Joe Biden made two appearances in Tempe, Ariz., yesterday: a campaign reception at which he framed the defense of democracy as a partisan issue in the upcoming election, and remarks honoring John McCain and the McCain Institute and Library in which Biden argued, “Democracy is not a partisan issue. It’s an American issue,” and asked, “all of us are being asked right now: What will we do to maintain our democracy? Will we, as John wrote, never quit? Will we not hide from history, but make history? Will we put partisanship aside and put country first? I say we must and we will. We will.”
Well, whoever puts partisanship aside, it won’t be Joe Biden. You certainly won’t find a shred of that in either speech — Biden isn’t offering to meet Republicans halfway on anything. He goes on about the dangers of MAGA, which he defines when convenient so broadly it refers to pro-lifers and anyone concerned about taxes and entitlements, and he remains unrepentant for his party’s spending upwards of $50 million last year to boost MAGA candidates in primaries just to give Democrats a partisan edge in winning elections.
The only thing bipartisan about the speech is that Biden is now willing to say nice things about John McCain, but back when McCain was actually alive, Biden on the campaign trail branded him “an angry man lurching from one position to another” and argued that McCain, too, was just another generic Republican: “You can’t call yourself a maverick when all you’ve ever been is a sidekick.” (The one time Biden said his own side had gone too far was when the Obama campaign mocked McCain’s difficulty using cutting-edge technology like the BlackBerry, given that McCain’s war injuries made it hard for him to type on one.) Of course, McCain was no shrinking violet himself, deriding Biden in 2014 for doing nothing to stop Russia from invading Ukraine and seizing Crimea. But McCain is now safely dead, so he can be enlisted in Biden’s partisan campaigns.
Love John McCain or hate him, he made his share of enemies calling out leaders on his own side such as George W. Bush and Donald Trump and making genuine compromises. That’s never been Joe Biden, least of all has it been Biden’s White House, and if you hold your breath waiting for him to propose anything that isn’t orthodox Democratic Party thinking, you won’t live very long.