Joe: Ballot battle biggest ‘since Civil War’

President Biden on Tuesday compared Republican state election reforms to the Civil War during a speech in Pennsylvania.

“We’re facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That’s not hyperbole, since the Civil War, Biden said.

“The 21st century Jim Crow assault is real. It’s unrelenting. We’re gonna challenge it, vigorously.”

Biden, speaking near Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, then continued to draw parallels between the current political environment and the War Between the States.

“The Confederates, back then, never breached the Capitol as insurrectionists did on January the 6th,” Biden said.

“I’m not saying this to alarm you; I’m saying this because you should be alarmed.”

In pointed commentary on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Biden said that “democracy held” in the US despite coming “close” to failing.

“Folks, we met the test because of the extraordinary courage of elected officials, many of them Republicans, our court system and those brave Capitol police officers,” he said.

For President Biden, it’s “the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That’s not hyperbole, since the Civil War.”

Good God! What insurrection or secession is he talking about? What threat to our union?!

Turns out it’s voting laws.

Sorry, Joe, that’s the very definition of hyperbole. The Democrats, who, as a pandemic safety measure, introduced universal mail-in voting that required neither IDs nor requests for ballots, now say that any change or restriction to that system is literally the Confederates attacking Fort Sumter.

In Texas, the proposed law would set hours for early voting; require voters to request an absentee ballot and then write in their driver’s license number or other identification; and set rules for poll watchers. Rather than vote for it, Texas Democrats fled to DC and sang “We Shall Overcome.”

When Oregon Republicans pulled such a stunt in 2019, Vox said they were “subverting democracy.” When the Texas Democrats did it, Vice President Kamala Harris called it “as American as apple pie.”

This is a common refrain. When Democrats redraw congressional districts or use the filibuster, it’s just democracy in action. When Republicans do it, it’s apocalypse now.

These laws will pass. The Republic will stand. But, as with his other overwrought warnings of doom, President Biden will prove again that he’s not to be taken seriously.