Biden’s Philadelphia Speech: Fellow Citizens No More? Mackubin Owens

Biden’s Philadelphia Speech: Fellow Citizens No More? Mackubin Owens

A mere 20 months ago, President Biden pledged to bring the country together after the alleged divisiveness created by the Trump presidency. In his inaugural address, Biden repeatedly referred to “unity.” For instance, he stated that “my whole soul is in this: bringing America together, uniting our people, and uniting our nation.” There are, he said, no blue states and red states, only American state.

Fast forward to his speech last week in front of Liberty Hall: it is hard to imagine a more divisive speech than the one he delivered, in which he blamed unhappy voters for today’s divisions. More troubling, he demonized them. In the tradition of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who derided many American citizens as “bitter clingers” and “deplorables,” Biden labeled them as extremists and enemies of democracy. “MAGA Republicans have made their choice. They embrace anger. They thrive on chaos. They live not in the light of truth, but in the shadow of lies.” 

His Philadelphia speech followed in the spirit of an earlier address to donors at a Democratic fundraiser rally in Maryland that weeky. “It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins [MAGA]— I’m going to say something, it’s like semi-fascism.” It’s interesting to note that despite the charge of divisiveness leveled against Trump and the undeniable fact that the former president never shied from attacking his political opponents. I can’t recall an instance in which he attacked American voters in the way that Democrats have done over the last few election cycles.

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Of course, these attacks may be seen as the president’s way of diverting the attention of the American people from the failures of his administration. It is also a way to rally his base. But what are the implications of the President of the Unite States demonizing his presumably fellow citizens as extremists and “semi-fascists” whatever that means?

It helps to understand what MAGA Republicans believe they stand for: the protection of the natural rights of American citizens, economic prosperity, improved access to energy, secure borders, reduced crime, domestic tranquility, and a foreign policy based on the prudent application of American power. President Biden has delivered the very opposite of these policy goals and his response, as well as that of Democrats in general, has been to label those who seek those goals as “extremists” intent on destroying democracy. I personally never imagined that we would reach a point where defenders of citizens’ right would be portrayed as embracing fascism.

Part of the problem is that “fascism” has become a mere epithet, a slur directed at the political opponents of the Democratic Party. But the term has both a real meaning and a history. The intellectual father of fascism is the Italian, Giovanni Gentile, born in 1875, who, according to his biographer, A. James Gregor was one of Europe’s most influential philosophers during the first half of the twentieth century. In keeping with the mainstream view of European continental political philosophers such as Hegel, Gentile believed that the modern state was the culmination of history. He further argued that democracy took two diametrically opposed forms: liberal democracy, as practiced in Great Britain and the United States, which, because it stressed liberty and individual rights was too individualistic and “selfish;” and “true democracy,” in which individuals willingly subordinate themselves to the state.

Gentile contended that all private action should be oriented to serve society; for him, there was no distinction between private and public interests. Indeed, correctly understood, the two are identical. Since the state administers all aspects of society, to submit to society is to submit to the state in all matters.

Of course, it was Gentile’s philosophic disciple, Benito Mussolini, who actualized Gentile’s words. In his Dottrina del Fascismo, one of the doctrinal statements of early fascism, Mussolini wrote, “All is in the state, and nothing human exists or has value outside the state.” German fascists, who called themselves “national socialists,” contracted to “Nazi,” followed a similar path. But the idea that the state should dominate society is completely foreign to Republicans, MAGA or otherwise.

President Biden subsequently tried to “walk back” the claim that he made in Philadelphia. In response to a reporter’s question, he replied, “I don’t consider any Trump supporter to be a threat to the country.” Well and good. But as we look at the increasing subordination of all aspects of American life to the US government, in violation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, perhaps we should ask ourselves who the real fascists are.