Joe Biden’s farewell address was sad. Perhaps the last gasp of a man slipping into terminal dementia, defensive, underlaid with anger and resentment, it was yet another attempt at gaslighting Americans, telling outrageous lies with the implication: who you gonna believe? Me or your own lyin’ eyes, pocketbooks and empty gas tanks? Consider this from the transcript:

In the past four years, our democracy has held strong. And every day, I've kept my commitment to be president for all Americans, through one of the toughest periods in our nation's history. 

Biden’s handlers didn’t intend it, but they have given Americans yet another chance to truly unite, an opportunity Joe Biden, who was not “president for all Americans,” denied them. Think of it as Biden’s inadvertent, unintentional, final gift to America. 

Graphic: Twitter Screenshot

An earlier gift was his September, 2022 red speech, in which Biden angrily branded half the country racist, sexist, insurrectionists, domestic terrorists, fascists, haters, and every other kind of ists and phobes. But worse, as people who might—gasp!—vote for Donald Trump, they were existential threats to “our democracy.” Not “democracy,” but “our democracy.” It was an odd sort of gift, sort of like a lump of coal in a Christmas stocking, but at least Biden told us where we stood.

“Our Democracy” is a term of art Democrats/socialists/communists (D/s/cs) consistently use, which is no mistake. D/s/cs are masters of warping the language to their political advantage. If you can define the terms of the debate, you win before a word is spoken. That’s why they avoid uttering “constitutional, representative republic” like vampires shrinking from a crucifix. “Our democracy” is a one-party state, their one-party state. And in that one party state, the majority rules; it’s a tyranny of the majority where a packed Supreme Court can ensure the law and the Constitution—should they bother to acknowledge it at all—are what they say it is, and individual rights are reduced to privileges accorded at the whim of the majority.

Grapic: Twitter Screenshot

What?! You hate democracy! This is nothing but MAGA semantics! Not so much, as Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution notes:

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

It’s known as the guarantee clause. A republican form of government is essentially the opposite of a democracy, where the majority rules. It’s absolutely the opposite of “our democracy” where the majority rules forever because it’s a one-party state that rigs elections, like California, which recently outlawed voter ID, the better to let everyone, including illegal aliens, vote early and often. With the right rigging, and the right disarmament of the populace, combined with an appropriate reign of terror, “our democracy” might have been eternal.

Whether most Americans understood the distinction or could pass an essay test doesn’t matter, at least not for the next four years. Americans in sufficient numbers, including many who traditionally and reflexively voted for D/s/cs, saw their liberties slipping away. They saw themselves sliding into poverty, into a country where their children would have no chance to do better than their parents. They saw DEI displace merit, and with that displacement, no chance to succeed through competence, responsibility, honesty and hard, honest, productive work. 

They may not have been able to define “our democracy” but Biden’s handlers gave them a taste of it good and hard, and they didn’t like it.

The in-your-face lawfare against Donald Trump and innumerable honest Americans was only one example of the glories of “our democracy,” and Americans said “hell no” by voting for the felon, secure in the knowledge any conviction would be overturned—eventually—on appeal. 

And now, on the eve of Trump’s second term, Americans must take full advantage of Biden’s gift. They must insist on the return of our constitutional, representative republic and all its wonders, such as: the rule of law, respect for individual rights, a non-weaponized DOJ and FBI, every branch and agency of government forced to obey the Constitution and to serve, not try to rule, the public, the return of a clear separation of powers between the three branches and no more capricious and arbitrary rule making beyond the authorities of federal agencies.

The only way to truly unify America is for all Americans to once again embrace American Constitutionalism, the representative republic the Founders so wisely established for us. A republic leaves us alone while ensuring our individual rights are upheld. “Our democracy”…well, the Obama and Biden years showed us what that’s like, and what was intended.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.