Jon Meacham, Biden’s speeches, and the soul of America
[NOTE: Two days ago I wrote a post on the over-the-top fearmongering of Michael Beschloss, who has written a number of books on presidential history and who is often described as a “presidential historian.” That reminded me that shortly after Biden’s Philadelphia speech with the blood-red background, I had started a draft about the influence of Jon Meacham on Joe Biden, but had never finished and published it. So here it is; consider it a companion piece to the other post. Like Beschloss, Meacham is another presidential biographer. What is it with these presidential biographers? They seem to also want to become part of history themselves – at least Meacham does, as you will see.]
Aides said that Biden had been planning to give a version of Thursday night’s address [the one in Philadelphia with the red background] since this past June, relaying he wanted to speak on what he saw as increasingly grave threats to the nation’s democracy. But events continued to get in the way of its delivery. Pressure built over the past few weeks, they said, amid a number of developments…
The actual writing of the speech started about three weeks ago, with Jon Meacham, the historian who has had a hand in a number of Biden’s most sweeping speeches, helping the framing.
I hadn’t paid any attention to Jon Meacham before, but that certainly made me curious.
Curious that with all his writing background (although I’ve never read any book he’s written, so despite winning the Pulitzer Prize for a biography of Andrew Jackson, I can’t attest to his skill or lack thereof) the speech, just in terms of memorable phrases and literary value, was a zero.
Meacham appears to be another Bush-type Republican who went fully over into the NeverTrump camp. With Meacham, the form that took was to cast his lot firmly with Biden, as part of the writing of Joe’s 2020 nomination acceptance speech. What motivates a person like Meacham? Is it partly his background as a genteel Newsweek writer back in the days when there was still a moderate wing of the Democratic Party, and the “reaching across the aisle” concept still seemed somewhat viable? Does he remember Joe Biden that way, back in the 90s (I think Biden was always an opportunistic fraud who was motivated entirely by personal ambition, but I doubt Meacham shared that opinion)? He’s written biographies of Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson and Jon Lewis as well as Bush the Elder, in addition to one about the friendship between FDR and Churchill, and spoke at Bush’s funeral as well as his wife Barbara’s.
And yet to me, anyway, his writing for Biden is quite a stretch, tantamount to Liz Cheney’s journey (and motivated perhaps by the same anti-Trump pro-Bush animus):
Meacham was asked to speak at the 2020 Democratic National Convention on the Soul of America. He endorsed Joe Biden, saying, “history, which will surely be our judge, can also be our guide. From Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall, we’re at our best when we build bridges, not walls”.
Notice that the title of the 2020 Democratic convention speech used a phrase that was echoed in Biden’s Philadelphia speech: the soul of America. Biden wouldn’t really seem to be the best person to be cast in the role of soul-restorer, but he and the Democrats seem to have decided to call him that, and people like Meacham have puzzlingly agreed. It seems to me that one look at and one listen to Joe Biden would be enough to disabuse a person of that notion, but wishful thinking can be very powerful, and I think that someone like Meacham has created a fantasy Joe Biden in his mind who is the Joe Biden he wants him to be, as well as a fantasy cartoon-evil Trump for Biden to combat (the fantasy Trump probably came first). Who knew someone with Meacham’s credentials thought in such terms? That’s another thing that Trump’s presidency has revealed.
I had forgotten – or perhaps I hadn’t previously realized – that this “soul of America” theme was set early in Biden’s presidency. In fact, it was also the theme of his victory speech – perhaps written by Meacham as well? In addition, it’s the title of a book that was released right at the time of Biden’s inauguration: Restoring the Soul of America: The Election of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States. The book is by Rick Daniels, and that Amazon page starts with a quote from Biden’s: “I ran for this office to restore the soul of America.” The book doesn’t seem to have made much of a splash.
