Biden speech and Trump ad are opposite sides of a monumental debate
PLUS: Why Chris Christie must stay in the race and continue to challenge Donald Trump
President Biden’s speech at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, was superb. The message must be sustained, and the president of the United States must take the fight towards the dangers he clearly defined and named. Donald Trump is the most dangerous demagogue in American history. His MAGA cause is trying to overthrow 248 years of American independence, and replace it with a tyranny filled with a menagerie of American Nazis, theocrats, grifters, sexual predators galore, conspiracy theorists, election deniers, serial liars, and a collection of scumbaggery that boggles the imagination.
The MAGA/GOP and its extremist cause is vicious, dishonest, destructive, hateful and utterly corrupt. MAGA is an anti-American cause that demands constant, serious, forceful and relentless confrontation. President Biden must connect the past to our present, and tell the nation where we are going. He must offer a restorative vision with a very simple concept at its core:
Joe Biden is on your side.
Donald Trump despises you and America, and wants to burn it down for his own selfish gain. He is a threat. Catastrophe is what he will bring to America and the world.
I want you to watch a campaign video that Donald Trump released yesterday with attention. Here it is:
What do you see?
Did you laugh? Did you wonder who could possibly be influenced by it? Perhaps you scorned the rubes watching it in red America? Did you think it was ineffective? Dumb? Crazy? Did you think it was normal? Did it seem sinister?
I want to be crystal clear about what I see from the perspective of someone who has been involved in over a billion dollars worth of campaign advertising, and who was the strategic director of the most brutally effective campaign ever waged against MAGA, which was the work of the 2020 Lincoln Project. What I see is world-class propaganda that is antithetical and alien towards the basic concepts of Americanism and the ideals of the United States.
Though the Trump ad is a remake of Paul Harvey’s famous tribute to the American farmer, the overall aesthetic evokes Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda films that created a cult personality around Adolf Hitler and fanaticism among the German people, who were poisoned by a deluge of hate, antisemitism, revenge fantasies, lies, grievance, resentment and delusions. They include “Der Sieg des Glaubens (The Victory of Faith),” “Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Wills),” and “Olympia,” which covered the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
The Trump ad is simultaneously blasphemous, authoritarian, preposterous and terrifying. What is terrifying about the piece is its construction and sophistication.
Look at how the American media is denounced with biblical language and compared to Satan, who manipulates with lies and a forked tongue. The imagery accompanying the words is of Melania Trump stumbling on a walk towards Marine One. Trump throws an arm around her to catch her and keeps it there for a second to steady her. The implication is clear. They are in love and everything you hear about Donald Trump’s sexual misconduct and predations is a lie engineered by Satan. Millions of Americans will believe this. They also believe Trump has been sent by God. We live in a profoundly dangerous moment. The MAGA movement is filled with theocrats who believe that half of America is a satanic enemy that must be destroyed to save America. Religious fanaticism is a particular variant of evil, and it is well established within the United States.
Christian nationalism is a grave threat to the United States and the American republic. There should be no ambiguity or dullness when it comes to understanding what it is — no matter how benign it may present itself. It is what lurks beyond the veneer that is terrifying. There, the evil is revealed and manifested.
The dogma is a perversion of Christ’s teachings that is antithetical to Christianity. More importantly, Christian nationalism is utterly opposed to democracy. Theocrats despise the United States. God‘s laws are beyond the reach of the American state, and Christianity is but one religion in the beautiful mosaic of American faith.
The US Constitution is the law of the land in the United States. Within it are the protections that safeguard our liberty. The freedoms of speech, dissent, conscience, worship and expression shall stand untroubled for as long as the great republic endures. We are within one calendar year of its possible end. We have arrived at a moment of grave crisis that cannot be ignored. The abyss that looked distant seven years ago is at hand.
Christian nationalism is incompatible with American democracy and pluralism. When political extremists take power in the name of God there is always death. Always.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, second in line to the office of president of the United States, is a dangerous man because he is a fanatical man. All fanatics are dangerous.
Johnson is a particular stripe of fanatic. He is a religious fundamentalist in pursuit of political power to impose his delusions and extremism on society. His conviction is absolute. His belief is unshakeable. He is a vessel of God’s will, and through him, God’s grace. Societies where such men come to power are the most evil places on Earth.
There is no virtue in mocking sincerely held beliefs by sincere people who have faith in things beyond proof or even comprehension. Tolerance demands faith be respected as it demands that faithful people not seek to impose any faith on another against their will. There is nothing wrong with appreciating what it is that the man second in line to the presidency believes.
Here is one thing he believes that is not true. Mike Johnson believes human beings and dinosaurs lived together 6,000 thousand years ago. This isn’t so any more than the Earth is flat, or the moon made out of cheese.
