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American democracy at stake in midterms: Joe Biden
Joe Biden’s remarks were triggered by an attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home in California last week, where the assailant brutally assaulted her husband, 82-year old Paul Pelosi, who is still hospitalised
Washington: US President Joe Biden has said that the future of American democracy itself is at stake in the midterm elections, spoken out against political violence and intimidation, and warned against growing attempts to disrupt electoral process and question its outcome as the path to chaos.
In a speech delivered near Union Station, next to the US Capitol, on Wednesday evening, Biden slammed Donald Trump’s “big lie” denying the election results of 2020 as having fuelled a “dangerous rise in political violence and voter intimidation”.
Biden’s comments come days before voters across the US choose all members for the House of Representatives and 35 Senators, besides governors in 36 states and attorney generals in 30 states, besides a range of other state and local positions. Polls suggest that Republicans are poised to take control of the House and both parties are in a tight race for control of the Senate.
His remarks were triggered by an attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home in California last week, where the assailant brutally assaulted her husband, 82-year old Paul Pelosi, who is still hospitalised. Pelosi is third in line of succession for the Presidency and is a Democratic veteran who has become a key target of extremist Right-wing vilification. The presidential speech was also triggered by claims by a range of Republicans on the ballot across the country who have indicated that they may not accept the outcome if it goes against them.
“The assailant entered the home asking, ‘Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?’ Those were the very same words used by the mob when they stormed the United States Capitol on January the 6th when they broke windows, kicked in the doors, brutally attacked law enforcement, roamed the corridors hunting for officials, and erected gallows to hang the former Vice President, Mike Pence,” Biden said, adding that the enraged mob had been whipped into frenzy by the “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen.
Raising the stakes for the upcoming polls, Biden said that while the elections will have implications for a range of issues, it was “an inflection point”. “We must vote, knowing what’s at stake is not just the policy of the moment, but institutions that have held us together as we have sought a more perfect union are also at stake. We must vote knowing who we have been, what we are at risk of becoming.”
Suggesting that every generation in America has had the task of defending and preserving democracy, the President launched a direct attack on Trump, referring to him as the former president. Biden said that democracy was under attack because Trump had refused to accept the will of the people, refused to accept that that he lost the elections, abused his power, and made his “big lie” a defining feature of who Biden calls “MAGA Republicans”, using Trump’s slogan of Make America Great Again as a way to distinguish the extreme Right from moderate conservatives within Republican ranks.
“The extreme MAGA element of the Republican Party - which is a minority of that party, as I said earlier, but is its driving force - is trying to succeed where they failed in 2020 to suppress the rights of voters and subvert the electoral system itself,” Biden claimed, pointing out there were 300 “election deniers” (the term used for those who still deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election) on the ballot in this election.
“Make no mistake. Democracy is on the ballot for us all,” Biden said, defining the key values that have, according to him, held Americans together even in the darkest of times. “First, we believe the vote in America is sacred…Second, we must, with an overwhelming voice, stand against political violence and voter intimidation…And third, we believe in democracy.”
Biden warned that not accepting election outcomes was the path to chaos, it was unprecedented and it was “unAmerican”, and urged voters to consider a simple question before they cast their vote.
“I hope you’ll ask a simple question of each candidate you might vote for: Will that person accept the legitimate will of the American people and the people voting in his district or her district? Will that person accept the outcome of the election, win or lose? The answer to that question is vital. And in my opinion, it should be decisive,” said the president, adding that on that question rested the future of American democracy.