However, Meacham has also written a book that has gotten a lot of readers and a lot of reviews, and it’s called The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels It was an Oprah pick, and I suppose that brought it a lot of attention, and it seems to focus on American history. The book was published prior to Biden’s candidacy, in May of 2018, and so this “soul of America” theme is his. Here’s a description of the book at Amazon:
Our current climate of partisan fury is not new, and in The Soul of America Meacham shows us how what Abraham Lincoln called the “better angels of our nature” have repeatedly won the day. Painting surprising portraits of Lincoln and other presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson, and illuminating the courage of such influential citizen activists as Martin Luther King, Jr., early suffragettes Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt, civil rights pioneers Rosa Parks and John Lewis, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Army-McCarthy hearings lawyer Joseph N. Welch, Meacham brings vividly to life turning points in American history. He writes about the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the birth of the Lost Cause; the backlash against immigrants in the First World War and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s; the fight for women’s rights; the demagoguery of Huey Long and Father Coughlin and the isolationist work of America First in the years before World War II; the anti-Communist witch-hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy; and Lyndon Johnson’s crusade against Jim Crow. Each of these dramatic hours in our national life have been shaped by the contest to lead the country to look forward rather than back, to assert hope over fear—a struggle that continues even now.
And here you can see the kindly professorial Meacham himself talking about it:
One more thing – Meacham seems to be religious, and has written a book about Jesus. He talks about that here:
Why do I even care about Jon Meacham? One reason is that NeverTrumpers fascinate me, and although you might not share that interest, I am intensely curious about what makes them tick. It’s not just their dislike of Trump – that’s the easier part to understand, and I think it’s based on a kneejerk patrician revulsion and a focus on certain things he’s said that really are somewhat offensive and/or which have been twisted into something they were not (the Charlottesville hoax, for example). But how can they switch to the current Democrats and the corruption, mendacity, and leftism of Joe Biden and those he has appointed, as well as his incredibly destructive policies? And how in particular can someone like Meacham see Biden as a soul-saver, and provide the words for him to assert that idea while simultaneously trashing half of America? How can Meacham justify this to himself? Because it’s pretty clear to me at this point that this “saving the soul of America” theme is Meacham’s, written by Meacham for Biden to mouth right from the start of his presidency and even during his candidacy.
And although you may disagree, I think Meacham is sincere. I think that as a writer he has held to an idea of forces of light and darkness in American history, and Trump is the darkness (a la Ku Klux Klan and Father Coughlin and McCarthy, from that Amazon description) and Biden is the light. That this is now in the realm of fantasy is not apparent to Meacham, because it is so compelling and he so wishes it to be that way. A vision of the anointed, indeed. This is my strong impression on learning about Meacham’s history and his role in Biden’s campaign.
Go back to Biden’s inaugural speech and see some excerpts (probably written by Meacham). In the following excerpts, the italics are mine:
This is America’s day.
This is democracy’s day.
A day of history and hope.
Of renewal and resolve.
Through a crucible for the ages America has been tested anew and America has risen to the challenge.
Today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause, the cause of democracy.
The “democracy, democracy, democracy” theme was already in place.
And now, a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.
To overcome these challenges – to restore the soul and to secure the future of America – requires more than words.
It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy:
Unity.
To restore the soul.
In another January in Washington, on New Year’s Day 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
When he put pen to paper, the President said, “If my name ever goes down into history it will be for this act and my whole soul is in it.”
My whole soul is in it.
Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this:
Bringing America together.
Biden’s whole soul. Wishful thinking on the part of Meacham, reading a teleprompter on the part of Biden.
Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, and demonization have long torn us apart.
The battle is perennial.
Victory is never assured.
Through the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War, 9/11, through struggle, sacrifice, and setbacks, our “better angels” have always prevailed.
Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln – a Republican, by the way. And note once again the title of Meacham’s Oprah-favored book: The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels.
And go back even further to Biden’s nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in August of 2020. Apparently this was Meacham as well, and it uses the Charlottesville hoax as the supposed inspiration for Biden’s presidential run (Biden, a man who’s been running for president nearly as long as he’s been alive):
Just a week ago yesterday was the third anniversary of the events in Charlottesville.
Remember seeing those neo-Nazis and Klansmen and white supremacists coming out of the fields with lighted torches? Veins bulging? Spewing the same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the ’30s?
Remember the violent clash that ensued between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it?Remember what the president said?
There were quote, “very fine people on both sides.”
It was a wake-up call for us as a country.
And for me, a call to action. At that moment, I knew I’d have to run. My father taught us that silence was complicity. And I could not remain silent or complicit.
At the time, I said we were in a battle for the soul of this nation.
And we are.