What it demonstrates is that Mike Johnson can be made to believe nonsense is real.
When “My Kevin” (Trump’s affectionate nickname for Kevin McCarthy) went to Mar-a-Lago after the insurrection to make sure a depressed Trump was eating, according to Liz Cheney, Mike Johnson was worshipping the orange calf.
Johnson was spreading lies about Trump’s victory in the name of God, with absolute certainty that he is an angel in an army of God’s chosen leaders — or “dominionist” agents of social transformation — who seek control over American society through the Seven Mountain Mandate or Seven Mountains of Influence (click this link for more on each of the elements below):
Religion
Family
Education
Government
Media
Arts and entertainment
Business
Today, they are an army in waiting. They are a mob before the formation. They have grown tired of democracy and the concept of pluralism. They want you to hear from them, and according to their plans, you will soon.
Related to all of this are the robust plans by the Claremont Institute and Trump to incinerate the US civil service. They plan to decimate the functioning of government in favor of conforming the government to the service of a leader, an ideology and a cabal of enforcers who will restrict political liberty, while apportioning economic favors to special friends and favored classes. They will be the vanguard in a re-ordering of American life away from the idea that all are created equal, and more towards the idea that the saved and powerful are first among equals — always. It is a recipe for not just disaster and chaos, but evil.
Ultimately, the United States government asked Frank Capra to make a series of films titled “Why We Fight” during the Second World War. The work was brilliant, and should be watched by the Biden campaign team because Capra was very conscious that he needed to answer Riefenstahl. His films, which educated the American soldier and public about the global threats to democracy, were democracy’s moral answer to the dictators. The films juxtapose two visions of humanity’s condition — free and slave.
Capra’s challenge was articulating the menace of a sinister threat, while celebrating the worthiness of freedom and America in a simple manner. He had to effectively rebut the powerful propaganda, the likes of which had never been seen before in film.
The Biden speech and Trump ad are opposite sides of a monumental debate.
The Trump ad is something dark, and it is not something produced by a man who wishes to lead a constitutional republic. The man in the ad should never possess the power of the Gods and control America’s nuclear arsenal. He should not be allowed to control the lives and destinies of Americans, while glorifying himself and enriching his clique in the name of God.
When I watched Trump’s ad I felt a chill down my spine.
When I saw President Biden’s speech I felt confident I saw the answer to Trump’s ambitions, which is to believe in America, practice citizenship and “Be Not Afraid.” The American people will hold the line against the madness and evil that are gathering.
Why Chris Christie must stay in the race and continue to challenge Donald Trump
I break down the narrowing field in the 2024 Republican primary. Expanding upon my essay from yesterday, Chris Christie must stay in the race and continue to fight against Donald Trump, as opposed to Nikki Haley, who is simply running to be Trump's VP:
“Did you laugh? Did you wonder who could possibly be influenced by it? Perhaps you scorned the rubes watching it in red America? Did you think it was ineffective? Dumb? Crazy? Did you think it was normal? Did it seem sinister?”
Sadly, I didn’t laugh. This rhetoric is far too familiar to me to find any humor in it. The religious undertones and delusions of these religious fanatics is mind boggling.
Not to mention, the absurdity of a deeply flawed, secular kleptocrat being the savior of the free world. It’s almost a scene straight out of the Omen. God enlisting the worst sinners to do his bidding is hilarious on its face. I guess it’s the same principle as “to catch a crook, you need the mind of a crook.” Except, Trump is the biggest crook of all.
I do understand how the evangelicals can support a rapist in Trump, though. They forgave Josh Duggar for raping his sister for years, and thought Roy Moore was a good, god fearing Christian, even though he’s a pedophile. Their reasoning? Mary had Jesus at 15, so child rape isn’t a sin.
Or how God created Trump to burn the midnight oil in cabinet meetings? Seriously? He did t show up to the Oval until 11:00 am and promptly left by 4:00pm; spending hours tweeting all day. Trump gives new meaning to the term bankers hours. He also spent more than a year and a half on the golf courses during his first term in office.
That said, of course this advertisement will be warming received by his flock; and that’s the hilarious part! I guess when these rubes can be easily manipulated by a bunch of prosperity ministers, who continually fleece their flocks weekly, voting for a narcissistic, sociopathic, authoritarian kleptocrat is just the natural progression.
My initial thoughts watching the Trump ad were this can’t be real. This must be satire. Is Steve joking with us? Yesterday I described Trump as a sick, twisted monster. I will dig in and stand by that statement.
My only disappointment with Biden’s speech was it happened while millions were at work and did not see it.