People are chanting it at ball games. People are putting up banners that say it:
"Fuck Joe Biden. Fuck Joe Biden. Fuck Joe Biden."
We have all heard and read the word, but it is still a little shocking and offensive to see it used so casually in public.
The shock and offense are features. The words aren't meant literally, of course. The words are body-language as physical as the raised middle finger, a means to show open contempt. It proves a point that people can get away with insulting Biden.
The "Fuck Joe Biden" chant is nothing new.
The mocking did not hurt Trump. If anything, it helped him. Trump is a pugilist and provocateur. That is his brand. Trump dished it out and Trump got some back. He belittles opponents. He called Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas, Joe Biden sleepy, Jeb Bush low energy, Ted Cruz a liar, and now he is calling Mitch McConnell a weak RINO. Trump does it openly, joyfully. That behavior sent an unsaid message that nothing could stop Trump from exercising his will, including the norms and expectations surrounding "presidential" behavior. Trump's insults communicate Trump First, which makes him credible when he says America First. He signals status and hierarchy. A tiny example: He did not apologize for rudely shoving ahead of Montenegro's head of state because, after all, Trump represents the USA and Montenegro is small. The Montenegro leader did not shove back. After all, Trump is number one.
Biden's brand is different. Biden intended to return to pre-Trump normalcy. Biden has old-school dignity, which is consistent with his effort to lower the temperature of rhetoric and to be "above the fray," i.e. "presidential." Biden wants Americans to work together. Let's all get vaccinated. Let's all wear masks. Let's all do a bi-partisan infrastructure package.
When people fail to cooperate, Biden loses. He needs other political players to get along, but it is to their advantage not to get along. Biden is the substitute teacher who cannot get control of an unruly class, someone proven to be too weak for the job.
That is the context for the "Fuck Joe Biden" chants now taking place at football games and NASCAR races. The meme is proliferating. I have begun seeing bumper strips reading "Fuck Biden." A house near my farm just put up this large sign next to a Trump 2024 sign.
This is bad for Biden. A person who is bullied but attempts to look "above it all" looks like he is backing away from a fight. It happened to Dukakis when mocked for the tank ride and for Kerry when he was "swift boated." Voters want a Commander in Chief, i.e. someone who hits back when hit.
But every action has a counter-reaction, and possibly there is a silver lining amid the gloom for Biden. He looks bad but possibly Trump and his supporters look worse. Whether they be Proud Boys, Capitol rioters, or people putting up signs like this in residential neighborhoods, Trump and his movement look out of control. Trump keeps saying extreme things that seem less and less plausible about the election, he bad-mouths Republicans who have friends and supporters in their states, and his supporters keep cheering him on whatever he says.
The choice voters will face in 2022 and 2024 is one between weak versus nasty. If Democrats can make the case that the nastiness is all part of a movement aimed at fellow Americans--like this middle finger--then Democrats may survive. They should not count on it, though. Trump's political success shows that Americans crave a strong leader and are not fussy about how he exercises that strength.
It's a worry.
13 comments:
Some people will believe anything.
Yes, that’s aimed at you, Honest Abe.
“Harsh political language is as old as the presidency.”
Perhaps, but Trump took it to a new low and normalized it. As a result, the sort of inarticulate ignorance and anger we see from Angerberg are representative of the new “conservatism.”
I have removed another obscene comment, written in the style of Curt Ankerberg. Ankerberk has been a repeated candidate for local office and has repeatedly lost. He has become locally famous for obscene, bullying comments directed at Southern Oregon women. Here is a link to a Mail Tribune article on Ankerberg:https://www.mailtribune.com/top-stories/2018/09/27/outrage-over-ankerberg/
The article notes that a senior judge for the US tax court found Ankerberg guily of filing fraudulent tax returns for three years. His defense in this case was that he suffered from brain damage which creates the mental disability that would cause him to file fraudulent returns to misrepresent his income to lower his tax responsibility. Ankerberg is a Republican and advocate for Trump.
There is a minority on both sides who engage in rude behavior as if it mattered what they say or do. It doesn't. They cancel each other out, much like "independent" voters. It's the sophomoric equivalent of trash talk and an undignified use of valuable expletives, not to mention nihilistic.
