An elderly man with wrinkled skin and white hair hobbled his way to the podium.
He was flanked on both sides by military personnel and protected by bulletproof glass. A blood-red background had been ominously projected onto the walls of the historic building behind him. His weak, cracking voice bellowed in rage from the podium, denouncing what he declared to be the greatest threat to the nation he led: the citizens who didn’t support him.
Is this an excerpt from a history book, maybe a description of Hitler, Stalin or Mao Zedong? Is this a sampling of a dystopian novel like George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four?”
No. This was President Joe Biden’s speech in Philadelphia on Sept. 1.
While Biden’s speeches are normally rambling occasions replete with gaffes and snickers of laughter from the microscopic audience in attendance, in this case he viciously spewed venom against former President Donald J. Trump and the 74+ million Americans who voted for him.
“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
“There is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.”
“They embrace anger. They thrive on chaos. They live not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies.”
“MAGA Republicans look at America and see carnage and darkness and despair. They spread fear and lies — lies told for profit and power.”
“The MAGA Republicans believe that for them to succeed, everyone else has to fail.”
Step aside, communist China exerting economic global domination and dangerously sparring with Taiwan.
Move over, Putin’s Russia that has launched a deadly invasion of Ukraine and spits in the face of NATO.
Get out of the way, radical Islamist Iran hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons and headed toward war with Israel and the rest of the Middle East.
Back down, a revitalized Taliban armed with billions of dollars worth of top-notch American military equipment (courtesy of Biden, coincidentally).
Not today, human traffickers and drug smugglers illegally entering the United States like they have season passes to Disneyland.
According to Biden, the greatest threat to America is patriotic Americans who love their country and still support the most popular incumbent president in American history — Donald J. Trump.
Biden’s tyrannical tirade could be described as the epitome of both hypocrisy and projection — a psychological term for someone accusing his enemies of the deficiencies and/or crimes that he is guilty of himself.
“MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election, and they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.”
“They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.”
“There are public figures … predicting and all but calling for mass violence and rioting in the streets. This is inflammatory. It’s dangerous. It’s against the rule of law.”
With dementia or some other form of senility clearly setting in, Biden has apparently forgotten that for years now antifa and violent segments of the Black Lives Matter movement — not Trump supporters — have been rioting in the streets and destroying America in “fiery but mostly peaceful protests.”
Biden’s mind was blank when it came to recalling that far-left Democrats — not conservative Republicans — notoriously knelt for the national anthem and burned the American flag.
Is Biden sliding toward authoritarianism?
Yes: 100% (93 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
Biden didn’t remember that it was radical leftists — not MAGA adherents — who threatened to kill Supreme Court justices for maintaining a strict interpretation of the Constitution and overturning Roe v. Wade.
Biden had no memory that it was his voter base — not fans of 45 — that set police stations on fire and screamed “pigs in a blanket, let’s fry ‘em like bacon,” and that at this point the conservative criticism of law enforcement is mainly reserved for Biden’s anti-Trump Gestapo, the FBI teams raiding Mar-a-Lago with legal “justification” that is highly dubious at best.
As Orwell explained in his famous parody “Animal Farm,” the first stage of rising tyranny is hypocrisy and projection.
In the spirit of highly concerning memos released by the Department of Homeland Security, Biden emphasized that anyone who questions the results of the 2020 election after seeing documentaries like Dinesh D’Souza’s “2000 Mules” or reading the report of the Wisconsin special inspector general is the greatest danger of all.
Recent polls indicate that a majority of Americans are unsure that the current iteration of the U.S. government was democratically elected and constitutionally legitimate. In fact, a mere 16 percent of Americans claim to be fully confident that the election results reflect the will of the people.
Similarly, Biden’s approval rating has dropped to 31 percent and other abysmal lows in recent months, even according to left-leaning polls. A theoretical rematch between Trump and Biden favors the “Ultra MAGA King” by a 5-point margin.
Apparently, that’s what Biden and his colleagues don’t want you to think about as we approach the 2022 midterm elections. And he has soldiers stationed around him to drive the point home in what might be described as yet another form of election interference — attempted intimidation.
When questioned about the bizarre and disconcerting use of U.S. military personnel at a speech vehemently denouncing fellow American citizens, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that the purpose of the Marines was to demonstrate the “unique role our independent military plays in defending our democracy, no matter which party is in power.”
The military preserves “the party in power” from citizens who oppose it? How very Orwellian and utterly terrifying.
Speaking of Orwell, Biden’s speech was oddly reminiscent of a famous scene from “Nineteen Eighty-Four” known as the “Two Minutes Hate.”
“Before the Hate had proceeded for thirty seconds, uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out from half the people in the room. … The sight or even the thought of Goldstein [the arch-enemy of the Big Brother government] produced fear and anger automatically. He was an object of hatred more constant than [great foreign enemies].
“But what was strange was that although Goldstein was hated and despised by everybody, although every day and a thousand times a day, on platforms, on the telescreen, in newspapers, in books, his theories were refuted, smashed, ridiculed, held up to the general gaze for the pitiful rubbish that they were — in spite of all this, his influence never seemed to grow less.
“He was the commander of a vast shadowy army, an underground network of conspirators dedicated to the overthrow of the State. … He was abusing Big Brother, he was denouncing the dictatorship of the Party … he was advocating freedom of speech, freedom of the Press, freedom of assembly, freedom of thought.”
It seems that Orwell’s timeless classics are just as relevant as ever. As King Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes, “That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been is that which will be again; and there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
As we watch a senile old man pound his fists in fury condemning millions of people who oppose him, we are reminded of the never-ending cycles of history in which tyrants rise amidst self-serving hypocrisy and the demonization of any who dare to oppose them. And as the bloody sagas of Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and the novels of Orwell all teach us, the next stage is unspeakable atrocity.
There is nothing new under the sun.
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