Many of us (including some Democrats) have criticized President Joe Biden for his inflammatory speech in Philadelphia that cast Republicans as “threats to the foundations of our republic.” I also objected to the use of Marines at the political speech like nutcracker props flanking the President as he accused millions of their fellow Americans of being enemies of the state. Now, a Trafalgar poll shows that a majority of Americans believe that Biden tried to “incite conflict” with his speech.
The poll asked respondents, “What is your opinion of President Biden’s recent primetime address to the nation in which he accused his political opponents of representing ‘an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic’?”
Fifty-six percent of the voters said that the speech “represents a dangerous escalation in rhetoric and is designed to incite conflict amounts Americans.”
For many, the speech was the final refutation of Biden’s pledge to be a unifier as president after two years of highly partisan and divisive actions. It was also a failure if intended to rally independents and others to his side. Yet, the speech may have had more modest objectives. The same 35 percent of hardcore supporters liked the speech and Biden may have decided, again, to play to that base.
Whatever the reason, the speech added to the rage of our politics. For his part, Donald Trump quickly bulldozed any moral high ground after the speech by denouncing Biden as an “enemy of the state” and calling the FBI “vicious monsters.”
With the leaders of both parties engaging in such rhetoric, it is little surprise that a majority of the public now believes that there will be an increase in political violence.
We are experiencing a near total failure of leadership in our country. Politicians on both sides are fueling rage for personal and political advantage. It is a dangerous and craven form of demagoguery. James Freeman Clarke once said that “a politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation.” We have far too many politicians today and far too few statesmen at an increasingly perilous time for our country.
RE: “The President……..accused millions of their fellow Americans of being enemies of the state” Such rhetoric can only be employed, with confidence, when one is assured, in one’s own heart, that those who voted for YOU are indeed THE basket of deplorables. You know, in your own heart, that the Office of the President, is way above your pay grade and yet, you convinced them to raise you to it. What contempt for the intellectual capacity of the electorate. A contempt well earned and well deserved.
So, Thursday last’s biden inflamatory call to arms is now going to supplant Jan 6 as the call for insurrection/civil war against more than half this nation? Just how will congress investigate this hateful, divisive and totally inappropriate use of military props implying intimidation against our own citizenry? ZIP… because democrats are itching for the destruction of this nation as we know it.
When peaceful debate becomes a non-starter, the only recourse left to the civilized in adjudicating difference is violence, either ‘directly or indirectly’
Tragically true.
“If you talk like a fascist . . .”
The use of words without defining them is a hallmark of an emotion-driven culture. Slinging around the words “fascism” and “fascist” is a prime example.
“Fascism,” as opposed to other types of government control, is in essence a one-party state that criminalizes dissent, where the individual holds title to property, but where the government *controls* the use of that property. Fascists (e.g., in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy) were *not* concerned with ownership (as opposed to the communists). Their primary lust for power is for the government to control industries, the media, education — everything. You can put whatever name you want on that property. But the omnipotent state decides what to do with it.
That is why it is accurate to call the Biden administration’s policies “fascist.” They use the FBI (and other government agencies) to control the media (e..g., Twitter and Facebook). They use DHS to control speech (which they euphemistically call “disinformation”). They control the energy industry (e.g., by killing pipelines and production, and by “steering” the economy to “renewables”). They use the CDC to control property owners and the medical industry. They criminalize dissent by weaponizing the FBI and DOJ, and by dubbing dissenters “white supremacists” and “extremists.” They usurp power over transportation by environmental controls and mandating EVs. They control your paycheck by redistribution it to pay for someone else’s student debt. (And that’s just a partial list of the administration’s lust for controls.)
For decades, America has been teetering toward fascism. The Biden administration is taking us to total fascism — i.e., to totalitarianism.
