Calling swing voters bitter, Bible-clinging MAGA extremists or cultists isn’t the path to winning them over
Salena Zito
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PHILADELPHIA — In a prime-time speech to the country last September, President Joe Biden stood, with Independence Hall flooded in ominous red lighting behind him, and angrily railed at “MAGA extremists voters” who represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.
But while our republic still stands, Biden never mentioned the violence, depravity, and crime that is threatening the very foundation of the City of Brotherly Love. Over 1,400 people were shot in Philadelphia in 2022, over 300 of them fatally. But for Biden, the problem in our country is his political enemies, not the criminals that are been turning this city upside down.
The majority of those who were shot, as well as those who died, were black, most of whom gave Biden their votes in 2020, most of whom believed he would bring a better tone in politics and rid their city of crime.
One year after that speech, Philadelphia is no better. Illegal racing and the violent crime that goes along with it have now become an accepted norm, mass and often violent looting is next-level with little to no consequences, and shootings continue to be at record levels, and the year isn’t even over yet.
Biden’s purpose here last year was to dampen support for any Republican running for office across the country by stoking fear in voters. It worked, for the most part, and the Democrats’ losses weren’t as bad as predicted.
The president is at it again this year with a divisive speech in Arizona celebrating a library to be built honoring the late Sen. John McCain. Biden said several times the “Make America Great Again” movement was extremist and an existential threat to the country and “there is something dangerous happening in America right now.”
In fact, if you Google “Biden” and “MAGA extremist,” there are well over half a million stories in the results, yet there is little to nothing about Biden addressing any of the lawlessness and violence here in Philly or across the country.
It is a shame that Biden, the “great uniter” who is fighting for “the soul of our country,” rarely if ever addresses the dark social disorder happening primarily in Democratic-led cities that often leads to gangs of teenagers such as the ones who ransacked the Apple Store here in Philadelphia.
Biden isn’t the first Democrat to go after the voters, who, by the way, were their voters for over 40 years. Candidate Barack Obama called working-class Democratic voters here in Pennsylvania “bitter, clinging to their guns and Bibles” while attending a swanky fundraiser for himself in San Francisco. In 2016, Hillary Clinton referred to nonelite voters as belonging in a “basket full of deplorables.”
She is so stuck on that mindset that on Thursday, in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, she said of Trump voters, “At some point, maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members.”
Whether it is Biden or Clinton or Obama, this is the type of rhetoric that alienates a lot of swing voters, voters who might have voted for Trump in 2016, flipped to Biden in 2020, and are regretting their vote. These voters don’t necessarily like former President Donald Trump, but they don’t want to be called a cultist because they voted for him once or twice.
Even if they are leaning Biden again, Biden and Clinton and the rest of the elites, are still targeting their friends and family members who still like Trump as extremists. These are people that you sit next to in a pew every Sunday, who coach your children’s soccer team, who volunteer at the local food bank.
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What Biden and Clinton are missing is that they are attacking law-abiding citizens, people who contribute to strengthening our social fabric.
What this elitist branch of the Democratic Party fails to understand is that they are turning off the very voters they need to win the next election.