As I looked at the photos of President Biden’s Philadelphia speech, I was filled with a sense of foreboding dread. Independence Hall, drenched with blood red-lighting, no longer reminded me of the small Pennsylvania State House where our founding documents were signed and a free nation was born. Rather, President Biden, rising high above those he now governs, shaking his fists in an authoritarian fashion, turned his back on those ideals and attacked all Americans who question him and his radical agenda. The prison-like red brick backdrop – guarded by brave Marines he used as political pawns – presented a Hollywood setting fitting for a villain scene in an Avengers movie.
During this hate-filled speech, our president – the leader of the free world – told America that if you disagree with him, you are a “MAGA Republican” and thus a threat to American values. You are morally repugnant, you incite violence, and you are a danger to democracy. The White House called his speech the “Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation.” But labeling tens of millions of Americans as a threat to the U.S. and comparing the philosophy of MAGA Republicans to “semi-fascism” are hardly the words of a president, less one who stated during his inauguration speech that “together, we shall write an American story of hope, not fear. Of unity, not division… Of love and of healing.”
It is hard to imagine how the words from the President’s speech in Philadelphia could heal the soul of our nation. To Joe Biden, Americans who dare to disagree with him are a small remnant unwittingly herded by Trump. It’s a tactic demagogues deploy to distort reality and attack political opponents and critics of their rhetoric.
This rhetoric is only deployed to further divide our nation and save a floundering political agenda. Of course, this is nothing new for this president. He’s been using the term “MAGA Republicans” in speeches since May. In fact, he’s used it more than 50 times as he parades around the country trying to distract from the fact that his policies have led to record inflation and a recession while forcing you to pay record prices for gas, food, energy, and rent. Not to mention, we’ve also seen a spike in crime nationwide and poisonous drugs seeping into our communities.
Certainly, it’s ironic that he labels anyone who disagrees with him as violent. Even today, the White House fails to condemn violence and looting wreaking havoc on our nation and the alleged assassination plot against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Four years of questioning President Donald Trump’s legitimacy and seven Democrat objections to the results of the 2016 election go unchallenged. Yet, he lambasts anyone who inquired about the 2020 election as politically violent and an election denier.
He continues to attack anyone who disagrees with him as a “MAGA Republican” to excite his base. He has no other choice as his failed policies have left progressive and traditional Democrats looking for a new leader. Thus, he adopts a dangerous tone in an emotion-laden scene to present himself as a gothic superhero full of hostility and anger in an attempt to mobilize voters that never really followed him, but rather lived with him as the only candidate they believed could beat President Trump. And now, like a broken toy, many Democrats are done with him.
All that said, if a MAGA Republican is a person who has always believed in America, who loves our country, who is patriotic, who thinks values like faith and family are important, who believes local communities can best solve their problems, that local parents should set guardrails for their local schools, that law and order are an absolute necessity, who believes in hard work and good jobs, then count me and the 74 million Americans who voted Republican in 2020.
MAGA Republicans, a progressive Democrats, and those in between know we do not want, nor can afford to go, in the direction Joe Biden is taking us. This isn’t speculation, polls show it. A recent NBC News poll showed 74 percent of Americans feel the nation is headed in the wrong direction. We’ve come a long way from Joe Biden’s inaugural call for unity. But like my college track coach told us all many times, “don’t tell me, show me.” Our nation longs for congruent leaders with integrity whose actions, words, and policies all match. This is the true definition of a leader. And we need one now.
Roger Marshall represents the state of Kansas in the United States Senate.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.