.
Ironically, while Republicans like Trump and Mastriano decry
the Democrats as being communists and therefore anti-democratic, it is the GOP
that has launched an aggressive campaign to restrict and block voting. They
know (as do the Democrats) that the majority of the country does not back the
GOP let alone the MAGA-dominated and transformed GOP of Donald Trump.
Contrary to the so-called conservative line, Trumpites care
nothing for the law or constitutionality. They want results, revenge, and to
destroy those who oppose them. Historically reveals that with such fascistic political
movements, their ethos is nothing new. It also underlies the absurdity of
Biden's supposed concerns as he continues to try and make friends with the
Republican Party and insist they are necessary for the country. This is the
party of the attempted coup, the party that has allowed Trump to take over.
Yes, many don't like him but they won't resist – even the major leaders in the
party, men like Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy bow to him. They're on the
record as despising him and wanting him gone, but they dare not aggravate their
base. They have no integrity whatsoever and their supposed devotion to America
is farcical. They simply cling to power and their only devotion is to their own
standing and status. Not all Republicans are Trumpites but they are now the
majority within the party and they actively seek to destroy anyone who even
questions the leader. Within the GOP,
the order of the day is McCarthyism on steroids. And this is but one facet of
the many McCarthyite witch-hunts being unleashed across the social and
political spectrum, and just like his movement in the 1950's, these sundry inquisitions
are destructive and represent cancers within society.
In terms of modern history the Trumpite-GOP ethos is
dangerous and all the more within the context of a rich country like the United
States and its powerful military machine. And this is exacerbated as it's an
empire whose global standing is under threat and the nature of its standing (and
the threats to it) are grossly misunderstood and misinterpreted by those within
the MAGA movement. This point can't be emphasized enough.
Mohler may not agree with Biden's liberalism and
libertarianism – I don't either, but an imposed and authoritarian Christian
order (let alone one conflated with Classical Liberalism) is just as
problematic. Additionally, his critique of Biden's use of military imagery and
the like (pathetic and wrong-headed as it was) is just laughable – all the more
as Mohler supported the likes of Bush and Trump. Evangelicals largely
celebrated Trump's sacrilegious Bible stunt in Lafayette Park, and they
certainly championed Bush's sweeping authoritarian moves, his militarism, and
his attempt at militarising society. Once again Mohler's discernment and
perhaps his memory are found wanting.
And as far as political fire, Trump created and fueled a
firestorm and Right-wing hypocrites and Evangelical blind guides like Mohler
justified it – in other words he has no standing. One would think that after
Trump played his hand, the likes of Mohler (driven as he is by his misguided
patriotism) would repent in dust and ashes and be willing to do anything to save
the country and its institutions – and thus he would praise a president willing
to take the political risk and warn the public of the threat. The Right-wing
congresswoman Liz Cheney of all people understood this. But Mohler is either
too obtuse to understand what is happening or too corrupt to call it out for
what it is. He decries Biden's speech because it doesn't unify the country – it
divides it. I'm sorry but no one since Jefferson Davis has divided the country
like Donald Trump – and deliberately so. The other side is demonised. You
cannot work with evil. It must be destroyed. Trumpism is a formula for
political violence and civil war. Mohler doesn't understand this and is thus
disqualified as a commentator let alone a political theologian and cultural
ethicist.
Biden has in some respects read the writing on the wall.
There's no winning back these people and so he has effectively written them off
and is making a desperate if uninspiring and cynical bid to defeat Trump by
means of democratic process – or at least to seal a mandate by which the
institutions of state will be empowered to legally and judicially crush this
movement. He believes there are still people within the GOP that can be stirred
to action – people that know deep down this movement is not only destroying
their party and conservative values – it's wrecking the country.
This danger is not because Trump is opposed to US power or
wants to see America abandon its empire. There's no conviction, ideology, or
morality to what he does. It's simply because he's a clueless petty child, a
narcissistic brat, ignorant of how things work, and he wants to wield power as
a mafia don or dictator and yet as his record demonstrates – he's utterly
incompetent and incapable. He doesn't know how, so instead he simply wants
people to praise him and put his name on things. This is the great irony of the
MAGA movement – Trump weakened and diminished America and a second
administration risks breaking it and relegating the United States to being but
one declining power among many rivals on the rise. Once again, the truth is
stranger than fiction and the MAGA masses are in some respects to be pitied as
their efforts actually undermine their misguided hopes and delusional aspirations
of making the country 'great'.
And yet there are also dangerous forces and players at work
that can use someone like Trump and these are also a source of concern.
The peril isn't about democracy or liberty – that's packaging
for the masses. It's about the system, the imperial order in all its facets.
Trump undermined its integrity and in just four years put the system under a
real threat. That's what Biden is warning about. And more than anything this fear
plays out in the realm of foreign policy – an area of engagement in which Trump
could be described not as a bull in a china shop but a spoiled brat at the
controls of a bulldozer. The standing of the United States on the geopolitical
stage is at risk and with it the vast wealth and power of the post-war empire that
Washington built – currently represented by the likes of Biden. Trump is a
threat to this and the Establishment, and many within the halls of American
power are concerned as his movement threatens to break the Atlanticist order
and in its utter ignorance dismantle the financial, diplomatic, political, and
military means the US Empire has employed since 1945.
But Mohler in all his wisdom fails to grasp even these basic
concepts let alone their nuances. God help those who listen to such a fool.