“MAGA proposals are a threat to the very soul of this country.” Joe Biden
“The MAGA agenda represents an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.” Joe Biden
“The MAGA ideology looks at America and sees carnage and darkness and despair.” Joe Biden
“MAGA Republicans in Congress look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th not as insurrectionists but as patriots.” Joe Biden
Anyone paying attention knows that Joe Biden’s accomplishments as president are pretty sparse. The oligarchy allowed his American Rescue Plan stimulus program to go through but then put a stop on Build Back Better or any other legislation that would help the people in a meaningful way. The student loan debt relief plan is a bait and switch scam used against desperate people. Biden brags about allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies but that won’t happen until 2026 and will only be allowed for ten drugs that are to be named later.
What is a failed president to do? His 2022 midterm stump speech had the odd title , “The Continued Battle for the Soul of a Nation.” No one voted for Biden to be the nation’s religious leader, why the reference to the nation’s soul? That use of language is a sure sign that nonsense is being peddled and Biden didn’t disappoint. His failures are the reason he keeps running against Donald Trump instead of in defense of himself.
Because he and the Democrats don’t have much in the way of appeals to voters he just shouts Trump’s signature acronym MAGA, Make America Great Again, over and over again. He said MAGA 13 times in his speech. Never before has a losing president or his supporters been elevated to such a level of attention.
Of course Trump differs from most former presidents by claiming that he didn’t really lose and encouraging his supporters to riot inside the Capitol two weeks before his successor’s inauguration. He still says he didn’t lose and is also back in the news after refusing to turn over subpoenaed documents to the National Archives where they belong.
But Trump’s personal foolishness should be a reason for him to be ignored instead of getting more attention. The MAGA distraction exposes the Democrats’ weakness, namely living off their decades old reputation as the party of working people when they have had little or nothing to say for themselves in that regard in the Biden, Obama, or Clinton administrations.
The events of January 6, 2021, were definitely a shock to the public at that time but a year and a half of endless news stories and Congressional investigations haven’t moved the needle of public opinion very much. Approximately 40% of Americans would still vote for Trump. The people calling Trump a traitor and wanting to jail him are the same people who would never have voted for him or other Republicans in the first place. Trump received more than 70 million votes in November 2020, 10 million more than in his 2016 election. There is little reason to believe that those supporters will change their minds. The Democrats may get lucky and keep control of Congress after the midterm elections but it won’t be because Biden manages to say MAGA in every sentence.
It is a political dictum that opponents should be attacked and not voters. Hillary Clinton’s pre-election remark about “deplorables” didn’t help her get out the vote in swing states where she most needed them. Biden diverges from traditional political discourse out of desperation so acute that he repeats Hillary’s failed course of action.
He is allowed to spew subpar propaganda because he has no opposition within the Democratic Party. The so-called progressives stand down when they are told to do so. They are window dressing within window dressing who are allowed to post platitudes on Twitter and fool Democrats into thinking they have champions in Congress. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley can even tell an obvious lie that Biden canceled stupid loan debt and emerge unscathed. Neither she nor other members of “the Squad” or the Congressional Black Caucus have anything to fear when they go along to get along.
They would think twice about joining in the beat down if they feared the voters. Unfortunately most Democratic voters have been indoctrinated into thinking that voicing any concerns with their party leadership will lead to Republican victory. Black voters are once again caught in what they see as an insurmountable trap of defending Democrats regardless of what they do or fail to do.
But that twisted thinking needs to stop. The liberation movement is uplifted at every possible moment yet its real significance, sustained opposition to political power, is rarely mentioned. There is no reason to accept crumbs and thus continue snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. There is no trap for Black or any other Democratic voters if they show some determination to speak out when they are being conned.
Biden knows that of course and his response is to raise the Trump specter even higher. In the absence of real opposition the manufactured MAGA panic seeps in, even if unconsciously, and keeps Democrats in line. The question is whether they will go to the polls when they are offered so little. They may and Biden may get lucky. But his luck has nothing to do with the people. If he succeeds in the midterm elections, there is little reason for anyone else to celebrate.
Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents . Her work can also be found on Twitter , Telegram and Patreon . She can be reached via email at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.
