Joe Biden was right: While the Republican party is dominated by Trumpists, that doesn’t mean conservative voters are only in favor of Donald Trump.
It was again a notch more extreme, as former US President Donald Trump chirped during a speech in the old coal town of Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania on Saturday. He called his successor Joe Biden an “enemy of the state” and said Biden delivered “the meanest, most hateful and most divisive speech” ever given by a US president on Friday. Those in attendance cheered: Such statements fit right in with the hostility and victimization that Trump has cultivated since his first steps towards the presidency.
The day before, Biden had vehemently attacked Trump and his supporters. “Not every Republican, not even a majority of Republicans, is Maga Republican,” he said, citing Trump’s slogan Make America Great Again. “But there is no doubt that the Republican Party is dominated, driven and intimidated by Maga Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.”
In Dutch media, including this one, after Trump’s response, headlines such as ‘Trump strikes back’, or ‘Trump lashes out’ – as if it were a boxing match where one player pays the other back in the same coin. That suggests an equality that does not exist. If Biden calls Trump a danger to the country, it is demonstrably correct: Trump committed a (failed) coup and hid top secret documents. When Trump calls Biden an ‘enemy of the state’ it is empty rhetoric. The danger to the United States only comes from one side.
Real people aren’t that polarized
What is remarkable about Biden’s speech is that he called that danger so harshly for the first time. He also said that the danger is greater than Trump alone; it is the entire Republican party that is utterly dominated by Trumpism. An alternate presidential candidate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, even imitates him in his facial expressions and words. Should Trump not make it to 2024, for example because he is being prosecuted for hiding state secrets, then a perhaps smarter successor is ready.
At the same time, Biden also touched on the paradox that the majority of Republicans are not nearly as radical as the party itself. One result was seen last week in Alaska, where many Conservative voters favored a Democrat over Trump-backed former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The Democratic candidate won a by-election for a seat in the House of Representatives. Trumpist Republicans also disappoint in New York state.
That fact remains hopeful: that real people are not nearly as polarized as the politicians who claim to represent them. Perhaps as a result, politicians will at some point repent and become more reasonable, if only for electoral-opportunistic considerations. In November, when the country elects new MPs, voters can send that signal.
The position of the newspaper is expressed in the Volkskrant Commentaar. It is created after a discussion between the commentators and the editor-in-chief.