Last week’s “Red Wedding” speech, in which President Biden rhetorically butchered every MAGA-loving Donald Trump supporter in the spirit of the famous “Game of Thrones” episode, was a national disgrace and will go down in history as one of worst national addresses ever made by a president.
What’s the strategy behind the Biden campaign to demonize his political opponents and further divide the country?
Well, if you were Biden, what would you do?
You can’t really talk about the economy, because inflation is still out of control, and most voters think things are going to get worse before they get better.
You can’t talk about crime, because many in your political party unwisely advocated defunding the police, and while the American voters have a short memory, it’s not that short.
You can’t talk about education, because your policies have contributed to a major decline in student performance at all levels.
You can’t talk about immigration, because your open-border policy has proven toxic to many of the Hispanic voters who in the past were the biggest supporters of comprehensive immigration reform. Those voters now want safer streets and a stronger border because they are worried for their families.
You can’t scare people about COVID-19 or divide people on their vaccination status because most Americans have wisened up about the so-called experts’ failed promises and faulty data.
You can’t really talk about gun control because Congress just passed a gun control bill, no matter how ineffective it was.
You can talk about climate change, but few voters really care about climate change.
You can call the Republicans racist, but why would a racist political party work so hard to elect Black candidates like Herschel Walker in Georgia and John James in Michigan and a host of other rising stars? You can call the GOP homophobic, but then a significant chunk of House Republicans voted to codify gay marriage, and a significant chunk of Senate Republicans will likely follow suit in September.
Nope, if you are Biden, you are kind of out of bullets. So, the only thing you can do is attack the Make America Great Again Republicans.
Clearly, divided government is the only way to plausibly heal the soul of the nation.
Most voters think something is wrong with our democracy. Polling shows that Democrats, Republicans and independents are all concerned about the state of our government. As well they should be.
Our political system is a complete mess. The political class takes the wrong messages from the voters, and instead of working to solve problems, it goes out of its way to create new problems.
It’s not just the politicians. Even worse are the bureaucrats.
Health bureaucrats completely botched our response to COVID-19, making claims that were provably false and promises that had no basis in fact.
Public school bureaucrats took incompetence to a new level and mistreated our children, and now we have a real education and mental health crisis on our hands.
Some in the intelligence community, which once was so good at undermining and overthrowing foreign governments it didn’t like, turned their attention to undermining and then overthrowing our elected leadership that it didn’t like.
No wonder America is so divided and angry.
One-party rule has been bad for this country and bad for the soul of the nation.
We need more balance in our system — balance that will come from effective oversight hearings, fully-funded congressional investigations and a better accounting of taxpayer money.
The Biden administration has done a lot of harm in the last two years, a lot more than many of us could have anticipated. I knew it was going to be bad; I didn’t think it would be this bad.
If you care about the soul of the nation, vote for divided government. Republicans might not be perfect, but somebody must stop this out-of-control president, who seemingly wants to demonize the half of the country that voted against him in 2020.
Feehery is a partner at EFB Advocacy and blogs at thefeeherytheory.com. He served as spokesman to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), as communications director to former House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and as a speechwriter to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.).