Joe’s a politician and demagogue, but Meacham’s a writer on historical matters. Does he not care what Trump actually said, in context? Or does he take Newsweek’s word for it? Perhaps it didn’t even occur to him to check what Trump really said, because the reports from the left of what he said fit so perfectly into Meacham’s already-existing template of good and evil, and he’s written so much about the older civil rights movement. Charlottesville and its visuals upset him – “seeing those neo-Nazis and Klansmen and white supremacists coming out of the fields with lighted torches? Veins bulging? Spewing the same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the ’30s.” Meacham has his morality play, and in that play these people are killer Nazis that Trump defended, although he did not. And Biden is the person fighting them – instead of a mendacious, corrupt, ambitious and long-term racist (and if we must talk about the Klan, Biden eulogized former Klan member Robert Byrd, although by then Byrd was long out of the Klan).
You can say Meacham’s a dreamer, but he’s not the only one. He created the Trump he needs and the Biden he needs to be a hero in the battle for what the religious Meacham sees as America’s soul.
Here’s the closing part of Biden’s nomination acceptance speech:
This is our moment.
This is our mission.
May history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here tonight as love and hope and light joined in the battle for the soul of the nation.
And this is a battle that we, together, will win.
Go back even further to Biden’s April 2019 announcement that he was running for president in 2020, “Biden Launches 2020 Campaign As Rescue Mission For America’s ‘Soul'”:
Biden’s announcement focuses on a “battle for the soul of this nation,” with a dramatic video centered around the 2017 white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Va., and President Trump’s response that there were “very fine people on both sides” after a counterprotester was killed.
“In that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime,” Biden says in the video.
I guess Meacham was on board early on.
I doubt that Meacham had much if anything to do with the lighting and setting of Biden’s awful Phildelphia speech. If he had, as a history writer he might have recognized that it was likely to conjure up, not a uniting lightbringer, but those forces of darkness that so repelled Meacham “with lighted torches…Veins bulging…spewing…bile.” But to him and to Biden’s aides, that thought probably wouldn’t occur, because they apparently are so focused on their own message and think Biden is a believable messenger to deliver it (or perhaps the only one available right now), and that the evil of the other side is so apparent. They don’t see that speech as a declaration of war on kulaks or on Jew-equivalents, and that the imagery reinforced that perception.
I am struck, also, by the Biblical nature of the phrase Meacham used in Biden’s inaugural speech: “to restore the soul and to secure the future of America.” “Restore the soul” – what does it conjure up for you? For me, it’s the 23rd Psalm, King James edition. How ludicrous to apply that to Joe Biden. And yet there it is, courtesy of Jon Meacham.
It is certainly one thing indeed for some moderate Republicans to have decided that supporting a somewhat vulgar real-estate developer from Queens was infra dig, quite another for countless former “conservatives” (Sykes, Charen, Will, Goldberg and countless others, including Meacham, who also seems to have lost his mind) to have been so deranged by TDS as to throw in their lot with a party (and its senile puppet) determined to destroy this republic. They might have felt that “a pox on both their houses” was the appropriate response, yet they chose to support the worst administration of modern times, with a rogues’ gallery of madly malicious malefactors, who see themselves as saviors in a fraudulently-concocted moral melodrama.
quite another for countless former “conservatives” (Sykes, Charen, Will, Goldberg and countless others, including Meacham, who also seems to have lost his mind)
Meacham was the editor of Newsweek when it attempted to reinvent itself as an opinion magazine. We got to see what Meacham and his staff thought without the evasions. It was unedifying. Wm. F. Buckley was once asked why he endorsed Allard Loewenstein. His reply, “You’ve got lots of dumb liberals in Congress. Why not have a bright liberal?”. Newsweek was not in the Meacham era employing any bright liberals. Meacham’s the same pompous ass-clown he was 12 years ago.
As for Sykes, Charen, Will, and Goldberg, Trump tore their masks off. Sykes, I’m going to guess, is for sale and always has been; Pierre Omidyar is the banker. Will is independently wealthy and cannot be bought; he has been in a vindictive rage upon discovering that starboard opinion journalists had no influence on common-and-garden voters. Charen, whose career was at its peak around about 1995, has revealed herself to be Margaret Wade from Dennis the Menace; she also needs a job and the Ethics and Public Policy Center told her she had no skills which would merit renewing her contract. Goldberg has revealed he isn’t interested in policy; his lodestar is his ego. (It put him at odds with his mother, among others).
I think you have Meacham right, Neo.