Waah – the FBI raided Trump’s house when all he did was steal hundreds of classified documents and nuclear secrets
Waah – Biden is calling us fascists when all we want to do is put our people in place as Secretary of States offices so we can steal the next election
Waah – Black people and foreigners are taking our jobs
Waah – They arrested Steve Bannon when all he did is create a fake charity and scan donors for millions to put in his pocket
Waah – They are trying to institute background checks before we can get an AK-47 just because of a bunch of school shootings with AK-47s
Waah – Trump should be able to say whatever he wants about anyone – whether there are facts to support it or not – and no one should be able to say anything about Trump even if it is true
Call the Waahmbulance
There already are background checks for what they call assault weapons. The democrats passed an assault weapons ban, which can’t pass presently in the Senate. Unfortunately for democrats, I am now seriously withholding my vote from Mark Kelly. But neither can I conscientiously vote for fascist Blake Masters. I will vote for Katie Hobbs for governor and might well leave the rest of my ballot blank. Voters on both sides of the isle are fed up with our leaders allegiance to Wall Street while the rest of us are left behind. Since Nixon’s endorsement of HMOs, for profit healthcare, and ever since both parties became increasingly with every administration the long arm for financial interests. That’s the war on the working class that nobody talks about. That’s why the people are irate on both sides. The only way to put out embers of civil war is serve the people of the USA and stop using unjust wars to funnel money to corporate interests. It’s as natural an evolution as history shows. Workers take a lot of crap but when you push them against the wall they are going to fight back.
Jonathan,
You draw an equivalence between Biden and Trump but fail to point out it was Biden who initiated the rhetorical attack. Responding to unprovoked violence, in language or direct, is not the same thing as initiating it. I’m sure you’ll respond (at least in your mind) that Trump struck first long ago but this again is not true. Trump ALWAYS responds and never initiates. Check the record. Cruz went after Trump so guess what happened: Trump hit back “ten times harder” as he put it. Same with Jeb. Same with every single attack.
Remember, Trump honestly said his favorite Bible verse is “An eye for an eye.” Might not be very Christian but definitely it’s reactive, not proactive.
Trump starts attacks all the time. What world do you live in?
Alternative reality……..
When Trump built his political career on the lie that Obama was not born in this country, which attack do you believe he was responding to?
please provide an example of where he initiated an attack instead of responding to an attack, or do you simply want to hide behind unsubstantiated glittering generalizations?
He attacks Mike Pence – even wanted him killed. Pence has never attacked Trump.
God you are gullible. Where did you hear that?? Rachel Maddow??
Trump attacked Pence in his 1/6 speech and afterwards. Didn’t you listen to what he said about Pence?
You haven’t listened to the Biden family much, have you? Especially the President and his administration. Mothers of children are considered Domestic Terrorists. Republicans have been detained and thrown in jail for no reason. J6 people have been denied legal representation and some have spent most of their time in solitary confinement, It’s OK to throw protestors off balconies while shooting to kill others.
You have very warped ideas.
List Trump’s attack: I’ll find you the trigger. Every. Single. Time.
Do Mike Pence. Trump makes a lot of attacks on him. What rhetorical attack did Pence make first?
If you think it is okay for Trump to hit back ten times harder when someone attacks him – do you think it is also okay for others to strike back at Trump ten times harder when Trump attacks them?
I hope you can see how this a formula for increasingly escalating attacks.
Or do you think only Trump should be escalating, and everyone else should the bigger person and move on?
Hey, Tit, I’m Tat. I don’t care if others respond ten times harder. I care only about who initiated the attack. Mush Christianity always says we should forgive, don’t judge, etc. I disagree. In every conflict we must find out who started it. There’s always a Prime Mover. If we deny that and blame both parties, we’re stuck with escalating violence until … well, you know the outcome.
Divorce is necessary when reconciliation is no longer viable. Better that the divorce be peaceful than violent else the whole house will burn down and nothing will be left.
