Spirited Reasoners have never understood the degree of venom often spewed by right-wing demagogues at the four most recent Democratic Presidents: Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden. We would understand their opposition if it were based on principle and fact. For example, conservatives typically object to spending measures that increase the federal deficit, levels of taxation that choke economic growth, and failures to secure our national borders. Those are all legitimate differences of opinion subject to honest debate based on different priorities given to the same facts.

But differences of opinion do not explain the level of hatred one can easily find leveled at those same Presidents in social media or at any MAGA rally.

When one looks back at the historical record, all four of those Presidents appear to fall neatly within the center-left mainstream of American voters championed by Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson. Sure, we can find examples of hatred leveled at those four Democratic Presidents as well, but not from leaders of the Republican Party. You never heard a Republican like Dwight Eisenhower call Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, or Johnson “dangerous communists” or “evil pedophiles.” To find that level of extreme speech, one had to look at the pronouncements of fringe groups such as the KKK.

Enter the world that Donald Trump legitimized in 2016. Now, it is apparently okay by Republicans if their leading candidate labels Joe Biden as “crooked,” replacing Hilary Clinton with that moniker. See, https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3976378-trump-blasts-biden-as-grossly-incompetent/

But rather than engage in that level of gutter tactics, let’s consider the facts:  

President Biden has announced his bid for reelection.

In foreign policy, he has kept us out of the Russia-Ukraine war while working with our allies to provide Ukraine with a strong measure of meaningful, tangible support. In the process he has worked behind the scenes to unify and expand NATA, which in itself serves an historical foreign policy coup. President Biden has also showed just the right measure of naval force in the Pacific, while unifying allies in that region, such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines.   

On the domestic front, President Biden delivered on the infrastructure bill that President Trump had promised but never passed. President Biden also supported Congressional legislation that expanded red-flag laws, background checks for firearms and tools to make it easier to prosecute illegal weapons trafficking. He supported successful legislation (the CHIPS Act) aimed at increasing the production of semiconductor chips, he found a way to jumpstart the moribund postal reform legislation and helped pass the Violence Against Women Act. And he worked to push through legislation designed to support clean energy. Most of these bills were passed on a bipartisan basis, thus making good on President Biden’s most fundamental promise during the 2020 campaign: to help unify the nation. See, https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/biden-legislative-checklist-1.6546561

Let the haters hate if that’s what they choose to do. When it comes to choosing the best candidate to guide the nation through the perils of the next four years, Spirited Reasoners will stick to the facts.