Every now and then, an American president finds it necessary to broadcast a clarion call to action. Wake up, America — it’s time to defend our beloved nation!

It happened this past Thursday night. In a primetime telecast, President Joe Biden sounded the alarm. Channeling JFK’s revelation of the Cuban Missile Crisis and FDR’s Pearl Harbor Day of Infamy radio broadcast, Biden rolled out his “Soul of America” warning.

He’s right — these are perilous times. With armed U.S. Marines at his side, he delivered his primetime address from America’s birthplace, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, making very clear the somber realities facing our nation.

But Biden wasn’t warning Americans of the winds of war — the very real potential that the war in Ukraine or China’s aggression in the Pacific may soon morph into World War III, and perhaps even to nuclear war. Nor was he addressing the ongoing economic calamity of runaway inflation, or our collapsing energy supply, or the illegal migrant invasion at the southern border, or even what leftists insist is the existential threat of global warming.

No, he was warning of an imminent and terrifying threat from within, an assault on American democracy that imperils “the very foundations of the Republic” and is posed by unspeakably evil forces — who by the way happen to be his political opponents.

Mr. President, we heard your message loud and clear, although it’s probably not the message you intended. Last Thursday night, we witnessed the embarrassing spectacle of a president closing his eyes to the real issues of the day and trying to convince us that his precarious political position constitutes a national emergency. It doesn’t.

Much of Biden’s 30-minute speech was fluff, full of wild accusations, and had little supporting facts or logic. And on the few specifics, Biden’s assertions were worse than wrong; they were loaded with breathtaking contradictions. A few examples:

Democracy at risk? Of course not. American democracy — per Abraham Lincoln “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people” — isn’t going anywhere. The democratic Republic is baked into our Constitution, our laws, our traditions, and our culture.

To the degree that there are threats to democracy, they fall largely at the feet of Biden and his Democrat administration, which routinely act with little or no input from the GOP — that is, with half of the nation to be unrepresented. Remember Biden’s stack of executive orders signed on Inauguration Day?

Authoritarianism. The Biden speech picked up on his remarks the week previously characterizing MAGA Republicans (whoever they are) as “semi-fascist.” But curiously, that authoritarian streak seems more Democrat than Republican: mandatory vaccinations, Orwellian control of information, and initiatives to pack the courts and “reform” the Senate filibuster come to mind.

Extremism. In his speech, Biden reminded us that America is “the greatest nation on the face of the earth.” So why is it extremist to think of “making America great”? If you’re looking for extremism, how about denying biology and long-accepted definitions of male and female? Or teaching critical race theory in schools? Or opening America’s southern border?

Accepting election results. Is there anyone on the planet who, during Donald Trump’s presidency, did not notice the non-stop Democrat denial of Trump’s victory, the nonsensical Russia collusion explanation, and the relentless initiatives — including two impeachments — to overturn that election result?

Unity. The president’s speech last week included a tone-deaf reprise of his inauguration promise to “respect our political differences” and “see each other not as enemies but as fellow Americans” — this, moments after insulting 74 million Americans with differing political views and asserting emphatically that his political opponents constitute an imminent, grave threat to the nation.

By all accounts, Joe Biden’s remarks last Thursday were his own, expressing views that for some time he’s been adamant to share with the American public. If so, it prompts a very serious question: Does he actually believe them? If so, his thinking is frighteningly muddled and myopic. Or perhaps he knows them to be pure bunk, but as a lifetime politician he’s willing to say anything that might yield a needed bump in the polls.

For a sitting president of the United States, either — or both — of those possibilities is a very bad sign. Presidents get relatively few chances to connect directly with the public. He whiffed on this one.

And for the rest of us, someday you’ll tell your grandchildren that you were there when President Joe Biden warned us of the imminent threat to the USA posed by middle-age Americans who wear red hats saying “Make America Great Again!”