@Ivan
I’ve commented this before, but to me it bears repeating: our counties in every American state are so intertwined this would not be possible without at the *least* forced relocation and a division of resources, and hoo boy, THEN people would have something to fight about. To me it seems it would more resemble East/West Germany, with the East still intent on destroying the West than India/Pakistan, which could be argued did not work out particularly well, either. A divorce just isn’t feasible, IMO. Good luck getting the generational blue people in Austin or Dallas or Houston or the generational red people in Bakersfield or Orange County, let alone the divisions within *massive* Los Angeles county, to willingly just pack up and leave, etc., etc., etc. It just isn’t going to work.
Joe Biden, a Globalist NWO neoliberal puppet is doing what his Masters command him to do. The radical left know they will lose the midterms and they are panicking. DeSantis for president.
Setting up for a False Flag October Surprise which will justify controls over voting. Couldn’t be more pathetically obvious.
The anticipatory conspiracy theory….this kind of infowarfare very out of place on JT’s site.
Biden could have said there are fine people on both sides of the insurrection on 1/6.
It wasn’t an insurrection but if he had said that he would have been correct.
Professor Turley,
This “poll” tells us absolutely nothing because it misrepresented what Biden said. The poll asked, “What is your opinion of President Biden’s recent primetime address to the nation in which he accused his political opponents of representing ‘an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic’?”
This is what Biden actually said: “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
Do you believe that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans” are the only “political opponents” of President Biden?
I, for one, am a political opponent of Biden, who is neither Donald Trump nor a MAGA Republican.
In fact, a Reuters/Ipsos poll recently found that 60% of Republicans don’t think Trump’s MAGA movement represents a majority of the party. https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-BIDEN/POLL/nmopagnqapa/
So, clearly, the poll question improperly characterized Biden’s remarks. It also never asked respondents whether they actually watched the speech. So, you cannot glean anything from this “poll.”
It feeds the Cult 45 crowd, and Turley knows it.
Perhaps not, but you can glean something from me and many others posting here who are real life, warm blooded voters. And not Republicans, to boot!
Race-based socialism. Sound like any group we know?
It was terrible when the Jews called Hitler and his followers fascists. It was also terrible when Hitler said bad things about the Jews, so he bulldozed any chance he had at the moral high ground. Can’t both sides, particularly the Jews, do better?
– Turley in 1939
Nothing should be left undone (or unsaid) when fighting ‘fascists’, right? And of course if you disagree with Biden (or any leftist)… And despite your otherwise liberal credentials, leftists see you no differently, JT – you’re a ‘nazi’ too!
And if we ‘fascists’ are so bad, why don’t we agree to split amicably?
I do not want to understand, dialogue or understand s@@tlibs, I WANT A DIVORCE!
antonio
I was glad to finally hear a politician call out the fascism on the Right. Now he needs to call it out on his own side for trying to take away the right of law abiding citizens to defend themselves and the nation with the AWB.
Is there anyone left who actually believes that Joe Biden participates in the writing of his speeches?
Hillary is channeling her testosterone driven rage for losing twice for President
– a black nobody
– a white rich blowhard
Richard, The dark speech he delivered, was written by historical propagandist, and msnbc regular Jon Meachem
The left requires violence. Celebrates violence
From the Deep Thoughts of VP Harris
“This is a movement, I’m telling you,” Harris said in the interview. “They’re not going to stop. And everyone beware, because they’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop before Election Day in November, and they’re not going to stop after Election Day. And that should be — everyone should take note of that, on both levels, that they’re not going to let up, and they should not, and we should not.”
Systemic racism by White Supremacists (TM) strikes again.
