When Biden Calls Republicans Facist

What he said, conservative reaction, and why it was a mistake

Sep 01, 2022

Last week, President Joe Biden said something so obscenely atrocious, so harmful to maintaining political unity, that I feel it is best to simply tell you what he said. This is Politico reporting on these remarks Biden made:

“What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of extreme MAGA philosophy,” Biden told Democratic donors in the Washington suburb of Rockville. Calling out those he labeled as “extreme” Republicans, Biden said: “It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something, it’s like semi-fascism.”
Later, at a national Democratic Party event before a few thousand people packed into a nearby high school gym, Biden added: “I respect conservative Republicans. I don’t respect these MAGA Republicans.”
“There are not many real Republicans anymore,” Biden added.1

This is probably one of the most damaging things the sitting president of the United States can say about his political opponents. Biden labeling the mainstream Republican party “semi-facists”, is not going to bring anybody together, and only pull them apart, especially when you follow it with remarks like this:

“The MAGA Republicans don’t just threaten our personal rights and economic security,” the president said. “They’re a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace political violence. They don’t believe in democracy.”2

This statement is not only damaging to the political stability of our country, but is also untrue. Republicans are not threatening the economic security of the country, nor are they trying to destroy democracy. And they sure are not embracing political violence.

To begin, it needs to be explained how damaging this is to political unity. Joe Biden campaigned on being a unifying figure, something that helped him triumph over Bernie Sanders in the primary. He even went as far as to say this in his Inaugural Address:

"Without unity, there is no peace. Only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward."3

Yet he then calls his opponents facists. Republicans were quick to denounce the speech, New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu (R) had this to say on CNN (from The Hill):

“When we allow ourselves just to talk in these extremes, we polarize the country,” Sununu told CNN on Sunday, adding that Biden on the campaign trail had “said he was going to bring everybody together.”
“And then to call half of America fascists?” the GOP governor asked. “He owes an apology. That’s not appropriate. That isn’t leadership.”4

More outrage at the statement followed, with several republicans slamming Biden for his comments. Conservative commentator and host of The Ben Shapiro Show Ben Shapiro said that this was just another example that “our political discourse has devolved into middle school histrionics”5. Former White House Press Secretary under Trump Kayleigh McEnany said this on Fox News' Outnumbered

“I can’t help but watch the things he says and think that this president thinks he is running against half the country. I think he really thinks that he is in a presidential campaign right now and his opponent is not Trump, it’s not DeSantis, not whomever, but it’s half of the country — it’s the ‘semi-fascists,’ the ‘F-15 people.’ He’s running against America.”6

And it wasn’t just political commentators and politicans’s reacting in this way to Bidens comments. Actress Kirstie Alley had this to say in a tweet:

Kirstie Alley @kirstiealley

sooooo our current “inclusive” POTUS just called half the country Fascist.. or was it semi fascist?… ahhhhhh I’m so glad he billed himself the INCLUSIVE president .. I feel SO inclusive🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣How bout you?

For a President so bent on being a symbol of unity, Joe Biden has done the exact opposite. It’s incredibly obvious. You simply need to look at the devolution of our political discourse under Biden. While yes, under Trump the country divided itself immensely, Biden has done nothing to fix the problem, and while he tries to do so, it is obviously failing. Making remarks such as this only serve to divide the country more. Fascist, especially in politics, is a degrading term. It is almost as bad as calling someone a Nazi. It says you believe in the same principles as people like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, and it says you are against any and all forms of democracy, and instead in favor of authoritarianism. Instead of a democratic government like we have in the United States, it makes the argument that you (the facist) would prefer a government like the one in Russia or China.

I have written time and time again that the worst thing that can happen to our country is more political division, and the country devolving into a civil war. I wrote in July that “Division is the biggest threat to our democracy. It is not the Democratic Party. Nor is it the Republican Party. It is not China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea.”7. That statement is still true. When Biden comes out trying to be a unifying figure, and then proceeds to do the complete opposite, not only does it do absolutely nothing to help his political reputation, it also serves no good to the country as a whole that is rapidly inching closer and closer to a point where both sides see the others triumph as the end of the world.

Dividing rhetoric does no good, and Biden should know this. It was not a smart move politically to call Republicans facists, and it was not a smart move to do so in the realm of unity. Regardless of your political ideology, the sitting president of the United States should not be calling his political opponents degrading terms like facist. Facism is an ideology that is best left buried with Mussolini, and calling others facist will only serve against not just that aim, but the aim of keeping the country united.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed, please consider subscribing, it helps out alot. If you would like to check out some of my other pieces about political unity, check out The Rise of Political Violence. or read about why we need to return to classical Western ideals Thank you once again, and have a wonderful rest of your day!

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