Quote (Black XistenZ @ Sep 2 2022 09:02pm)
If Biden wanted to refer to a specific subset of Republicans, then Biden should have used a more precise term instead of a widely used umbrella term that like... half? of the Republican base identify with.
Also, it's not like he has shied away from labeling these (allegedly) extremist Republicans and their entire movement as, quote, "semi-facism". How are voters supposed to receive it when Biden calls the politics they support "semi-fascism"? If you support fascism, you are a fascist, right? So, there is really no other way for them to interpret Biden's words than to mean that Biden considers them (semi-)fascists too.
But that's the point of contention, isn't it? The vast majority of Republican voters disagree with the notion that Trump or his allies on Capitol Hill are a threat to democracy. Or they do, but think that Democrats are an even bigger threat.
What could they have done to get their house in order that wouldn't have ripped the party apart and handed Democrats supermajorities for at least two election cycles?
I understand the argument and even agree that the Republicans who are looking the other way are playing with fire, but so are Democrats when they prop up these extremists against mainstream Republicans in what will likely be a GOP-leaning year. Why should sane Republican voters feel bad about their own cynical political calculus and playing with fire (by not holding Trump accountable and trying to sweep Jan 6 under the rug) when they see Democrats engaging in similarly cynical and risky political calculus (putting authoritarian loons much closer to Congress while defeating Republicans who believed in democracy)?
Again: judge them by their actions, not their words. If the threat of the MAGA movement to American democracy was really as huge as Biden wants us to believe, Democrats would never support them with Democratic campaign funds, just to get a marginally more beatable general election opponent.
About the bolded part: you cannot seriously believe that Biden and his strategist genuinely expect his speech to make Republicans reconsider their vote. Anyone who's still siding with Trump and his Republicans after the past 6 years will surely not be swayed by the words of a Democratic president. This rhetoric is very transparently geared toward his own voters - he's trying to drive Democratic turnout by creating an existential threat that motivates his base.
Again, I think you need to go back to the explanation that Biden described in his speech. According to polling, it's roughly 25% of Republicans who "approve" of what happened on Jan 6. You can nitpick all you want but you have to understand that Republicans are ALWAYS going find reason to be upset. You can find elected officials crying about how "half the country was labeled domestic terrorists" or "half the country committed treason." As for the movement itself, I'm not sure what else to call something where if you win, it's legitimate, but if you lose, it's rigged. How would you define such a principle? As for the vast majority of Republicans preferring fascism over liberalism, that's fine. If they are so repulsed by what Democrats stand for and/or support Trumpism then we need to live with it. We get the government that we deserve. You can only do so much convincing.
What could Republicans have done? Is this a serious question? After Trump lost the election, they could have cast him away as a loser. After Jan 6, they could have cast him away as a fascist. Hell, they could cast him away NOW over the stolen defense information. It's not like there is a void either. They could literally use DeSantis to "own the libs!" The GOP and right wing media is so tight-knit that they could easily blanket the media with coverage on why Trump was successful but he is no longer the right person to lead the party.
Lastly, you're drawing a false equivalence between Democrats and Republicans on what is a Republican issue. It's one thing for Dems to stupidly fund a handful of insane candidates. It's another thing to, you know, VOTE FOR THEM and like what they have to say. I'm going to repeat this again: Democrats and Republicans are NOT monoliths. There are Democrats who are willing to roll the dice when it comes to these issues and there are Democrats (the majority) who think it's completely unacceptable. Likewise, there are plenty of Republicans who accept Joe Biden as legitimate (this is more of a spectrum but if you have the cut off as 'did Joe Biden win the electoral college' then it's a vast majority).