I wish Progressives didn't indulge in the same behavior, it's not on brand. We're supposed to be smarter after all.
Go online and you will find the same signs, t-shirts, coffee mugs and bumper stickers for every president, and just about any subject, including Jesus. It's a thriving enterprise with a robust market.
Biden wouldn't be getting the shade if he actually was weak. He's not. He's POTUS, and to say he's "above it all" is an understatement.
What the Biden administration represents is a return to normalcy, albeit under very serious circumstances, not the least of which is a Republican party leaning heavily fascist and dedicated to their failure.
The differences noted here between Trump and Biden are of degree, not kind. “Old-school dignity” is a very generous description under any circumstances. Biden is a tacky career liar, wont to self-aggrandizing puffery, and that includes as a supposed pugilist. Besides the dubious Tale of Corn Pop, he even boasted of wanting to take Trump behind the barn. Biden’s father, surprise surprise, was a used-car salesman. Biden lied to America over the years about his family history, his law school grades and plagiarism, and about countless anecdotes he made up out of whole cloth, such as being arrested in Soweto in solidarity with Nelson Mandela. Biden has a long history of offensive, vulgar comments—and conduct—at the expense of racial minorities and women. Even on so painful a subject as the death of his wife and child, he puffed for years that they were victims of a drunk driver, gratuitously ruining the reputation of a man who not only was not drunk but was not even ruled to have been at fault in the accident. Biden’s loathesome son Hunter left his own wife and kids to make house with his late brother’s wife and kids, before leaving them in turn to impregnate a stripper during a cocaine jag, then requiring her to exhaust her limited resources simply to compel Hunter to finally acknowledge paternity and financial obligation. His lifestyle and how he supports himself now are properly the stuff of gutter-rags. Hunter makes Billy Carter and Roger Clinton seem like great credits to their own Presidential relatives. The longtime “statesman” Joe Biden was often rude and playground abusive during the campaign, e.g. naming one elderly fellow “Fat” for the temerity to ask an inconvenient question. Even as prez he sneered that a young CNN reporter “was in the wrong business” when she pressed him—accurately—on his inconsistent actions holding Vlad Putin accountable.
Joe Biden is weak, querulous AND nasty. Right now he’s Jimmy Carter performance-wise, but without the integrity and generosity of spirit. As Biden’s never more than middling powers continue to fade, his reflexive lifetime dishonesty and defensive bluster remain. He’s still less dangerous overall for America and the world than Trump—who isn’t?—but the gap isn’t anywhere near so wide as Democrats would like to believe, and nothing like the gap with say Klobuchar or Warren. Biden and Trump are codependents. Trump defeat by Biden is Trump’s raison d’etre. And Trump is so noisily odious that his remaining relevance is the best thing that can happen to the otherwise drain-circling Biden.
I contributed a significant amount of money to Klobuchar in 2020 when I thought it might make a difference. Sadly, it didn’t.
Here’s hoping a good and competent candidate wins on 2024. That category does not include either Trump or Biden.
Low Dudgeon said it all about Biden. Great work!
Low Dungeon has obviously been spending too much time listening to the right wing equivalent of supermarket tabloids. His synopsis of all their gossip about Biden is proof that too much Fox "News" can turn your brain to mush.
Anonymous @ 4:43:
Your specific refutations are welcome. Start with just one example of unfounded “gossip” if you like.
Anyone who invests in the market knows that the Biden admins economic performance is anything but the opposite of Jimmy Carter’s and the faster the morons die off or get vaccinated then the faster the economy will take off as it is primed to do so you can can cry about pop joe all you want while I cry all the way to the bank.
Concession on “gossip” accepted.
It's all gossip. I feel sorry for anyone with nothing better to do than listen to hate mongers. If you'd really like a more realistic take on just one of your juicy little tidbits:
https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/oct/04/social-media-posts-are-making-claims-about-biden-f/
Which type of person would you want as a neighbor?
For me, that's Biden. He is effective, respected and a great representative of the United States.
Trump is the national equivalent of Kurt Ankenberg. That is not a compliment.
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