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"My whole soul is in bringing America together, uniting our people." – President Biden, in his inauguration address, Jan. 20, 2020.
"MAGA Republicans are destroying American democracy." – President Biden, in a speech Sept. 1 in Philadelphia.
Those contrasting statements reflect a politician who has spent the past half century hustling for votes.
Beyond them, President Biden's use of terms like hate and fascism in recent speeches and associating "MAGA Republicans" with those terms represent an attempt at false labeling with an assumption it is accurate and will be accepted.
We all know the acronym stands for Make America Great Again. Someone needs to explain how that moniker reflects hate, fascism or an attempt to destroy our democracy.
The coupling of the moniker and Republicans and consistent attempts by the White House to label that group as extremists does not hold up against the facts.
The movement resulted in 74 million votes for Donald Trump in the last presidential election. Nothing politically extreme can attract 74 million votes when survey after survey over the past half-century has shown the country to be moderate to slightly conservative in political preference.
Those 74 million people were not all Republicans. A significant percentage were Independent or Libertarian voters.
The largest inaccuracy is the assumption these people voted for Trump only because of him. Trump created the moniker and he has his zealots. But his personality is too unacceptable for too many people to draw 74 million votes, several million more than President Obama attracted at his peak, unless there is something else involved.
That something else is a battery of policies that supercede political party or preference.
These people want structure, practicality and institutional integrity from their government.
That translates to a preference for a safe and protected border that prevents the flow of illegal immigrants, terrorists and fentanyl into the country, which is going on in record numbers these days. That does not mean they are against legal immigration.
That translates to fair elections that include clear identification of each voter. That does not mean they they want to make it harder for anyone to vote.
They want law and order and equal execution of it, along with real punishment for crimes, not instant bail for criminals with multiple arrests. They hear Jan. 6 - a horrible day that deserves judicious prosecution – called an insurrection when the majority of the people there did not scale the Capital walls and had no intention of doing so. Meanwhile, a summer full of riots in 2020, when thousands of businesses were destroyed, billion of dollars of damage were done and people were injured and killed attracts a bail fund appeal from Kamala Harris, the vice presidential candidate at the time.
They watch a former president's house raided with flashing blue and red lights in search of documents that may or may not belong there when there were other means to remove them and nothing of the sort was done with previous presidents also holding documents and a secretary of state who destroyed a laptop with questionable correspondence on a private server.
They hear parents labeled domestic terrorists for coming to school board meetings to appeal for curricula of basic learning rather than values teachings that should be left to them. Meanwhile, people picket a Supreme Court justice's house - a violation of the law - and it is ignored.
These people want energy independence with a diverse menu. Electric cars are fine, but most people can't afford them and the infrastructure is not in place to support that as the sole means of transportation. And it takes some fossil fuel to manufacture the charging stations. Solar panels and wind farms are fine, but natural gas and nuclear power are much more consistent energy sources and there is no way to effectively dispose of windmills when they outlive their usefulness.
They watch in horror as inflation triggered by misguided economic policies drives us into a recession and 401-K accounts built over decades while paying off mortgages and business and college loans melt away. Meanwhile, the current administration plans to forgive college loans of today, even as the country has more job openings than jobless people, an indication that a sizable portion of the population won't work unless it has to.
They want Big Tech to stop interfering with their free speech and partnering with the FBI - a recent admission by Facebook leader Mark Zuckerberg - to tip political scales.
Institutional integrity. Fair and equal application of laws. Economic policies that create stability. A practical energy strategy. Secure borders and safe streets. A reliance on elected leaders rather than unelected bureaucrats to execute priorities that have made this country special. That's what these people want.
And recently they have been told that makes them hateful Fascists who are a threat to our democracy.
The accusers include New York's incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said Republican candidates should take their hateful politics to Florida. She will probably miss the votes of offended Republican residents this November and their tax revenue should they get on the bus to Florida.
They include Charlie Crist, who has run for office as a Republican and Independent and now is running for Florida's governorship as a Democrat. He said he does not want Republican votes because they are the product of hate and his is a "campaign of love." The only explanation for this theme is a consultant who did a poll test and suggested calling people hateful, terroristic Fascists would be a sound strategy, especially if the label can be pinned to a former president.
Name calling is not a policy. It's a strategy in place of a viable plan.
David Troisi is the Sun-Gazette's retired editor. None of the opinions expressed necessarily represent those of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette.