Bedbug’s Historical Analogies

Our least favorite Times columnist is not the brightest bulb in the world. And his attack on Biden’s speech, while as stupid and disingenuous as all the other attacks on the speech, has a very special and presumably rather poorly thought through historical analogy to lead it off.

Abraham Lincoln’s first Inaugural Address was a 3,600-word olive branch to a South on the eve of the Civil War. His second promised malice toward none after the war left 620,000 dead. Americans have long revered both speeches because they offered a measure of redemption, and a means of reconciliation, to those who deserved it least.

Joe Biden’s speech in Philadelphia last week bears no resemblance to either address, except that, in his own inaugural, he staked his presidency on ending “this uncivil war that pits red against blue.” So much for that. Like the predecessor he denounces, Biden has decided the best way to seek partisan advantage is to treat tens of millions of Americans as the enemy within.

So…wait a minute. The present Republican Party is the Confederacy? I mean, yes, but it’s interesting that Stephens just goes there without much thought. Of course, he’s outraged that Biden would actually say that a large percentage of Republicans are visceral threats of American democracy, despite the point being objectively true. But this is where he is–sure, we are equal to the traitors who nearly destroyed the country, but how dare Biden not be Fantasy Lincoln and reach out to these traitorous racist scumbags?