In his “Soul of America” speech, delivered at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall on Sept. 1, President Joe Biden distinguished between two types of Republicans: mainstream Republicans and MAGA Republicans.
But Biden focused most of his attention on MAGA Republicans. He didn’t mince words, and it wasn’t pretty.
Biden said: “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
He said: MAGA Republicans “do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election.”
He said: MAGA Republicans “promote authoritarian leaders and they fan the flames of political violence.”
He said: “Democracy cannot survive when one side believes there are only two outcomes to an election: either they win or they were cheated. That’s where MAGA Republicans are today.”
In fact, Biden so sternly excoriated MAGA Republicans that Donald Trump, the MAGA Republican in chief, called the speech “the most vicious, hateful, and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president.”
Trump is prone to exaggeration. Still, I worry that Biden didn’t leave enough room, somewhere between the left wing and the MAGA Republicans, to accommodate the traditional conservatives who are essential to our democracy. I wish Biden had given them a little more space, along these lines:
From its founding, America’s political history can be described as a struggle over how big the federal government should be. If liberals want a strong federal government, conservatives represent an important restraining force that keeps government somewhere in the mid-range. It’s hard to imagine our nation without them.
Of course, this formulation embodies an inherent advantage for conservatives: Republicans can always achieve political traction by running on “small government,” “low taxes” and “weak regulations.” No Democrat can run on “big government,” “high taxes” and “strong regulations.”
But terms such as “high taxes” and “low taxes,” “big government” and “small government” are meaningless. Politics is about finding the sweet spot, the place where most citizens are more or less satisfied with the size of the government they get for the amount of taxes they pay. And conservatives are essential to finding that balance.
This simplified portrayal of ordinary American politics has been skewed toward the right — to the particular advantage of MAGA Republicans — by the right wing’s successful, albeit often disingenuous, appropriation of cultural territory and values to which it’s not necessarily entitled. Here’s a striking concrete example:
A recent New York Times article describes Republican inroads among Hispanics in South Texas, an area that has traditionally voted Democratic. When Andrew Infante, raised as a Democrat, decided to run as a Republican for justice of the peace in Cameron County, he said that he was attracted to GOP values: “self-reliance, hard work, God, family and a love of our country.”
Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden don’t believe in God, family and hard work? They don’t love their country? It’s presumptuous of Republicans to claim a monopoly on these values.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump, an outspoken, charismatic figure, has claimed — without necessarily practicing — the virtues of “small government” and “low taxes.” He has also commandeered cultural values such as God, family and hard work, a particularly preposterous move for Trump. And he has tapped into our natural human attraction to grievance and anger — an election has been stolen, your jobs have been taken away, white people are under attack.
All of this has furnished a tremendous amount of oxygen to the MAGA end of the political spectrum, suffocating the traditional conservatives who live closer to the right of center.
During his “Soul of America” speech, President Biden said “not every Republican, not even a majority of Republicans are MAGA Republicans.” I hope he’s right.
But a recent New York Times/Siena College poll reported that more than 70% of Republicans say that they would vote for a candidate who alleges — entirely erroneously — that the 2020 election was stolen.
Normal Republicans, please come back. Your country needs you.