Biden is doing everything he can to unite our country considering White Supremacists “threat against democracy” (TM). It seems perfectly logical that Ezekiel Kelly
blaque thugvictim of Systemic Racism (TM), had no choice but to do what BLM AntiFascists taught all Democrats:violent crime, loot, arson, revolution like good little Marxistspeacefully protest. Is it his fault people did not follow his example and chose to jump in the way of bullets discharged by White Supremacists, QAnon, ProudBoys, Oathkeepers?#Defund
POLICEMAGA*** GUN HORROR Ezekiel Kelly’s family speak out as 19-year-old suspect is arrested after ‘bloody shooting is livestreamed on Facebook’ ***
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19741874/ezekiel-kelly-family-memphis-shooter-facebook-live/
“In the video, which has been shared on social media, Kelly could be seen exiting the car as he goes on an expletive-filled rant saying, “This s*** is for real,” before walking into an AutoZone and seemingly shooting a man without warning. When asked if she feels he was of sound mind during the alleged shooting, his aunt said: “No, he wasn’t. That’s not him.” “It’s hard to survive here, especially when you don’t know who your daddy is.”
The U.S. Sun can confirm Kelly has charges from 2020 including criminal attempt of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, employing a firearm with intent to commit a felony, and reckless endangerment. Court documents from Shelby County show he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and the other charges were dismissed. On April 6, 2021, he was sentenced to three years in the Shelby County Department of Corrections after he was tried as an adult. He was ordered to pay fines and costs amounting to $12,389.50 – and had agreed on a payment plan. Kelly was sentenced to three years but was released on March 16, 2022. Authorities had reportedly issued a warrant for Kelly’s arrest on Wednesday morning stemming from a February 3, 2020 incident.”
“Systemic racism by White Supremacists “ Black conservatives are the new white supremacists; communists are the new capitalists;
I’d like to hear more analysis of AG Barr’s most recent comments.
The Analysis of Barr is fairly succinct.
An aging denizen of the DC power structure is trying to rehabilitate himself, so his summers in the Hamptom’s are full of invites to all the right social events.
He is making few declarative statements and all is couched in qualifying language, recitation of statute, but failing to actually announce a personal position. People of both side can find solace on any of his interviews or editorials. On the same subject, same interview, both left and right are quoting him directly. That’s all you need to know.
Barr says the appointment of the Special master is wrong on the law, and President Trump should not be indicted.
I already know those things. I want to hear from Turley on the Law against Barr’s argument.
Jan 6th was a OBVIOUSLY Entrapment with clear Agent Provocateur….Ray Epps…not even investigated? This is like the Nazis blaming the communists for Reichstag fire. Democrats have been full fascists using every lever of government, media, business, banking, healthcare, law enforcement, etc to destroy their opponents.
When you have 50 Top US Intel Officials publish an OPEN public letter saying the crimes on Hunter Biden’s laptop are Russian Disinformation with out ONE PIECE of Evidence and undeniably an outright LIE
Hillary, Democrats, DOJ, FBI, NSA, etc work with a foreign spy and Russians to overthrow an election…and NOT ONE person is jailed for the treasonous Russian Hoax?
YOU HAVE CROSSED the Rubicon
Epps was investigated and cleared.
Is there ANYTHING that would convince you to change your mind?
Hillary was investigated, all the elements of crimes were proven, and the DoJ refused to apply applicable law.
That’s quite the non sequitur.
“quite the non sequitur.” A non sequitur on the prowl for non sequiturs.
“Epps was investigated and cleared.”
Of course. So was Hillary. Hunter is getting the same treatment.
Anonymous, you act as if in recent years justice has been distributed equally. It hasn’t. It has been distributed in Stalinist fashion. You don’t see anything wrong in that because that is what you are.
How was the poll slated. Like the vast vast vast majority of Americans on a nice late summer night-*, I never saw the speech so how could I answer this question. (The Marines thing does seem a little weird; no one called Biden on it?)
______________
*It being a late summer night had nothing to do with my not watching it. I have not watched a presidential speech since the nuns made us watch JFK’s inaugural speech in 1961
which is to say youre too old, too bitter and too bored for anyone to give a fluck
It sounds like Elvis Bug is making a return.
I remember many times Trump gave partisan speeches with the military or law enforcement behind him. I remember him broadcasting convention speeches from the White House. He even tried to get a military parade in his honor.
So that rubicon was crossed a while back.