I know the event that inspired this week’s Lexicon occurred last week, but the real impact of it is still being felt this week. Besides, the Lexicon self-identifies as timely, so if you disagree you’re a bigot!
Anyway, President Joe Biden gave an address to the nation last week. To say the optics were a little on the horrible side would be understating it quite a bit. Yet, the speech being called The Red Speech was just the kind of red (speech) meat the Left wanted. Leftists fought for column inches and TV time to praise the speech, even though they pretty much said the same things…
Anyway, let’s take a closer look at The Red Speech.
The Red Speech
What the Left thinks it means – an awesome speech preaching of uniting against the greatest threat to America in history
What it really means – a disjointed speech that only appeals to the Left’s totalitarian nature
So I don’t get accused of taking Biden’s words out of context, here are the text and video of the speech in question. Of course, that won’t stop Leftists from making the accusations because…reasons.
I was going to do a thorough analysis of the speech going over the various elements from the lighting to the location to the verbiage used. Then, I remembered it’s a Joe Biden speech. They typically have the intellectual rigor of a completed Sudoku puzzle. The speech itself isn’t as important as the Left’s reaction to it.
To put it mildly, they loved it so much, they smoked a cigarette (or a joint) or vaped or whatever it is they do afterwards. To them, it was a combination of a call to action, an affirmation of American (i.e. Leftist) values, and a shot over the bow of “MAGA Republicans” letting them know they weren’t going to take it anymore. It was, if you’ll pardon the expression (and even if you don’t), red meat for the Left. I’m not sure how the vegans on the Left felt, though…
Regardless, there were a lot of threads to tie together into one speech. Outside of the Leftist hivemind, the reaction was pretty much universal: the Red Speech sucked ass, and not in the fun way. Not only were the positive elements overpowered by the negative ones, but the visuals and vocal tone didn’t help matters either. It came off as loud, hateful, and generally tone-deaf. So, like an episode of The Young Turks.
You can tell how badly The Red Speech was received by how quickly the Biden Administration walked it back. Literally, within hours of giving it, kids. Now, I’m no Presidential speechwriter, but to me good speeches don’t have to be retracted, respun, and revised less than 24 hours after they were given.
And given President Biden’s track record of being less honest than tobacco companies in the 50s, it’s hard to tell whether the speech or the post-speech spin reflects his true feelings. That allows political opponents to assume the worst and express it, thus making a bad situation even worse for Biden. And guess what? The longer the outrage, real or manufactured, keeps The Red Speech in people’s minds, the more it will impact the midterms. You know, the ones where Democrats are hoping to hold the House and get at least 2 seats in the Senate? Yeah, try being a pro-Biden Democrat running on the “MAGA Republicans are the greatest threat to democracy right now…until they aren’t” message. That prospect is scarier than day-old sushi sold at Food Poisoning Emporium.
What should be even scarier for Leftists is the fact The Red Speech sounded and felt a lot like a speech from Donald Trump. All you would need to do is change a few words. Remember when we were told Joe Biden would be a better President because he wasn’t Trump? Almost two years and several clusterfucks later, the current President is sounding more and more like the former President and the Left doesn’t even see it.
Doubt me? Let’s check.
– The “otherization” of political opponents? Check.
– Blaming these “others” for problems Americans face? Check.
– Appealing to America’s greatness and resilience? Check.
– Promising to take action against those who threaten us? Check.
– Use of patriotic imagery as a backdrop? Check.
– Appeals to our emotions? Check.
– Cheers from audience members? Check.
– Rallying supporters to support party ideals and candidates? Check.
You get the idea. Leftists might not, but you do.
At this point, we should answer the lingering question why the Left slobbered over each other to praise The Red Speech. Aside from being full of the policy positions they love so much, it was also full of a lot of the stuff Leftists have been talking about in private being uttered in public. Normally, this would scare Leftists more than letting Biden go off-script, but in this case it’s exactly what they wanted because it makes those ideas seem plausible, possible, and inevitable. The Left has been talking about the possibility of civil war for a while now, either to criticize the Right or to pump up the Left’s egos to make them think they could win such a war easily. Even the President recently pooh-poohed the idea the Right could successfully beat the US military.
You know, the same MAGA Republicans who almost overthrew the government on January 6th, according to the Left?
I don’t understand the logic, either, kids.
What I do understand, though, is how The Red Speech fits into the Left’s totalitarian nature. They need to be in control of as much of our lives as possible, and post-COVID they’re looking for another hit of that sweet totalitarian shit. What better way to get people to run to the Left for protection than to overstate the threat the MAGA movement is to the country?
I’m not a MAGA guy, but I recognize some common traits in the members of the movement. Aside from being super-pro-Trump, that is. Most of the people being labeled as domestic terrorists by the Left are just regular people who just want to be left alone by government and for America to thrive. If you believe the Left, that’s what they want, too. They just have a different road to achieve it.
That road, of course, being letting them rule over everything and make all the important decisions because they’re so much smarter than we are. (Just ask them.) Since those pesky MAGA Republicans don’t agree with them, the Left has to resort to coercion and even force to get people to agree with them. Hence, the reason the midterms are so important to them and then the 2024 Presidential election.
Which makes The Red Speech seem like a much bigger fuck-up than I initially thought. Once you say the quiet part out loud, you’re kinda stuck with it. You can’t memory wipe the world…or can you?…no, no, you can’t. People are going to remember your words and hold you accountable to/for them.
Including people outside of your ideological sphere.
Conventional political wisdom says you have to try to attract the middle (i.e. the un-or-disenfranchised) to win elections. It’s easy to get voters if they already agree with your ideas, but it takes a bit of effort to expand that base to include people who may only agree with some of your ideas. And the more radical you appear, the less likely these possible voters will vote for you.
After The Red Speech, there are already Democrats trying to keep the stench off them in the hopes of still getting elected. And we’re not talking about no-name Democrats running for dog catcher, either. There are a few big name candidates ranging from Tim Ryan in Ohio to Raphael Warnock in Georgia. Although it can be argued they’re keeping their distance for reasons other than The Red Speech, it cannot be argued the speech itself makes it harder for red state Democrats to appeal to the middle, especially if they agree even a little bit with the MAGA Republicans.
Spoiler Alert, Leftists: It’s not just Republicans who support MAGA. There are more than a few people from your side who are getting turned off by the overheated bullshit and the lack of attention to more “kitchen table” issues that can make or break a candidate’s campaign. But, tell us again how buying an electric car will help when you practically need to take out a fourth mortgage just to get groceries.
The Red Speech won’t go down as one of the best speeches ever, but it certainly has lived down to its potential as one of the most infamous.
