Biden’s view of the US is dangerously naive
Leftists often describe Right-wingers as Manichean in their thinking: too willing to present the world in black-and-white terms. As it happens most conservatives I know are happy enough to rub along in the grey zones of life. But goodness, how the Left has become what it accuses the Right of being.
Joe Biden’s speech at the Democratic National Convention this week could hardly have been more Manichean. As he struggled to read his teleprompter for over 20 minutes, Biden warned that “the current president has cloaked American [sic] in darkness for too long”.
Fortunately enough, Joe turned out to be opposed to darkness. “I’ll be an ally of the light, not the darkness,” he promised, going on to assure people that he would lead America towards “a path of hope and light”. At times I wondered if Biden’s autocue had malfunctioned and he was reading excerpts from a Harry Potter book.
Though some people were stirred by this rhetoric, for others it simply highlighted America’s problems. Yes, Trump is divisive. But the US media is divisive. And so is the Democratic Party, and most of its rising stars. None of them are capable of quelling flames they allow to rage while claiming to abhor.
Take the violence that has been occurring nightly in the city of Portland, Oregon.
Night after night so called “Antifa” stalk the streets of this Democrat-run city looking for “Nazis” to assault. There being a dearth of Nazis in Portland, they tend to settle for attacking old ladies, almost blinding police officers and hauling citizens from their cars before hospitalising them. All in the name of “social justice”, obviously. What does the Democratic Party have to say about this, or the unrest occurring in cities across America?
In his convention speech, Biden once again pretended that three years ago Trump had praised the racists who marched in Charlottesville.
The record shows that the president did no such thing. Indeed, he explicitly said that the “neo-nazis and white nationalists” who marched that day “should be condemned totally”.
Since the shocking killing of George Floyd there has been looting, arson and killing across America, all under the cloak of protest. I know it may not be Manichean enough for Biden, but ought not the Democrats have some words of condemnation for this?
Apparently not. Which is why even if America does vote for Biden, it isn’t going to find itself on some path of light, but will continue to stumble around as badly as the contender they have put all their hopes in.