A Journal of People report
Political developments in countries show character of politics in those countries. The following reports are from the United States.
Biden on MAGA supporters & democracy
U.S. President Joe Biden has again condemned the large chunk of the American population that supports his predecessor, Donald Trump, saying “MAGA forces” are an existential threat to democracy and must be defeated.
“MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards, backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry you love,” Biden said on Thursday in a primetime speech, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Speaking at Philadelphia’s historic Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, Biden suggested that Trump supporters aim to destroy America’s democracy. “For a long time, we have reassured ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed. But it is not. We have to defend it, protect it, stand up for it – each and every one of us.”
The U.S. President said: Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.
The U.S. leader, however, made sure to clarify that not “every Republican, not even most Republicans are MAGA extremists, but the Republican party is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country.”
Biden then urged all Americans to unite in his “battle for the soul of the nation” and “vote, vote, vote” to defeat his political opponents.
“We are not powerless in the face of these threats. And, folks, it is within our power, it is in our hands – yours and mine – to stop the assault on American democracy,” he added.
Biden has sharpened his attacks on supporters of the former president in recent days, apparently trying to draw on anti-Trump sentiment to boost Democrat turnout at the polls in the upcoming congressional midterm elections on November 8.
Just last week, Biden likened the MAGA philosophy to “semi-fascism,” arguing that Trump supporters “refuse to accept the will of the people,” “embrace political violence” and pose a “threat to our very democracy.”
“It is not hyperbole, now, you need to vote to literally save democracy again,” he added at the time. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday that Biden views MAGA Republicans as an “extremist threat to our democracy.”
Biden’s latest rhetoric marks a further departure from his pledge to unite the politically polarized nation, even as he once again reiterated he was “not a President of Red America or Blue America, but of all America!”
More than 74 million Americans voted for Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
A Yahoo/YouGov poll conducted late last month found that 54% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents prefer Trump as the GOP nominee for president in 2024. In contrast, just 32% of Democrats want Biden as their party’s 2024 candidate.
Reacting to the White House’s previews of the president’s speech, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called him “the divider-in-chief “ who “epitomizes the current state of the Democrat Party: one of divisiveness, disgust, and hostility towards half the country.”
Most Americans believe their democracy is poised to crumble
More than two out of three Americans – 67% – believe their country’s democracy is on the verge of collapse, according to a Quinnipiac University poll published on Wednesday. The number represents a nine-point increase since the question was previously asked in January.
Concern for the future of U.S. democracy is something voters from both parties can agree upon, with 72% of registered Democrats and 70% of registered Republicans, as well as 69% of independents, reporting they were worried about its imminent demise. Meanwhile, over three quarters of women are concerned about the country’s future as a democracy, while just 58% of men are, and whites are more likely to fear collapse than blacks, if only by one percentage point (70% vs. 69%).
The poll was not the first to note the American voting public’s concern about the survival of its government, which is technically a constitutional republic rather than a true democracy.
An NBC News poll conducted last week suggested just over one in five (21%) voters rank threats to democracy as their primary concern, with the high cost of living and the economic recession as runners-up.
The subject of U.S. democracy in peril has gotten heavy rotation in the news cycle of late, with U.S. President Joe Biden denouncing supporters of former President Donald Trump as an “extremist threat to democracy” whose philosophy amounts to “semi-fascism” during a meeting with donors last month. Trump has in turn accused the Democrats and his administration of political persecution following last month’s nighttime FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago compound in search of classified documents.
However, both candidates leave voters cold, according to the Quinnipiac poll, which showed 62% of respondents don’t want to see Trump stage an electoral comeback in 2024 while 67% don’t want to see Biden try to hang on to the presidency either.
Journal of People 