President Joe Biden is receiving praise for his attacks on so-called “MAGA Republicans.”
In an opinion article titled, “The GOP reaction to Biden’s speech shows that his anti-MAGA strategy is working,” Max Boot, a columnist for The Washington Post, wrote that Biden has “been pushing a message of bipartisanship that grated on the ears of younger and more progressive Democrats.”
“You could hear the grumbling: He’s too old, he has been in Washington too long, he doesn’t understand how the Republican Party has changed,” he continued.
Still, the columnist noted that Biden accomplished some bipartisan wins during his time in office.
“He hasn’t gotten everything he wanted, but from a legislative standpoint, this is one of the most successful presidencies in decades,” Boot claimed.
He went on, “Now that Biden has gotten so much of his agenda enacted, and with the midterm elections looming, he has switched to a more combative mode. His Thursday speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia was billed as a salvo in the continuing battle for ‘the soul of the nation,’ but it was really a well-justified expression of rage and despair about what the Republican Party has become.”
“The president is finally telling Democrats what they want to hear: ‘Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.’ This comes only a few days after he described the MAGA philosophy as ‘semi-fascism,'” Boot added.
The columnist noted that Republicans “screamed bloody murder” in response to the speech, but suggested that it does not mean Biden’s commitment to working with Republicans has been “discarded in the heat of the campaign.”
“Note that Biden wasn’t calling out all Republicans — he was not, contrary to the GOP talking points, attacking ‘half the country.’ He was careful to differentiate between normal Republicans and MAGA Republicans. ‘Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans,’ he said. ‘Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology,” Boot added.
The GOP reaction to Biden’s speech shows that his anti-MAGA strategy is working, @MaxBoot writes. https://t.co/evRbM5MM37
— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) September 5, 2022
He argued that “whatever figure you use for MAGA Republicans, it’s clear that they account for tens of millions of voters and pose a major threat to our democracy.” Still, he acknowledged that “there are also millions of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who aren’t hardcore Trumpkins and who are up for grabs. This includes ‘Never Trump’ former Republicans like me.”
The columnist posited that Biden’s focus on “MAGA Republicans” is an effort to “persuade independents and the small number of moderate Republicans to support Democratic candidates.”
“While Biden has started attacking ‘MAGA Republicans,’ Democrats’ election prospects have improved, boosted by gains among independents. A lot of that shift is because of support for abortion rights, a decline in gas prices and Democratic success in passing legislation, but a recent NBC News poll found that voters rank threats to democracy as their No. 1 concern,” Boot wrote.
He added, “The GOP reaction to Biden’s speech has been so hysterical, one suspects, precisely because Republicans fear that his strategy — of turning ‘MAGA’ into a toxic brand — might succeed.
The column comes after Biden delivered a speech on Thursday night in which he claimed “MAGA Republicans” represent “an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” Still, he stipulated that “not even the majority of Republicans are MAGA Republicans.”
And in remarks the next day, he tried to clarify his comments as he said, “I don’t consider any Trump supporters a threat to the country…I do think anyone who calls for the use of violence, fails to condemn violence when it’s used, refuses to acknowledge an election that has been won, insists upon changing the way you count votes, that is a threat to democracy.”