And about the religious part: Meacham is an Episcopalian. He was a vestryman at Trinity, Wall Street, and is now the “canon historian” at the Washington National Cathedral. I can speak to this, being a former Episcopalian. For the current Episcopal Church leadership, and for decades previously, prominent Episcopalians have followed a new religion, in which leftist political views are merged with a post-modern Christianity to make something unrecognizable to more traditional believers. This has happened to many other formerly mainline Christian groups, and I believe these troubles are seen also in Jewish circles, with the left embracing political action while the right adheres to more traditional observance.
So it is no surprise that Meacham’s ideas about the “soul of America” are consistent with whatever the political left feels is important these days.
Wasn’t Meacham involved in the sitting on the Lewinsky scandal while he was at Newsweek that was exposed by Drudge?
Biden sold his soul over a half century ago, when he helped the Democrat Congressional Class of 1972 abandon Vietnam, just as he did Afghanistan.
I have deep suspicion of anyone who favors democracy over constitutional republicanism. I don’t like the idea of mob rule.
Wasn’t Meacham involved in the sitting on the Lewinsky scandal while he was at Newsweek that was exposed by Drudge?
He was an editor at Newsweek at the time. He may have delayed the reportage, but Newsweek did have a cover story on Monica. Note Brent Bozell’s Media Research Center reports at the time. The print media retained a critical distance from the Clinton Administration. It was the broadcast media who acted as extensions of the White House / DNC publicity machine.
“Presidential historians” and NeverTrump and other such political ink-stained wretches are the marketing division of the Establishment. That’s the simplest way to understand it.
It’s entirely possible that a guy who really believes that Bounty is the quicker picker-upper will write better ad copy for Bounty than a guy who writes for any paper towel that pays him. It does not matter to me, since I don’t take Bounty’s ad copy at face value anyway.
Some marketers and salesmen believe in their product and some are mercenary, but they’re all trying to accomplish the same thing, which is sell us something.
What these guys are selling is “elect these people who care about what you care about”, but what we are actually getting is people who spend our money to increase their own wealth and influence.
And that’s why I’m heartened to see so many Trumpy candidates doing well all over the country. The more extreme and crazy the better, that’s the only hope for meaningful change. We’ve all seen what the Establishment does when it gets its way and we went along with it for over 70 years.
Meacham?
Impeach ‘im…
Still, a precious—invaluable, actually—example of Pure Delusion, Inc…. (along with its fully-owned subsidiary, Nasty Delusion, Inc….)
Related (short and sweet)…especially for all those “soulful” Democrats:
“Dear Liberals, How Many Of These MSM Hoaxes Did You Fall For?”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dear-liberals-how-many-these-msm-hoaxes-did-you-fall
+ Bonus
Alas, Joe Manchin…a day late and a dollar short (maybe)….
“Manchin Blasts Biden’s ‘Offensive and Disgusting’ Promise to Shut Down Coal Plants and Worsen Inflation”—
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/manchin-blasts-bidens-offensive-and-disgusting-promise-to-shut-down-coal-plants-and-worsen-inflation/
(OTOH, perhaps Manchin has “rediscovered” HIS soul….)
I can’t finish a single one of the Meacham excerpts – they’re so rancid with perversion and syrupy sweet lies. Every syllable, every phrase, is corrupt and foul. I can’t bear to watch what he does with the beautiful english language. It’s like watching a demon in Dante’s inferno salivate at the prospect of fresh meat entering the next lower Canto. Or Jack Torrance leering at the occupant of Room 237 as she emerges from the bath.
It’s like these people have been overtaken by a mania – they’ve truly lost their senses to the point where they no longer have ANY filter that governs their shameless lies and distortions. Trump broke them – largely because he was impervious to everything they had been taught would assure their success. He was flawed, but genuine. He was capable and succeeded where they never could. And they’ll never recover.
I used to look forward to reading Goldberg – especially after Liberal Fascists – but once Trump broke him, Goldberg fell off my radar and, until just now, I had forgotten he even existed.
Every so often you see or hear something from these folks that shines a little light into a teeny tiny crack in the mask … and that phrase “veins bulging” is one of those in my mind, as though the described adversary were a fanged and ravenous boss-monster, emerging from the lava pit to consume them. It makes absolutely no sense in the real world.
