Biden Waking Up

Joe Biden has rightfully earned the nickname "Sleepy Joe," not only because of his demeanor as a sleepy old man, but also because he's been effectively asleep at the wheel as president; he hasn't used his power to deliver on many of the promises he made, and he let the Republican Party continue with their denial of the 2020 election results unchallenged.

There's so much to criticize about Biden's presidency from a leftist perspective; he gave away most of the Build Back Better plan, he didn't legalize marijuana, he's never even spoken of, as far as I know, about a public option, he let the Green New Deal go to waste for the most part and never truly delivered on his promises regarding the minimum wage. And that's just the outcomes; we could write pages about his, and the Democrats', toothless opposition to Republican lawmakers as they attack and destroy every single proposal that could actually make life better for American citizens. In fact, Republican lawmakers only criticize Biden and the Democrats whenever they try to do something good for the country and the people. And the words they use to criticize their political adversaries are always extreme and inflammatory: Biden is a dictator, the democrats are authoritarians, communists, Marxists and fascists. Let me once more draw your attention to this tweet:

"It's weird how the Democrats aren't socialists, but Republicans say they are, and many Republicans are fascists, but Democrats won't say they are"
_{source: Max Berger on Twitter, June 7, 2021}

That's the truth about the parties' respective rhetoric in a nutshell. Here's a more recent tweet from the Mehdi Hassan show:

The right-wing is happy to call Democrats fascists. But letting the left use that label for Republicans? Unthinkable!

Why is the GOP so hurt when they’re linked to fascism? Maybe it’s because Dems are onto something, @mehdirhasan says
_{source: Mehdi Hassan Show on Twitter, September 2, 2022}

That last tweet has a compilation video embedded with MAGA Republicans calling Democrats fascist; you can watch it by following the link or just watch the video linked beneath this post if you need any proof of the fact that Republicans have been calling Democrats fascist repeatedly for a long time now. I hope I don't have to explain just how ludicrously hypocritical this is, coming from the election-deniers and insurrectionist-supporters that they are. If you've been following my blog, you know that for years now I've been warning about the actual rise of actual fascism under Trump and Trump's Republican Party, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Joe Biden's speech finally warning about this danger to American democracy, a speech in which he accurately described the fascistic tendencies, rhetoric and actions from Republican lawmakers.

Of all the criticisms levied against Biden and the Democratic party leadership, their willingness to try to cooperate with their Republican colleagues may be the most important in these times of rising fascism in that party. You can't cooperate with fascists. You can't cooperate with a party that's actively trying to undermine democracy. I wish things were different, but the only choice is to fight them. Not with violence, but by calling them out; that's why I think this speech by Biden was important. Just to be clear, I have no love for the Democratic Party or Joe Biden; the best we can expect from them is a (sleepy) continuation of the status quo. But there is something that's actually worse than the status quo, and that's the fascism represented by the extremist Republican lawmakers who are still 100 percent loyal to Trump. Biden's full 24 minute speech is linked above, and I invite you to watch it in full, so you know what the Republicans and right wing media are losing their cool about. Biden made a separate speech in which he used the actual word "semi-fascist" to describe these lawmakers and their ideology; the internet is awash with articles and videos about it, so you'll have no trouble finding that one.

Of course the right wing media and Republican lawmakers lost their minds after this speech. No surprise there. What's also not surprising is the blatant dishonesty of their criticisms; they accused Biden of calling half of America fascist, when he actually went out of his way to say that he was talking about the lawmakers and that the majority of Republican voters do not agree with this extreme ideology. Biden's even too kind when he , strategically and perhaps too kindly, mentions that there are still mainstream Republicans with whom he can cooperate. That's something I try to do as well when describing the rise of fascism in America and here in Europe. Not even in Nazi Germany were the majority of people fascist, most weren't, even most soldiers weren't. Anyhow, the below linked video shows some of the hypocritical reactions from the extreme right wing Republicans and media. And let me, in closing, remind you all that all this comes after "Trumpworld" has resorted to threatening once again with political violence after the Mar-a-Lago debacle; watch this video, where you can, among other things, hear a Trump defender calling the FBI "Gestapo," which was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. They really need to stop whining about Biden's speech; if you can't take it, then don't dish it out...

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy!