Brands anyone who dares to disagree with him a threat to democracy
Local media immediately claim Republican candidate inciting violence while ignoring the comments of Evers and Barnes on Jacob
By Brett Healy
September 6th, 2022
In his speech from Philadelphia last week, President Biden called anyone who dares to disagree with him a clear and present danger to democracy and our country.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “President Joe Biden spoke to the nation this week about the need to tamp down the incendiary rhetoric and political violence that he said serves as a threat to American democracy.”
Really? After directly targeting 70 million plus Americans (MAGA Republicans) who just so happen to oppose the President’s destructive agenda, pointing a finger at them as a clear and present danger to democracy, the media attempts to give the President a pass because he utters a few, obviously insincere words about unity and bringing the country together.
In an already deeply divided America, describing the President’s speech, where he attacked the partisan opposition as destroyers of democracy, haters of the constitution, and enemies of our nation as a speech of unification is patently absurd.
Let’s be clear. This was a prepared speech. Every single word was written, approved, and loaded ahead of time into the teleprompter for the President to recite and was delivered for a specific purpose. The speech was a signal to his administration, to the partisans at the FBI and the Department of Justice, and to IRS agents, who their targets should be. The speech was clearly delivered to double down on division and to bless the targeting and punishment of those, American citizens mind you, who will not sit quietly as the President’s disastrous policies ruin our great country.
President Biden is trying to bully his opponents and anyone who might dare speak out against him or his allies into submission. He is trying to silence us into obedient compliance so we never question his magnificent ideas or his benevolent leadership.
No, those who disagree with the President’s economic policy that has resulted in historic inflation, the left’s dangerous scold-and-release push that puts violent criminals back into our communities, or Biden’s unconstitutional plan to have taxpayers pay the private college debt of willing adults, no, that does not make us a threat to the country or domestic terrorists as the administration has previously tried to brand us.
Yet the mainstream media, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, reported the speech as a plea for unity. And then the mainstream media immediately accused a Republican of inciting violence.
Republican candidate for Governor Tim Michels used the phrase pitchforks and torches in response to a biased portrayal in the Journal Sentinel of his charitable donations. The Journal Sentinel immediately attacked Michels as a dangerous conservative looking to incite violence.
Just like President Biden wanted. President Biden asks, and the mainstream media submissively obeys.
Listen to Michels’ comments calling out the media for ignoring a larger truth in favor of partisan spin. Then compare the words of the President, a man with the biggest bully pulpit in the world, as he called his political opponents violent, imminent threats to our nation. It strains credulity to suggest conservatives in Wisconsin, who would like to see an even marginally unbiased media, are more likely to take to the streets than Antifa whether in Portland, New York, or Chicago, who openly declare their use of violence is a tactic to destroy those who will not conform to their will.
Of course, a reporter immediately found Governor Evers to get his take on President Biden’s speech and his political opponent’s comments.
“When I asked @GovEvers about Tim Michels’ ‘pitchforks and torches’ comments, the governor told me, ‘It sounds like you’re encouraging violence, whether it’s against the media or otherwise. It’s just wrong.’”
The reporter conveniently forgot to ask Gov. Evers about his own comments and rhetoric from the Kenosha riots where Evers himself and Lt. Governor Barnes encouraged violence. Leading up to the riots, at no point did Evers urge calm or warn against committing acts of violence. Instead, the Governor passed judgment on the shooting incident and accused law enforcement of unjustly targeting and killing Black people.
Evers’ comments from August 2020:
“Tonight, Jacob Blake was shot in the back multiple times, in broad daylight, in Kenosha, Wisconsin,” he said. “While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country.”
The MJS reporter also did not ask the Governor about the incendiary comments his Lt. Governor directed at police officers when Barnes accused the police of targeting a private citizen for assassination because the police had a vendetta against that citizen.
Barnes’ comments from August 2020:
This was not an accident,” Barnes said during a news conference the following day. “This wasn’t bad police work. This felt like some sort of vendetta being taken out on a member of our community. The officer’s deadly actions attempted to take a person’s life in broad daylight.”
With President Biden visiting Milwaukee for Laborfest and Governor Evers scheduled to introduce him, we hoped the mainstream media would take the opportunity to ask the politicians genuine questions about the Philadelphia speech, the current state of political debate in this country, and the future of our democracy. Judging by the media coverage we witnessed, that did not happen.
If MacIver were allowed to ask President Biden and Governor Evers questions, here is our list:
- President Biden, how can you claim to be a unifier, wanting supposedly to bring the entire country together, when you deliberately and directly attack 70 million Americans who disagree with your agenda and the direction you are taking this country?
- President Biden, recent polling suggests that more than 60% of the country disapproves of your job performance and, in many instances, a majority of Americans strongly disagree with your individual policy initiatives. Yet, your Press Secretary, who is herself an election denier, said that those who do not agree with the majority of Americans are extreme and that this is an extreme way of thinking. If a majority of Americans do not agree with you on an issue, are you then the extremist? Instead of labeling different-thinking Americans as extreme and deriding them as “Trumpies”, why not try to have a dialogue with them and better understand their concerns about inflation, the increase in violent crime, having taxpayers pay off the private college debt of willing adults, and other issues that are important to them? Mr. President, why are you attempting to shut down healthy public policy debate and silence different opinions?
- President Biden, the public comments of Governor Evers and Lt. Governor Barnes incited violence which led to destruction, the loss of life, attacks on law enforcement, and the burning of the city of Kenosha. Citizens trying to defend their property, their families, and their livelihoods were violently assaulted. After your Philadelphia speech, as the leader of the Democrat Party, will you condemn and criticize Governor Evers and Lt. Governor Barnes for their incendiary comments?
- Governor Evers, while quick to criticize your political opponent in a campaign year, you have yet to fully explain your defense of a violent, armed, accused rapist with an outstanding warrant who resisted police. Instead, you immediately cast blame on the police in the Jacob Blake shooting and said Black men are mercilessly killed by the police in Wisconsin. As Governor, why didn’t you ask for calm and peace that could have saved lives? Do you regret rushing to a judgment that was proven flawed by an investigation that ultimately found the shooting was justified? What do you say to the residents of Kenosha who had their property and their businesses destroyed because you failed to stop the rioters?
- Governor Evers, do you still agree with Lt. Governor Barnes that Wisconsin police target and murder innocent citizens? If silence is complicity, Governor Evers, why have you not condemned the dangerous comments made by Lt. Governor Barnes? As Governor, isn’t that your part of your job, to publicly disagree with dangerously inflammatory attacks on the police, even if those comments come from your Lt. Governor and a member of the Democrat Party?
While President Biden ran on being a unifier, his recent actions have been anything but unifying. Let’s hope the President rethinks his new tactic of ostracizing and vilifying those who disagree with his agenda. If not, I think the President will soon find that he is at war with a strong majority of the country and it will be too late for him to correct his course.