Just a few minutes ago, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Reverend Al Sharpton bluntly and brilliantly invited Joe Biden to a street fight. Informing the assembled panel of politically correct conflict averse Morning Joe regulars – other than Scarborough himself – that Biden’s approach is far too soft in his race against Trump, the apex predator; the Rev, cried “Havoc!” and let the dogs out, saying:
“The thing I think the Biden campaign needs to do, Joe, is to realize they are not in a professional boxing match, they’re in a street fight. Donald Trump is a street fighter. You do not come into the ring with gloves, looking for the referee to stop it every three minutes and rest. No, this is a street fight, you come in with a broke bottle and an ash can because it’s gonna be that kind of battle, and he doesn’t understand anything else, and you have to show in a graphical way him saying ‘Use bleach,’ and then show the lines of people at food chains trying to line up to get free food like they had to do at my headquarters with Andre the Chef. You need to be graphic about it. You need to show people protesting about George Floyd and him standing in front of a church with a bible that he cleared them out with tear gas. You need to come and street fight because if you street fight him you can beat him.”
This is as well-stated as I’ve heard this election cycle, especially on a mainstream media outlet. The aversion to politically blunt language among the networks is a massive disservice to the country as it faces a potential political disaster should Trump be elected just five months from now, yes, just five months. We’re at DEFCON 2. We’ve no time for tree hugging, politically correct, anemic political narration. The Rev’s cry from the heart is, frankly, what Sharpton was born to do at many junctions in the past, and especially now.
Unfortunately, I hope otherwise, but this call to arms will most certainly be ignored, so mired in soft language has the center of the Democratic party become. I do give Biden credit for his (too) recent turn towards more aggressive rhetoric which began six months ago at the State of the Union address. Nevertheless, he is constitutionally not inclined in that direction and lacks the bluntness needed to injure Trump. Biden does not have the “voice” for ruthlessness. Moreover, his surrogates do not appear enough in public to keep up a steady drumbeat.
In effect, the campaign speaks in broad generalities about concepts like “democracy” and “rule of law” that are rarely backed up with stark examples of how Trump has, and will if elected, brutally assault them. They need to point to the GOP’s Heritage Foundation screed, Project 2025, the written plans for Trump’s attack on our government. See gruesome examples galore in their Project 2025 playbook. They are telling us in 900+ pages exactly what they plan for America, it’s a Mein Kampf of sorts.
Hopefully, there is time to remedy this, although it’s unlikely that anything other than a full-on declaration of political war with the Trump campaign will suffice. We’re in deep trouble with our backs to the wall. Let’s pray for the realization of this John Dryden quote:
“Beware the fury of the patient man.”