Sunday School 9/4/22

We're back in the This Week classroom for part of your Sunday School. Martha Raddatz hosted Keisha Lance Bottoms, senior advisor to President Biden in an interview that, in my opinion, went off the rails pretty quickly.

She started with Biden's Independence Hall speech and how the White House said it would be "optimistic" and "was about bringing people together," but pointed to Biden saying "President Trump's MAGA supporters are a danger to democracy" and wondered how that was "unifying."

Now, just for clarification, if you search Biden's speech, the word 'danger' appears three times. 

The first time was when Biden quoted someone else, which seems the most likely instance Raddatz was referring to: 

That’s why respected conservatives, like Federal Circuit Court Judge Michael Luttig, has called Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans, quote, a ‘clear and present danger’ to our democracy.

The second was when he talked about "we, the people" not getting torn apart: 

We, the people, will not let anyone or anything tear us apart. Today, there are dangers around us we cannot allow to prevail. We hear -- you’ve heard it -- more and more talk about violence as an acceptable political tool in this country. It’s not. It can never be an acceptable tool.

And the third was when he spoke more directly about" public figures," MAGA Republicans prominent among them, and political violence: 

On top of that, there are public figures -- today, yesterday, and the day before -- predicting and all but calling for mass violence and rioting in the streets. This is inflammatory. It’s dangerous. It’s against the rule of law. And we, the people, must say: This is not who we are. 

Shall we forgive Raddatz her lack of specificity? 

Bottoms said Biden "reminded the American people who we are as a country," a democracy "built on the rule of law," "that values the peaceful transition of power," and "that values the right of people to go and vote safely and in peace."  He reminded us that "democracies are fragile," and

if we are not intentional about preserving who we are as a country, if we are not intentional about reminding ourselves that there is a rule of law in this country, then we will be in danger. So, the president spoke optimistically about who we are as Americans. We are the greatest nation in the world. But also, a reminder that we have to be intentional about being the greatest nation in the world and that we have to call out hatred. We have to call out this balance and that if we don’t, our democracy is in danger.

Here's Raddatz, totally dismissing the response to her first question.

Whatever you said, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which tracks hate speech, said after the Biden speech, there was a surge online in conversations that said Biden’s remarks singling out MAGA Republicans were interpreted as a declaration of war against conservatives and all the Trump voters.

Really? "Whatever you said..." That's how Raddatz wants to run the interview? Wow. To her credit, Bottoms gave an answer I support.

Well, what I would say to that is that this is what this MAGA agenda has been all about. It’s been about distorting the truth. It’s been about misleading people. It’s been about putting out information that inflames people. And I just encourage people, go to The White House website, WhiteHouse.gov, and read the speech for yourself. I’ve read it multiple times and what I see in the speech, I see words of encouragement. I see optimism. I see a commander-in-chief who was calling out to all of us, no matter our political affiliation.

That brought this question. 

"All of us?" He wasn’t calling out to the MAGA supporters certainly. He mentioned them more than a dozen times and -- as a threat to democracy. Has the president essentially given up on those MAGA Republicans, some 70 million people?

All I can do is sigh. Really loudly, really annoyedly, really frustratingly, sigh. 

Because everyone knows - everyone who hasn't had their head in the sand, or someplace else, since late 2018 or early 2019, at least - knows that there are millions of people who voted for Trump who are not 'MAGA' supporters, at all. They are the disaffected, 'let's try something different' folks who were tired of the same old, same old, who were willing to take a chance on an allegedly successful businessman, who were willing to look past the bluster, and hope that, in conjunction with a reasonable Congress, things they were unhappy with could change. 

These are the people that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton spoke about. And they're the people Joe Biden talked about, too. Here's just one example, for the folks in a booth in the corner in the dark in the back - and for Raddatz.

Now, I want to be very clear -- very clear up front: Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. 

And Bottoms pointed out that Biden has, and will, work with anyone and everyone - Rs, Ds, Is - "to get things done in our country." She didn't say it, but she could have said that the "MAGA Republican agenda doesn't include working with anyone across the aisle," and we have ample proof of that:

• Peaceful transition of power ring a bell? 147 Republicans voted against that. 
• Infrastructure? Only 13 Republicans voted for that; many more have taken credit for it.
• Doing something to ease the baby formula shortage? 192 Republicans voted against that.
• Insulin price controls? 193 voted against that. 
• Build Back Better? All House Rs voted against that. 

Is that Biden's fault? Is it solely the GOP's fault? Is it solely the Dem's fault? 

Raddatz wondered "How has President Biden bridged the divide? What has he done really to unify this country?" She pointed to a Quinnipiac poll showing that 69% of Democrats and Republicans believe democracy is in danger of collapse, but the Republicans blame Joe Biden and the Democrats blame Donald Trump, and said, "Again, how has Joe Biden helped bridge that divide?"

I could be wrong, but I believe we elected a president in 2020, not a miracle worker. Biden can try all he wants, but there's also accountability on the other side to do something other than say that Biden's speech was not unifying (as did many MAGA Republicans on social media), or to vote against everything that Biden puts forth as an agenda item, particularly when a plurality, if not an actual majority of Americans at least theoretically support much of the Dem's agenda; polling has shown this to be the case for several years, the decisions of our elected officials notwithstanding.

 
Bottoms spoke of Biden's bipartisanship in passing gun legislation as one example, but reiterated the point of his remarks. 

But it’s also going to take for all of us to stand up to hatred and what the president again continues to say it’s this MAGA agenda. The president has not called out all Republicans. He’s been very specific about this MAGA agenda. And I’ll just remind you the words from Martin Luther King Jr., when he said that it’s not the words of our enemies that we will remember, it’s the silence of our friends. And what the president has said is that mainstream Republicans, Independents, Democrats can all come together. We’ve seen us come together to do what’s right on behalf of the American people. But if people are silent, then the very core of who we are as a country is in danger.

I don't see that as being difficult to understand, do you? Unity is not forged in one hand, in one party, in one set of policies. It's like a tango - it takes two.

One thing I will give Raddatz credit for was asking about Dems paying for ads in the primaries that work in favor of MAGA Republicans. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, head of the DCCC, defends it, and the Democratic Governors Association apparently does, too.

In my opinion, it's dumb, and they shouldn't do it. She did say "tens of millions of Democratic groups who have spent money" but I'm pretty sure the meant "Democratic groups which have spent tens of millions of dollars." Bottoms didn't have a good answer for that - maybe because there isn't one. 

Please, read Biden's speech. You don't have to agree with him, but you should at least know what he said, and the context of his remarks. The punditry would prefer you don't educate yourselves, but I respect you more than they do.

See you around campus.