Joe Biden's Battle for Freedom

In his reelection video, President Biden says "personal freedom is fundamental to who we are as Americans"—and he's determined to take on the MAGA extremists who think otherwise

“Let’s finish the job.” (Screenshot from President Biden’s reelection announcement video)

This has been a week of contrasts. On the same day President Joe Biden announced he’s running for a second term—reiterating his commitment to “the soul of the nation” and emphasizing personal freedom—Donald Trump faced the first day of a civil trial for defamation and assault involving his alleged rape of the writer E. Jean Carroll.

Biden followed up his video announcement Tuesday speaking to a crowd of union workers. “We’re on the cusp of major change,” he said, referencing jobs and manufacturing and health care, then adding, “Now we’ve just got to keep going. Finish the job.”

Meanwhile, Trump, who refused to show up in court, took to his Truth Social platform to call the civil trial a “SCAM,” Carroll’s lawyer “a political operative,” the lack of DNA evidence a sign of “a fraudulent & false story” and—hold your nose once again—a “Witch Hunt!” This was enough for Judge Lewis Kaplan, who warned Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina that his client was opening himself to “a new source of potential liability.”

This sounded to legal experts like either jury tampering or possibly obstruction of justice charges; it sounded to me like another example of lawyers unable to control their abusive client. As for E. Jean Carroll, it was hard not to admire her courage in telling her story—of violence and the trauma that has never subsided—despite having to pay with a constant flood of hatred and aggression from Trump and his enablers.

This got me thinking about the emerging campaign for president that once again sets competence and empathy against chaos and cruelty. Most Americans made clear where they stand on this issue in 2020, and now they have even more evidence to make their choice. As Biden said to the doubters in 2022 before the midterms, “Don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.”

And freedom, no longer a legitimate Republican issue—what with the GOP and its fascistic leaders banning books, banning abortion, restricting women’s right to cross state lines, even going to war against Mickey Mouse—has now become a Democratic focal point.

Clearly, candidate Biden agrees. The first word he says in his announcement video: “Freedom.” This after images from the Jan. 6 insurrection and a protestor holding up a sign that says “Abortion is healthcare.” And then: “Personal freedom is fundamental to who we are as Americans. There’s nothing more important. Nothing more sacred.”

What does his notion of freedom mean? “To fight for our democracy…To protect our rights. To make sure that everyone in this country is treated equally—and that everyone is given a fair shot at making it.” And the opposition? “Around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms.”

The contrast in values was made visible in part on Wednesday when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans squeaked through a debt limit bill 217-215, even though Biden already insisted he would not negotiate over spending cuts to extend the debt ceiling. That didn’t stop passage of a bill that would cut energy tax credits and spending programs that seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support electric vehicles, clean electricity and fuel, while expanding mining and fossil fuel production.

The bill also would axe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, end funding for 87,000 IRS agents, claw back unspent COVID-19 money, as well as toughen work requirements for Medicaid recipients and millions of low-income Americans who depend on federal food aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP.

By last week, Biden had already hit back against McCarthy and his party’s intentions. In a recent speech, the House Speaker “did not tell the wealthy or the powerful on Wall Street that it was finally time for them to start paying their fair share in taxes,” Biden said. “That didn’t come up, other than saying they’re going renew the $2 trillion tax cut. Instead, he proposed huge cuts to important programs that millions of Americans count on."

But as much as spending programs and spending cuts can illustrate the values of and differences between Democrats and Republicans, Biden’s announcement video did not linger on budgets or the nation’s credit, his historic successes in reducing unemployment, confronting the pandemic or even addressing the existential danger of climate change.

“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we were in a battle for the soul of America—and we still are,” he says in his video. “The question we’re facing is whether, in the years ahead, we have more freedom or less freedom. More rights or fewer. I know what I want the answer to be, and I think you do, too. This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for reelection.”

And if you had any doubt about whether the president was going to embrace his vice president, I urge you to watch the video and see how present Kamala Harris is throughout—a necessary reply to all those bent on condemning Biden’s age (more on this subject soon). I counted 17 times I saw her in the video’s three minutes and four seconds, including right at the beginning in what appears to be a Gay pride parade wearing a pink jacket and a t-shirt emblazoned with the words “LOVE IS LOVE.”

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One last note: I would be remiss not to comment on the unexpected firing on Monday of the most popular host of Fox “News.” Tucker Carlson may have said privately that he hates Trump “passionately,” but that never stopped him from regularly pushing Trumpist lies of election fraud and minimizing the violent reality of Jan. 6. Nor did he hesitate serving as a pro-Putin apologist feeding his audience Kremlin talking points to doubt the legitimacy of Ukraine and its democracy.

But what especially distinguished Carlson as a dangerously ugly and racist force in the Fox universe was his white supremacist message of a “great replacement” by immigrants and other people of color who make the country “poorer and dirtier” and endanger the power of the shrinking white population.

In a sane world, where a news organization embraces its duty to tell the truth, Fox and its owner Rupert Murdoch would have reined in Carlson for any of these lies and conspiratorial ideas that enhanced his demagogic appeal to nightly viewers and expanded his utility to the far right.

But while we are now learning that none of this was the likely reason Murdoch fired him—The New York Times reports it was likely texted “crude and mysognistic” slurs that led to his ouster—this bodes poorly for any shred of possibility that Fox will change its tune and act more responsibly. Sadly, I have little confidence that whoever comes next will help put an end to the malevolent, divisive role Fox plays in American life.

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