What it is, in my opinion, is a conflating of movie/TV and video game villains of puissance with the boring mundanities of real life. The Hulk or The Lich King don’t really exist. Yet it’s clear that the Left either believes in The Hulk or wishfully invokes him in these little slips of the tongue. Too much screen time apparently has driven them mad, into an imaginary universe. Or they are LARPing for all they’re worth.
Our culture has become so very story-driven, and the stories have distilled themselves into stylized narratives … witness the simplification of story from the complex ambiguity of ancient fairy tales to the latest carbon-copy superhero blockbusters … maybe if you spend your time immersed in the that “literary” world, you come to have a deep psychological need to see yourself as a hero paladin defeating a world-ending super-villain? What happened to them to form them in that way?
Kate has said everything about the current Episcopal Church that I could say, except to add that both Meacham’s private prep school and his university are affiliated with the Episcopal Church. What is equally important is that both of the schools from which Meacham graduated and his present employer (Vanderbilt) are Southern schools. Meacham earned his B.A. at the University of the South, which has for years had a reputation as a finishing school for Southern gentlemen (male students had to wear coats and ties to class until very recently) rather than an academically rigorous institution. Meacham’s B.A. is in English literature, not history; he holds no graduate degrees in any field; and his position at Vanderbilt is “the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Endowed Chair in American Presidency,” not a chair in American history.
It would be interesting to find out whether (and if so, why) Meacham admires that great Southern president, Woodrow Wilson.
A bit more about that “Biden” SOUL in action:
“Something Has Snapped: Unexplained 2.3 Million Jobs Gap Emerges In Broken Payrolls Report”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/something-has-snapped-unexplained-23-million-jobs-gap-emerges-broken-payrolls-report
Key grafs:
‘A simplistic, superficial take of today’s jobs report would conclude that the red hot jump in nonfarm payrolls indicates a “strong hiring market”…. Nothing could be further from the truth.
‘Recall that back in August and September, we showed that a stark divergence had opened between the Household and Establishment surveys that comprise the monthly jobs report, and since March the former has been stagnant while the latter has been rising every single month. In addition to that, full-time jobs were plunging while part-time jobs were soaring.
‘Fast forward to today when the inconsistencies not only continue to grow, but in some cases have becoming downright grotesque…..
‘…[T]he [Bureau of Labor Statistics] has a single, political agenda – not to spoil the political climate less than a week ahead of the payrolls by painting a “suboptimal” labor market picture.
‘Alas, there is only so much the Department of Labor can hide under the rug…
‘…As an aside, it appears this is not the first time the “apolitical” Bureau of Labor Statistics has pulled such a bizarre divergence off: it happened right before Obama’s reelection….
‘…And then again: right before Hillary’s “100% guaranteed election (because one wouldn’t want a soft economy to adversely impact her re-election odds).
‘It gets better: digging in even deeper into the far more accurate and nuanced Household Survey, we find that the October plunge in Employment was the result of a massive collapse in full-time jobs offset by a modest increase in part-time jobs…
‘…So what’s going on here? The simple answer: there has been no change in the number of people actually employed, but due to deterioration in the economy, more people are losing their higher-paying, full-time jobs, and switching into much lower- paying, benefits-free part-time jobs, which also forces many to work more than one job, a rotation which picked up in earnest some time in March and which has only been captured by the Household survey. Meanwhile the Establishment survey plows on ahead with its politically-motivated approximations, seasonal adjustments, and other labor market goalseeking meant to make the Biden admin look good at least until after the midterms….'[Emphasis mine; Barry M.]
Don’t forget that Meacham was fired from MSNBC for praising a Biden speech that he, Meacham, wrote.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/msnbc-jon-meacham-biden-no-accountability-concha
I am no more interested in the NeverTrumper’s rationalizations than I am in learning of the WWII Vichy French’s rationalizations in accomodating the Nazis. In the NeverTrumper’s support for Biden and the democrats they reveal their complicity in the left’s evil. No amount of after the fact understanding of evil will change it.
The getaway driver is as guilty as the bank robber who kills a clerk or security guard. The Nazi death camp guards were as guilty as the architects of the Holocaust. And the democrats and global elite are leading the West toward a far greater Holocaust.
“What shall we do with all these useless people?” Yuval Noah Harari
These literary types are becoming common, perhaps due to the blinding failures of higher education. Tech, for example, is being taken over by immigrants, usually Indian and many on H1B visas, which are indentured servitude.
