On one side or the other
Regarding “Opinion: So much for unity. Biden’s speech cast millions of Americans as the enemy within.” (Sept. 9): Bret Stephens blasts President Biden’s speech in Philadelphia two weeks ago because Biden called out MAGA Republicans. Stephens acknowledges that Biden was careful to distinguish between traditional Republicans and those who have embraced Donald Trump, but then asserts that Biden painted with too broad a brush. No one who watched or read the speech and who has paid any attention over the past six years can honestly contend that they don’t know exactly who Biden was talking about. Stephens parses the president’s words only so that he can feign disappointment that Biden would condemn those who supported Trump instead of just blaming Trump. Stephens would have Biden focus on the tip of the malignant iceberg and ignore the Mount Everest of malignancy supporting it. The example Stephens cites as the paragon of decency that Biden failed to emulate is President Abraham Lincoln, who showed some amount of grace towards Southerners in his two inaugural addresses. Yet, Stephens ignores Lincoln’s 1858 speech in which he declared “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” and forcefully proclaimed that our “government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.” Lincoln’s words presented a stark binary choice. Americans could be on one side or the other. No compromise, at all — ever. Biden echoed precisely that sentiment when he said in Philadelphia: “You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-American.” A stark binary choice — no compromise. Stephens correctly identifies Donald Trump as the worst of the worst but is entirely wrong when he points to Trump as the problem instead of those who support him.
Rand Nolen, Houston
Bret Stephens contrasts President Biden’s recent speech with one of conservatives’ favorite Lincoln quotes: calling for “malice toward none” and “charity for all.” Apparently Stephens missed Lincoln’s preceding paragraph. Like Biden, Lincoln left no doubt which side was right: “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, ... still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’”
Unless and until Republicans distance themselves from Donald Trump and his election lies, Biden is absolutely correct in identifying them as a threat to democracy. What do you call the 147 Republicans in the House and Senate who would not vote to recognize Joe Biden’s free and fair election even after the violent assault on the Capitol? I call them the “Sedition Caucus.” (The “Responsible Adult Caucus” who indicated by their impeachment votes that Trump was unfit for office numbered a mere 17.)
Stephens sees Donald Trump as the
“gravest threat American democracy faces today,” and is not concerned about “the Republican Party, MAGA or otherwise.” He fails to show how you can separate the two. If there is a silent majority of Republicans opposing Trump, they have been intimidated into silence, if not expelled from the party. Although Stephens shamelessly blames Democrats, it is the fault of Republicans when Trump-endorsed MAGA extremists win their party’s nominations.
Walter Kamphoefner, Bryan