It has been obvious to the vast majority of the public, and more recently even to most Democrats , that President Joe Biden is incapable of leading the country. But it is not as though Democrats don’t have much better candidates to replace him. This was painfully clear in the contrast between the way Biden treated the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump and the way it was handled by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Biden and Shapiro took time, as was right, to honor Corey Comperatore, who, in Biden’s words, “was a husband, a father, a volunteer firefighter, and a hero.” Comperatore was killed while sheltering his family from bullets fired by the shooter trying to kill Trump.
But Biden left out a crucial detail about Comperatore that is relevant to this combustible moment in our politics, which was not missed by Shapiro, who said, “Corey was an avid supporter of the former president and was so excited to be there last night with him in the community. Corey died a hero … Corey was the very best of us. May his memory be a blessing.”
It is vital to the political health of our nation that we have politicians sufficiently statesmanlike that they can see someone both as a “hero” and an “avid supporter" of the leader of the opposing party. Not all political opponents are villains, indeed most are not; they just disagree on politics. But that is not the way Biden operates. His whole election campaign is based on a fictional black-and-white picture of this election being between good and evil. Acknowledging the humanity of someone on the other side is antithetical to his entire reelection strategy. The fundamental premise of Biden’s political future, as short-lived as it appears to be, is that not just Trump, but all “MAGA Republicans," including Comperatore, are, in Biden’s words, “a threat to this country.”
“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” the president said in Philadelphia less than two years ago. Or more recently, Biden said, “Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He’s a threat to our freedom, he’s a threat to our democracy, and he’s literally a threat to all we stand for as a nation.” Last week, he told donors, “it’s time to put Trump in the bull’s-eye.”
If anyone needs to tone down their rhetoric it is Biden. But at no point in his speech Sunday did he admit he was part of the problem or attempt to humanize supporters of Trump.
We still do not know what motivated Trump’s would-be assassin, but both Biden and Shapiro recognize a desire among voters to “take down the temperature and rise above the hateful rhetoric that exists,” as Shapiro put it.
That can happen only if Biden shows leadership and stops irresponsibly calling Trump an existential threat to our nation. Even many of those who say it so often know it is not true. As Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) said in a statement following the shooting, “This election should not be misleadingly portrayed as a no-holds-barred struggle between democracy or authoritarianism."
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Elections have consequences. If Biden wins, the federal government will grow bigger and spend more money and more illegal immigrants will be allowed into the country. If Trump wins, there will be less spending on tax credits and green energy investments and the border will be shut down. Depending on your political beliefs, one of these outcomes is more appealing than the other. But under both, our nation will survive and regular elections will continue as scheduled. Democracy is not on the ballot.
Our country needs more Democrats like Shapiro and Golden. Unfortunately, we are still stuck with Biden.
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