Political expediency of the moment has promoted bipartisan talk of turning down the thermostat on political rhetoric. Expect this to be a short-lived phenomenon.
Joe Biden, who ran for the presidency on promises of uniting the nation, kept showing up on TV in the wake of the Donald Trump assassination attempt, blaming/chastising those responsible for inflamed rhetoric. He could have just looked in the mirror and scolded himself while shaving, presuming he’s still trusted with sharp objects.
In a rare televised address from the Oval Office Sunday night, Biden expanded on the theme, a talk sprinkled with his customary gaffes.
Perhaps they were Freudian slips when Biden referred to Trump as the “former” Trump. Later, Biden twice deplored violence and said political issues must be decided at the “battle box.”
Biden speaking of a figurative thermostat brought back of memories of then-president Jimmy Carter donning a cardigan sweater for a televised address in 1974 to implore the citizens to turn down their heating thermostats to 65 degrees to deal with an energy crisis. That didn’t really work, either.
Mostly Biden tried to say the right things. But what he didn’t say was telling. Biden could have admitted that he and his re-election campaign, with the aid of too many prominent Democrats and left-wing media lapdogs, have been at the forefront of vilifying Trump as Hitler, a threat to democracy, a convicted criminal, a rapist, a liar and other assorted hyperbolic terms. Just the other day Biden had screamed for donors/supporters to put Trump in the “bullseye.”
Biden might have said something like this Sunday night: “In the past I have been guilty of rhetorical excesses, as has my campaign. I can’t speak for all others, but I hereby promise to refrain in the future from such over-the-top accusations and I further promise that anyone in my re-election effort will be fired if they do not follow my directive.
Instead, Biden spoke in vague, general terms Sunday without naming names, including his own. It typified the inability to lead that has been Biden’s calling card in public office.
While a seeming majority, on both sides of the political spectrum, seemed to realize this was a time for reserved comment, a notable segment could not contain themselves.
Potential Trump VP candidate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, took to social media after the shooting to blame inflamed rhetoric from Biden and his surrogates for prompting the assassination attempt. It was too soon for that.
But what Vance said pales in comparison with the ravings of a now ex-staffer of Bennie Thompson, a Democrat Congressman from Mississippi.
Said staffer rushed to social media and lamented the Trump shooter’s poor aim and suggested shooting lessons for future assassins. She had more to say, including asking if it was all staged and victim shaming Trump by suggesting he brought it upon himself with his “hate speech.”
Wonder if she thinks rape victims “asked for it” by dressing provocatively?
According to no less a source than leftist CNN, rival left-wing cable news channel MSNBC opted not to air its Morning Joe show Monday morning. Unnamed sources cited by CNN said the network was afraid of what “inappropriate” comments might be aired.
So, MSNBC has hosts and guests of a major show it cannot trust to exercise common sense? Makes you wonder why the show is aired at all.
There are reports that the Republican National Convention, which runs this week in Milwaukee, will be a kinder, gentler thing, led by Trump toning down his acceptance speech.
It would be the smart thing for him and Republicans, considering they now hold the moral high ground.
But I’m sure there will be regressions in coming weeks, by Republicans and desperate Democrats, the latter of whom see this election slipping into the reaches where even dramatic “help” in generating and counting votes won’t be able to change the outcome.
High-temperature political rhetoric is not dead, but merely taking a short summer vacation.
Sam Ross Jr's site 