President Joe Biden called Monday for action to end the type of “hate-fueled violence” that authorities said motivated a white man to fatally shoot three Black people at a Florida store over the weekend. Biden said people must speak out about injustice.
“We can’t let hate prevail, and it’s on the rise. It’s not diminishing,” Biden said at the White House as he met with civil rights advocates and the children of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington.
“Silence, I believe, we’ve all said many times, silence is complicity,” Biden said. “We’re not going to remain silent and, so, we have to act against this hate-fueled violence.”
The problem is that Biden can only do so much. We like to imagine that the President is the ultimate leader of the land, but he really isn’t. If Congress refuses to act (or can’t due to filibusters in the Senate and a Republican controlled House), then the President can only do so much.
It also doesn’t help when one of the two major parties tossed their dogwhistles aside and whips out the bullhorns instead. It’s wrong to imply that both sides are equally to blame when one side is actively encouraging the racists and the other side is trying but failing to stop them.
Please point out where I suggested the blame was equal. I don’t want to eat a shot sandwich, but it’s self-evidently better than a shit-and-glass-shard sandwich. That’s how I see the Dems and GOP. Bothsidesism is for fools.