Looking for Threats to Democracy? Biden Can Start With Himself

Last week, we witnessed what amounted to a tirade by President Joe Biden. A harangue that has to be one of the most detestable and insulting of addresses by any president in memorable American history.

It originates, of course, with the desperation of a man and a party who have lost so much support among mainstream Americans of every demographic that they now have only a very small, extreme, fringe base of which to try and speak to.

And that fringe base is indeed the only audience who would receive a speech like this, with any amount of appreciation.

Biden said, to the applause of his misguided supporters,

"Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic."

Biden also declared, "They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country."

This kind of language lays the groundwork for increased, intensified persecution and denial of the basic rights of patriots and believers.

What’s more, it obscures and distracts from what actually does threaten the foundations of our republic.

St. John Paul II himself identified one such fundamental threat.

In his 1995 encyclical, "The Gospel of Life," he wrote, observing:

"This is what is happening also at the level of politics and government: the original and inalienable right to life is questioned or denied on the basis of a parliamentary vote or the will of one part of the people — even if it is the majority.

"This is the sinister result of a relativism which reigns unopposed: the "right" ceases to be such, because it is no longer firmly founded on the inviolable dignity of the person, but is made subject to the will of the stronger part.

"In this way democracy, contradicting its own principles, effectively moves towards a form of totalitarianism.

"The State is no longer the 'common home' where all can live together on the basis of principles of fundamental equality, but is transformed into a tyrant State, which arrogates to itself the right to dispose of the life of the weakest and most defenseless members, from the unborn child to the elderly, in the name of a public interest which is really nothing but the interest of one part." (n. 20)

Ironic, isn’t it, that the president and the party who are so riled up right now because of the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade 410 U.S. 113 (1973) (with: Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization) and the perceived decimation of women’s rights —and therefore of our very democracy — would be, in the eyes of John Paul II, the very ones promoting the destruction of democracy because of their advocacy of legal abortion.

John Paul goes on to say that when abortion is legalized: "the democratic ideal, which is only truly such when it acknowledges and safeguards the dignity of every human person, is betrayed in its very foundations: How is it still possible to speak of the dignity of every human person when the killing of the weakest and most innocent is permitted? . . . When this happens, . . . the disintegration of the State itself has already begun…This is the death of true freedom" (n. 20)

The Democratic Party and its leaders need some serious examination of conscience, as they promote unrestricted abortion and equate that with freedom and democracy.

Meanwhile, according to a Pope and Saint of the Church to which Biden and Pelosi claim to belong, their position represents the betrayal, denial, disintegration and death of that democracy.

Biden and his followers excoriate the high court's recent Dobbs decision as not representing the will of the people when, again, this is a perfect reversal of reality.

The decision, far from ignoring the people, identifies the key damage of Roe precisely this way: "[W]ield­ing nothing but 'raw judicial power,'  . . .  the Court usurped the power to ad­dress a question of profound moral and social importance that the Constitution unequivocally leaves for the people. …. The Court short-circuited the democratic process by closing it to the large number of Americans who dissented in any respect from Roe."

The Dobbs court then gave back to the people and their elected representatives the right to determine abortion policy. That’s what democracy looks like.

Biden’s speech was offensive in many ways. An attack like this on the 75 million citizens who voted for President Trump and the even larger number who support him is bad enough.

But for those entrusted with the leadership of our nation to be so far off the mark about what is good for our country and so blind to what actually threatens it is beyond all bounds and requires stronger political engagement than ever.

There is no room here for apathy, neutrality, or silence.

Team Biden obviously doesn’t want dialogue anymore. After all, you don’t "dialogue" with "clear and present dangers" to democracy. You remove such dangers.

This writer doesn't know what they think they’re justified in doing next. But what we MAGA patriots need to do: vote Democrats out of office in an overwhelming display of popular and political will, informed by commonsense, patriotism, and a genuine love for America.

Fr. Frank Pavone is one of the most prominent anti-abortion leaders globally. Read Fr. Frank Pavone Reports — More Here.