In what can only be described as the most astonishingly hostile and divisive attack on his fellow American citizens ever delivered by an American president Joe Biden on September 1, 2022 delivered remarks on what he called “the Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation.”
The dark bloodred lighting, the prominent placement of Marines on the stage and the viciously hostile words of Biden’s remarks conveyed a dark and ominous threat against anyone who might disagree with the Democrats’ Far Left, anti-constitutional agenda.
Rather than taking inspiration from the great presidential speeches of the past – the humility of George Washington’s first inaugural address, the unifying message of Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, the paean to America’s foundational principles in Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms Speech,” the call to fight the spread of Communism in John F. Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you” inaugural address, and the can-do, upbeat challenge “to dream heroic dreams” of Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural address, Joe Biden appeared to be inspired by a darker spirit, foreign to the respectful disagreement that has characterized our political discourse prior to the present age.
I am not the first or only observer to see dark parallels between Biden’s “the Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation” and the infamous Nazi propaganda film “Triumph of the Will” in which German filmmaking genius Leni Riefenstahl used non-verbal image-making and the words of Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders to dehumanize and justify the persecution of the opponents of the National Socialist movement.
One of the most effective techniques Riefenstahl and Hitler used was to place opponents outside the privileged group of the Nazi Party, and to place them under threat by juxtaposing Hitler’s words with images of the military, then firmly under the control of the Nazi Party.
So, we see the same technique of “othering” when Biden attacks “MAGA Republicans” against a bloodred background while flanked by stern-faced Marines.
A picture is worth a thousand words and Biden doesn’t have to say, “I’m coming for you,” it is clear from the picture.
However, Biden is much less subtle than Hitler in identifying those who disagree with him as enemies
Hitler says quite clearly at some point in the future every “loyal German” must be a National Socialist: “...the goal must be that all loyal Germans will become National Socialists.”
Biden put that concept in the negative. You can’t be an “insurrectionist” or a “MAGA Republican” and be an American, loyal to the Constitution.
And there was another interesting parallel between the two speeches.
The Nazis were infamous for redefining words and concepts to fit their ideology. Thus, “justice” didn’t mean achieving a fair result based on evidence, it meant achieving a result that advanced the ideological goals of the Nazi Party.
Biden’s speech was full of similar dramatic ironies.
Starting the day Donald Trump was inaugurated, Democrats and their Far Left allies spent 2016 to 2020 attacking police stations and committing arson to the tune of over $2 billion in damages, and reacted to the overturning of Roe v. Wade by burning crisis pregnancy centers, but Joe Biden said: “There is no place for political violence in America. Period. None. Ever.”
After Democrats and their Far Left allies fomented riots that caused the death of at least 31 police officers while they excused some 600,000 assaults on police officers, Joe Biden complained: “We saw law enforcement brutally attacked on January the 6th.”
And after not one of the organizers of that political violence was charged, let alone prosecuted for that violence, Joe Biden said with a straight face: “We can’t allow violence to be normalized in this country. It’s wrong. We each have to reject political violence with — with all the moral clarity and conviction this nation can muster. Now.”
Is comparing Joe Biden’s “the Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation” to Adolf Hitler’s “The Triumph of the Will” a stretch?
I don’t think so.
The point of both was to dehumanize opponents, to put those who disagreed with the party line outside the “mainstream,” and to redefine truth, justice, the rule of law, violence and loyalty to fit the ruling Party’s ideology. And in that regard Joe Biden was considerably less subtle than were Adolf Hitler and Leni Riefenstahl.
George Rasley is editor of Richard Viguerie's ConservativeHQ.com and is a veteran of over 300 political campaigns. He served as an event producer and advance representative for ten presidential campaigns. A member of American MENSA, he served on the staff of Vice President Dan Quayle, as Director of Policy and Communication for then-Congressman Adam Putnam (FL-12) then Vice Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, and as spokesman for retired Rep. Mac Thornberry, formerly Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
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