The boogeyman in folklore is an amorphous monster often lurking in the dark. Parents sometimes invoke this monster to scare their children into good behavior: “behave or the boogeyman will get you.”
Today, that boogeyman is the theme of Biden’s re-election campaign as Biden targets so-called “MAGA extremists” in his reelection rhetoric as a threat to America: vote for him because those “MAGA extremists are lining up to” get you.
When an incumbent president’s record is bereft of any accomplishments other than runaway inflation, soaring gas and food prices, high interest rates, raging crime and record murder rates in our cities, immigration chaos and human trafficking at the U.S. – Mexican border, Chinese fentanyl flowing into our country killing our children, the horrific failed withdrawal from Afghanistan reminiscent of the debacle in Vietnam, and an approval rating hovering around an anemic 40% with about 70% of Americans believing the country is on the wrong track, he needs a boogeyman monster to distract the voters and scare them into voting for him.
Yes, those hard-working Americans who believe in God, country, the U.S. flag, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, American exceptionalism, and patriotism — “We the People” — are scary. In 2016, Clinton labeled them the “deplorables.” For Biden, the derogatory tag is “MAGA extremists.”
If you believe in parents’ right to educate and care for their children, you are one of Biden’s MAGA extremists.
If you believe that schools should focus on core academic subjects like math and science, academic achievement, academic merit, and not gender ideology and the false narrative of systemic racism, you are a Biden MAGA extremist.
If you believe in biological science, and agree with Riley Gaines and Martina Navratilova that transgender women should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports, you are a Biden MAGA extremist.
If you are a parent who believes that transgender girls (biological boys) should not be allowed in your daughter’s school bathroom and locker room, you are a Biden MAGA extremist.
If you believe in free speech and religious liberty, and object to the Department of Justice and FBI targeting parents at school board meetings, Catholics who attend Latin Mass, and prolife advocates as domestic terrorists, you are a Biden MAGA extremist.
If you believe in free speech and academic freedom on college campuses and oppose the abusive, threatening attacks on conservative speakers and faculty, you are a Biden MAGA extremist.
If you believe in national security, border security, and energy independence, you are a Biden MAGA extremist.
If you believe in hard work and individual merit, and oppose racist, discriminatory DEI government entitlement programs, job promotions, and college, medical school, and law school admissions as contrary to the Constitution, you are a Biden MAGA extremist.
If you believe crime should be prosecuted and victims protected, you are a Biden MAGA extremist.
The list goes on. You get the idea. Biden and the Democrats are chartering a radical course for our country. Free speech is their speech. Nothing else is tolerated. There is no religion except their woke religion. Science is whatever they dictate. And those who oppose Biden’s radical, destructive agenda are deplorable MAGA extremists.
This all makes the 2024 election a critical imperative for Republicans and the 70% of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track. The twist here is that these Americans are not the scary, extremist political monsters as Biden claims.
No, the truly frightening specter for our country and threat to the Constitution is Biden himself as a reelected president and a Democrat-controlled Congress.
Michael Clancy is a lawyer, member of The Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation, and former Republican congressional candidate. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeClancyVA.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.