Thanks to Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), we finally found all of those racists Joe Biden keeps talking about. They’re on the Left, right under the president’s nose. After Scott’s inspirational response to the president’s speech Wednesday night, we didn’t have long to wait before the real party of intolerance came crawling out of its hole and attacked. In one of the most vile displays of hypocrisy, Democrats have apparently decided that it’s okay to be prejudiced — as long as the black man is a conservative.

For hours on social media, thanks to the indifferent Twitter police, so many people called Scott “Uncle Tim” that it started to trend. When the mob wasn’t using racial slurs online, they turned to other media — declaring the junior senator from South Carolina everything from an “apologist for white supremacy” to a “sycophantic black.” One CNN contributor, Van Jones, called Scott’s personal life experience “nonsense” — while his congressional colleague, Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) said he felt sorry for him, because he has to live in “denial” to get reelected. “I’m hopeful that he’ll come to his senses on this subject.”

You first, most Americans would say. The Democratic Party has trotted out this blanket condemnation of this country’s racism for 12 months — and less than 48 hours after Joe Biden says, “We have a real chance to root out systematic racism that plagues America,” they can’t even do it in their own ranks! Honestly, Scott shook his head, the disgusting reaction, “tells you all you need to know about the Left.” “[They’re] fighting bigotry with bigotry,” he insisted on Thursday. “I wish the Democrats, who always virtue signal, would take a look in the mirror and ask themselves: would they put up with that from anyone other than themselves? And if you won’t police yourselves, don’t look at the other side… [T]he hypocrisy needs to stop.”

Speaking of double standards, now that his own party looks like the kettle and the pot, the president has suddenly decided that America isn’t a racist country after all. Twenty-four hours after he lectured the country on its prejudices, he told NBC’s Today Show, “America is not a racist country.” Vice President Kamala Harris also chimed in, repeating the same line almost word for word on ABC. So which is it? We may never know, since most Democrats would rather exploit the situation than have an honest conversation. They’d rather turn every policy debate into a question of personal character, because it’s the only way to advance their agenda.

Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who talked to Tim after his speech, insisted, “A black man of his age would know if the country is changing or not. And he said anybody who’s lived through the last 20 years in America, how could [they] say we were a racist country?” We’ve had a black president. We have a black vice president. We have scores of minority members in Congress. It’s impossible to have systemic racism, when people of all backgrounds and ethnic groups are able to strive and succeed in this country.

This is about politics — not reality. “I think there’s an interest here on one side of trying to continue to divide the country,” Blunt argued. “The whole idea of identity politics leads you to talk about reasons why you should form into a group rather than philosophies and ideas of why you should form as part of a coalition. I think when your ideas are strong enough, you don’t have to try to divide people by identity…” And yet, radical Democrats have no choice. They can’t win these debates on policy, because their solutions are too unpopular. So they have to distract, blame, and smear.

When someone like Tim Scott or Ben Carson reminds everyone that there’s equal opportunity in America, it threatens the Left’s ideas about government. “It works against the [Democrats’] whole idea of ‘you didn’t do that. It was the government that made all of that possible.’” And Tim’s life tells a different story. It’s about faith and a mom who cared and true determination and perseverance. “Again, that’s counterintuitive to the idea that government has to be involved in every facet of your life for you to be successful,” Blunt pointed out. “And that’s not what you believe. It’s not what I believe. It’s not what Tim Scott believes. It’s probably not what the vast majority of Americans believe.”

So the Left had better tread carefully, Blunt warns. “[They] are dramatically overreaching… in the closest divided Congress, maybe in the history of the country. The Democrats have the smallest margin [they’ve] had since the Civil War. And the margin in the Senate couldn’t possibly be closer. How that becomes some big mandate to change America dramatically and put the government in charge of everything is amazing to me.” It isn’t. And if the radical Democrats aren’t careful, voters will hand down a new mandate — one the far-Left really won’t like.

Originally published here.

