Biden Preaches Democracy as House Begins Impeachment Inquiry | RealClearPolitics
Nothing stood still as President Biden told supporters that democracy, properly defined, means rule of the people, not rule of monarchs, not rule of money, not rule of the mighty.
As he spoke in Tempe, Ariz,, a federal court was denying former President Trump’s request to delay his trial in a civil fraud case, House Republicans were alleging that Biden was at the center of a multi–million-dollar influence scheme, and the federal government moved closer to a shutdown.
We lose these institutions of our government, Biden warned in Arizona, at our own peril. But the sermon is late. The public has already lost faith in federal institutions. It has been that way for more than two decades.
Only 20% of Americans, according to Pew Research, trust Washington to do the right thing. And thousands of miles away from where Biden spoke, Rep. Glenn Grothman worried on Capitol Hill that Americans are beginning to think that this behavior by the Biden family is normal. In committee, the Wisconsin Republican warned that the public was susceptible to just say, this is how it works.
Out west, Biden delivered his fourth teaching on the importance of democracy, the preservation of which he now describes as his defining mission and the motivation for remaining in office even as his poll numbers plummet. Concurrently, in the House Oversight Committee, Republicans appealed to similar democratic norms while launching their first presidential impeachment inquiry hearing.
The president never mentioned this. Instead, he read aloud from the social media account of his predecessor. Biden condemned Trump for saying that NBC was guilty of treason, and he condemned Trump for calling for the execution of Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mostly Biden condemned Republicans for not condemning Trump. The silence, he said, is deafening.
There is something dangerous happening in America, Biden said. There s an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy. He explained that what he meant by this was the MAGA movement, and he qualified that not every Republican adhered to this ideology, but there’s no question that today’s Republican Party is driven and intimidated by MAGA Republican extremists. The sermon wasn t complete. Biden didn t provide any examples of Republicans he didn t consider extremists.
Didn’t the ancients think democracy was particularly liable to corruption?