President Joe Biden is set to speak during primetime Thursday night "not as a Democratic president, but as a president of a democracy," according to a White House official. Invoking that word – "democracy" – seems to have been a common theme from the White House in recent months:
WH press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: "The MAGA Republicans are the most energized part of the Republican Party. This is an extreme threat to our democracy, to our freedom, to our rights."
Jean-Pierre: "The president thinks that there is an extremist threat to our democracy. It's not stopping. It's continuing."
President Joe Biden: "[Republicans are] a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace political violence. They don't believe in democracy."
Historian David Barton of WallBuilders says the name-calling and demonization only get worse from there.
"[They've been saying] These Trump people, these others, man, they're a threat to the whole nation. They're going to kill us all," he summarizes. "They have gone to exorbitant rhetoric, just irrational language."
But Barton points out something he says almost everyone gets wrong: America has never had a democracy; in fact, it's a representative republic.
He accuses Democrats of internally redefining the term "democracy" to mean their socialist vision for America – and now counting on Americans to revert to the more common (but inaccurate) definition.
"This is part of the way you take down a candidate or even a campaign," Barton explains. "You just make them radical. When you're running against somebody's campaign, [you say things like] Oh, this guy is crazy. Don't you know he voted this way and did this? Or whatever."
But even more worrisome to Barton is what he predicts leading into the November midterms. "I expect violence. They've been prepping for this for a while," he says bluntly.
"I think [the election] will not go the way they expect," he continues. "They can get away with violence in larger cities [as] they have in Portland, in Minnesota, [and] other places. [But] they're not going to get away with violence if it starts moving outside the largest cities – and I think they'll be surprised."
Applicable quotes (Source: The Federalist Papers):
- "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% can take away the rights of the other 49%." (Thomas Jefferson)
- "Whereas, a republic is a government of laws." (John Adams)
- "A democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes itself, exhausts, and murders itself, because there never was a democracy that didn't commit suicide." (John Adams)
