At a DNC event on Thursday night, President Joe Biden delivered a stirring address in which he chastised Republicans for their “extreme” stances against abortion. After the Michigan Supreme Court determined that voters would decide whether to include abortion rights in the state constitution, he made his comments a few hours later.
After the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the constitutional right to abortion, Republicans in the state wished for a 1931 statute that prohibited abortion to take effect. Due to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling by the Supreme Court, certain anti-abortion legislation could not be passed in a number of states before that judgment was made.
The court said there is no constitutional right to an abortion in its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization earlier this year, leaving abortion regulations up to individual states.
On Thursday, Biden addressed the throng and said, “Republicans have awoken a huge force in this country: women.” “Read the judgment. And the court rules that if women don’t like it at the state level, they have the right to vote to alter it. Guess what, buddy? You are now here. Republicans are completely ignorant of women’s power. The crowd cheered. “They’re about to find out!” yelled Biden. “I mean it!”
Kansans decisively decided earlier this month to maintain a provision of the state constitution that, according to the Kansas Supreme Court, protects the right to an abortion.
The Dobbs rulings are intended to mobilize the Democratic base and prevent the party from losing its majority in Congress. Many believe that the loss of the House of Representatives is now only a matter of formality, while Democrats stand a greater chance of keeping the Senate in their hands.
In other parts of his speech, Biden made fun of Republicans for boasting about the legislation they voted against. The “spirit of the nation” was at risk, Joe Biden said when he entered the 2019 presidential contest.
As president, Biden is now ratcheting up that narrative by arguing that the midterm elections this autumn will be a referendum on democracy and the lies spoken by the former president Trump during the election.
Politically, the new rhetoric makes sense. It provides Biden with an opportunity to inspire Democrats to vote for the party in the upcoming midterm elections, when House majority will be at stake. It entails the president giving up the uniting tone that has been a major component of his messaging during his first term, therefore it also has some dangers.
Biden aims to energize the Democratic Party’s liberal base while placing the former president on the ballot by denouncing Trump and the Republicans who support him.
Democrats attempted to employ this tactic in Virginia in 2021 after losing the governor’s office there. This autumn, the White House and Biden’s party are expecting for better results. The FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago house one month ago, which has dominated headlines ever since, has raised Biden’s narrative.
Republicans are concerned about the spat between Trump and the Department of Justice because it gives Democrats a chance to make the elections more about Trump.
Democrats claim that portraying Trump and his associates as dangers to democracy in order to safeguard it can be a successful strategy. Republicans with strong ties to the former president, such as Herschel Walker in Georgia, Blake Masters in Arizona, and J.D. Vance in Ohio, will be on the ballot even if Trump isn’t.
According to Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau, “the concept that there are people who are unsuited to occupy public office and should not be in power is an issue that can be layered over whatever other policy problems are at play.”
According to polling, 67 percent of American adults, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released late last month, believe that the country’s democracy is in danger of collapsing. NBC News poll results from the same month showed that a greater proportion of voters ranked threats to democracy as the country’s top concern than the cost of living.
In a prime-time speech delivered from Philadelphia on Thursday, Biden revived the topic and attacked Trump and Republicans who support him as dangers to equality and democracy in the US.
“Too much of what’s going on in our nation right now is abnormal. By using the phrase “Make America Great Again,” the former president’s campaign slogan, Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans “represent an extreme that challenges the fundamental underpinnings of our country,” Biden argued.
In his comments on Labor Day from Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, Biden continued to emphasize the importance of the midterm elections for preserving democracy. In Wisconsin, Biden charged that Trump-aligned Republicans supported “the mob that invaded the Capitol” on January 6, 2021 and encouraged political violence.
The subject is not exactly new to Biden. Trump’s eight years in office, according to Biden in 2019, “will irrevocably and profoundly alter the nature of this nation, who we are, and I cannot stand by and watch that happen,” he added.
Republicans, even many who criticized Trump and his exaggerations about his 2020 election defeat, have criticized Biden’s attack lines. Some have labeled Biden’s statements as divisive and charged that he alienated a significant portion of the electorate that supported Trump in the most recent presidential election.
According to Doug Heye, a former spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, “Biden is making the strategic gamble that talking about Trump enough would whip up his supporters and help people forget inflation and growing crime.” But even though Joe was from the working class, he failed to make an effort to win over those who might have only grudgingly supported Trump because they believed the Democrats had shifted too far to the left.
Heye cited a message from Biden’s presidential Twitter account that said “MAGA Republicans” were in league with Wall Street interests and continued, “And in basically labelling everything ‘MAGA Republicans,’ it regurgitates the same rhetoric they used to call Mitt Romney too radical.”