Biden’s Foreign Policy: Hanging by a Threat

For all of the rotten tomatoes that critics threw at Joe Biden’s speech, there was at least one audience who appreciated it: America’s enemies. Of all the dangerous, absurd things the president said, some of the worst were about our national defense. In places like Iran, China, and North Korea, the idea that racism is our homeland’s biggest threat had to be music to most dictators’ ears.

“We won’t ignore what our intelligence agents have determined to be the most lethal terrorist threat to our homeland today,” Biden insisted. “White supremacy is terrorism. We are not going to ignore that either.” FRC’s Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin couldn’t believe his ears. “I don’t believe that the intelligence community has told the president that…. Secondly, if they have, then they’re just flat wrong or they’ve redefined terrorism. What I would say is… that we’re living through a big con.” He talked about the barricades and fences around D.C., which are all a part of this Democratic theater. “Does the threat warrant that? And the answer is no. And you heard it from the president [Wednesday] night. They’re trying to convince Americans that people like you and me — white people in general, but also primarily white conservatives, white Christians, white activists — are the real threat.”

Meanwhile, the real enemies run free. “Do you think that the Chinese don’t just love to hear that? You think the Russians don’t love to hear that? You think that Kim Jong Un doesn’t love to hear that kind of thing, that we have taken our eye off the ball as a nation because of this president? [Joe Biden] is not serious about the defense of this nation. Either that or he is totally unaware of how serious the threat from these other adversaries really are.” Either way, the messaging — no matter what it’s political purpose — is dangerous.

Then, adding to the ridiculousness of this charade, Biden tried to pretend that the January 6th riot was “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.” Excuse me? What about 9/11? Pearl Harbor? The Oklahoma City bombing? Was the Capitol siege a horrible stain on our nation’s history? No question. It was inexcusable. But the majority of those people weren’t armed with anything but stupidity. Biden is seriously putting them — a bunch of disrespectful hooligans — on par with radical Muslim terrorists who killed thousands of people?

“The Capitol riot was very bad. Let’s get serious about American history tho,” wrote Jerry Dunleavy of the Washington Examiner. “Listen, I don’t know who writes the speeches for him,” General Boykin said, “but they don’t know a thing about history.” Frankly, they’re counting on the fact that most Americans don’t know their history. But if they did, history would bear out that we have had much greater attacks on this country — and the Capitol — than what happened there on January 6th.

And now, making matters worse, the Leftist media is conflating Christian nationalism with white supremacy. That, they insist, is our greatest vulnerability. What about the violence in our cities? The president didn’t say a word about the year-long crusade to burn cities across America by the Left. That’s because this isn’t about the truth — it’s about building a narrative that gives them cover for redefining extremism. We’re seeing that play out right now in our nation’s military, where trainings are underway to help our men and women rat out anyone with suspicious (conservative) views. Nothing, General Boykin argues, could be more devastating to our military readiness.

“There is nothing more important in the military than cohesion within a unit. That’s what causes people to be willing to die for their teammates… And when you destroy that cohesion with things like what they’re doing to our military today with this critical race theory — starting with telling every white person there, ‘You are an oppressor,’ and telling every black person, ‘You’re the victim.’ How is that going to build cohesion within those units? And look. I’ve seen men give their lives for their battle buddies. I’ve written them up for the Medals of Honor for doing just that. But you’ve got to have that cohesion in that unit, because that’s an equalizer that’s as important as the technology and weapons that you give them.”

Social experiments like this one don’t help us prepare for any war except the culture’s. We need to take a step back and stop focusing our time and energy on things that only divide us — and get back to readiness. “Douglas MacArthur told the people at West Point in 1963 when he stood in the mess hall there and he looked at them, ‘Your mission remains determined, fixed, inviolable. It is to win the nation’s wars.’ That’s not changed. It’s still to win the nation’s wars. That’s the mission.” But it’s certainly not the vision under this administration. And that should concern us all.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.