https://spectator.org/biden-administration-civility/
Joe Biden’s campaigns have rested on the most rancid racial politics. In 2020, he routinely accused his opponent of racism and support for white supremacism, drawing on nothing but his own libelous twisting of Trump’s words after the rioting in Charlottesville. In 2012, Biden had accused Republicans of planning to put blacks “back in chains.” His venom came out also on non-racial matters. He once called opponents of gay marriage the “dregs of society.” In the Senate, he habitually hurled dirty charges, becoming the father of Borking.
But now Biden’s thoughts turn to civility. He promises to lead us out of a “grim era of demonization.” Biden is not the first Democrat to peddle this claptrap. Indeed, it is a standard hypocrisy of Democrats: out of power, they extol incivility; once they regain power, they denounce it. Recall the Clinton era’s ludicrous “civility” commission, which the Democrats set up after Rush Limbaugh and company foiled their agenda.
In times of political exile, Democrats countenance all manner of incivility. They cheered as John Lewis and company boycotted Trump’s inauguration. They defended a play in Central Park that depicted a Trumpian figure stabbed to death. They laughed as comedienne Kathy Griffin held up a mock-severed head of Trump. More recently, they found nothing to condemn in the monstrously uncivil rhetoric of Black Lives Matter.
They only turn pacific after they feel safely ensconced in positions of power, and then “civility” becomes a means to defang opponents. Michelle Obama, whose instincts are those of a low Chicago ward boss, didn’t turn her thoughts to going “high” until reaching the White House. But after leaving it, she quickly returned to gutter politics, egging John Lewis and company on in their uncivil behavior.
In power, Barack was also liable to muse on the importance of civility. On his rise to power, however, he kept company with the shaggiest and most uncivil Alinskyites. He launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers. He attended the services of Jeremiah Wright, whose most famous pronouncement was “God damn America.” He promoted the work of Saul Alinsky, who placed ends-justifies-the-means incivility at the center of his program of agitation.
