Biden in Georgia: A Strategic Failure; A Tactical Nightmare
Biden in Georgia: A Strategic Failure; A Tactical Nightmare
The President signals he wants to win Twitter, not reality, and he's failing at that too.
Yesterday in Georgia, Joe Biden handed the Republicans 2022.
I need to say something frank going into this. I know a lot of Democrats have internalized that the GOP is a threat to democracy. I know the high brow color commentators on politics like John Harwood, Jon Meacham, the panel on Morning Joe, etc. really believe in the necessity of voting rights reform and tying it to the struggle from the sixties and John Lewis. I know Joe Biden cares tremendously about the opinions of these people who show up on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and the various roundtables. They all care deeply about this issue and they are deeply concerned about the Republicans’ behavior right now.
There’s just a single big problem here — no one else cares.
Barack Obama told Hispanic voters that Republicans were their enemies. He told his base to get in their neighbors’ faces and argue. He told them to take guns to knife fights. They ate it up.
But Joe was the empathetic guy who was going to unite the country after Trump. Now he’s doubling down on voting rights and claiming you are either on the side of George Wallace or Dr. King. Biden, you should know, once bragged that George Wallace liked Biden.
Genuinely, this is not an issue that moves undecided voters and it won’t move Democratic voters when the Democrats can’t even deliver on it. For Pete’s sake, Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Latino elected officials organization, Black Voters Matter, etc. boycotted yesterday’s event. Abrams, at least, claimed a scheduling conflict, but we all know she didn’t want to be on that stage.
Voters are seeing empty shelves in stores. They’re seeing higher prices. They’re seeing crime. They’re seeing closed schools. They’re seeing businesses shut down because COVID is running rampant. They don’t care about an issue by which old white men who grew up in the sixties and talk on television defined themselves.
Biden literally stole his line from one of those old white talking heads.
Here’s the problem for Democrats and I genuinely and sincerely mean this not as a partisan talking point, but as the objective truth. You can’t sell voters on this as the defining issue when they are struggling with pocketbook issues. You can’t make this your legacy when people are scared to go back to work over a virus. You can’t campaign on this when your own party cannot even pass it because of your party’s own opposition to it.
Joe Biden managed to piss off and incite Republicans at the same time his base is getting demoralized because they control it all and can’t get this passed. They actually won’t get this passed. It was dead before Biden even went to Georgia and it was dead because of Democrats, not Republicans.
I know Democrats care passionately about this. But in listening to the old white guys who pontificate on television, they’re going to lose in November. That, frankly, is the hilarious irony here. Jon Meacham has never won an election, but he’s about to cost the Democrats everything by virtue of Biden and Ron Klain giving disproportionate attention to men like him.
Politics 101 is very simple: don’t risk your political capital on a cause you fundamentally cannot get passed, particularly when you can’t pass it because of your own party. Joe Biden and Ron Klain don’t get that. Because they don’t get that, the Republicans will get the wins in 2022.
About John MacArthur
As you may have heard by now, Pastor John MacArthur went on a tirade denouncing “religious freedom” the other day. Or so that is what multiple outlets and blue checkmarks on Twitter claimed.
I actually went back and listened to the full hour of what MacArthur said. Now, you should know I’m a bit biased. I love his Bible Commentary series. The first time I preached was at an event in Colorado. It was a sermon on Genesis 1:1. I got up on stage, had my MacArthur study bible, and looked down at the couple just taking their seats beneath the podium. It was John MacArthur. My thirty minute sermon on Genesis 1:1 went by in about eight minutes. Y’all, I don’t get nervous in public speaking. I about wet myself I was so nervous. LOL.
In any event, I listened to this supposedly controversial sermon of his. You can too.
I think in the context of his sermon, I agree with him. He was not talking about the ability of different faiths to worship in a multi-ethnic country of different faiths. He was talking about Christians believing Christianity is true and all other religions are false and don't really give you freedom.
More specifically, he was talking about the habit of secular governments to up the persecution in this country every time those governments claim they support religious freedom. Obama was big into "religious freedom" while he was suing nuns. Gavin Newsom loves him some religious freedom and shuts down churches. When the world starts talking about "religious freedom" it tends to mean "we're coming for you, Christians."
That's just true and that is what MacArthur was talking about -- the "religious freedom" platitude masks the persecutor of Christ's church. He's right on that.
The people condemning him tend to be the people who tell others they should slow down, check their facts, and examine context. They probably need to do that themselves.