The “Humanities” are hopeless. One small example. I have been very interested in medical history and have written a book on it. In researching this topic I often relied on the journals of medical history societies. This one is not too bad, but those journals are now full of “Woke” articles.
Geoffrey Britain:
Did you ever actually read Harari’s “useless people” speech? He wasn’t saying what a lot of people seem to think he was saying. I suggest you read this post of mine for some quotes and a discussion.
Episcopal Church – My Wife left the Church, or should I say it left Her. The wokeism, anti white bent, and LGBT (I know I left out some of the alphabet) just got too much. She did not leave several years ago when the Church had Lesbian and Gay Priests as did many of the congregation.
Nicely written Neo. Call me cynical, but I’m with Frederick on this one. Marketing wizardry and the confidence game writ large. All in support of the establishment powers that be.
Im a never Trumper now. I used to be “stuck with Trumper”, but I no longer need to see ourselves stuck with Trump. We can vote for DeSantis. That would make far more sense for our cause father than shooting ourselves in the foot. We have ther momentum now, lets not ruin it.
One reason is that NeverTrumpers fascinate me, and although you might not share that interest,
I do, and it’s because, frankly, it’s the one group that I really don’t understand. I understand conservatives, liberals, and people who are conservative about some things and liberal about others. But what I DON’T understand is how people can
“switch to the current Democrats and the corruption, mendacity, and leftism of Joe Biden and those he has appointed, as well as his incredibly destructive policies”.
I always thought I understood human nature in general. But the above phenomena sure beats me.
In response to Harry Mallory:
Assume for a minute DeSantis doesn’t run, but Trump does. Do you vote for the Dems? If so, why? Remember: you said you are a “NeverTrumper”.
With people like Meacham, it is pretty much ALL about class anxiety. Trump is not like them. They don’t understand him. They literally view him as a monster from another world who has took over the country.
The conservative satirist PJ O’Rourke endorsed Hillary in 2016 by saying she’s wrong about everything but she’d be conventionally wrong. The implication being that Trump might do something crazy. But why would O’Rourke fear that? Why would you be afraid that an educated, wildly successful businessman who had been around politics and the media for decades without EVER getting into serious trouble or having a serious scandal just couldn’t be trusted with political power?
It’s because Trump wouldn’t follow the approved script for America’s political class. He wouldn’t only talk about the issues you are supposed to talk about in the way you are supposed to talk about them.
An example of what I mean that’s not related to Trump is the recent fuss and furor over anti-semitism by rapper Kanye West and NBA player Kyrie Irving. Anti-semitism in the African-American community has been around for generations, if not longer, and the official position of the political/cultural elite is that no one is supposed to talk about it. When it flares up and can’t be ignored, people are browbeaten into perfunctory apologies and everyone goes back to ignoring it.
Anti-semitism among African-Americans is a taboo subject because talking about it might disrupt the status quo where Democrats get 90% of the black vote and Republicans can largely ignore black voters. So the problem is just left to fester.
With Trump, it was primarily him breaking the taboos around illegal immigration. It made people like Meacham look at Trump and think “He’s not one of us” and that made Trump a literal existential threat to their worldview and sense of self-worth.
Mike
I Callahan:
If I would certainly vote for DeSantis but not for Trump, how would it enter your mind that I would then naturally vote for a democrat? How does that work?
Regarding understanding TDS, my own assumption is that once a non-stop campaign of intense, ubiquitous, 24/7 demonization is mounted it’s extremely difficult to counter…UNLESS one realizes—fully understands—that the ones mounting the non-stop campaign are themselves venal, corrupt, intense, ubiquitous, 24/7 LIARS.
That’s not so easy to do especially if they control the media…
The problem, of course, is what “fortification” strategies the Democrats will deploy this Tuesday (to add to the ones they’ve already deployed in the runup to Tuesday) to ensure that they will not be dislodged from power.
They certainly can’t run on their record…UNLESS most of America is on-board the Democratic Party’s Destruction-Of-Amerikkka racket…
…which I suppose IS possible; but somehow I very much doubt it.
Having gotten away with election “FORTIFICATION” two years ago—in a grand manner (even BOASTING about it!)—and knowing that they are, or ought to be in grave political danger, one can only wonder what outrages they will be able to pull out of their hat (in addition to the old “tried and true”)—counting fake ballots for themselves while not counting legitimate ballots for the GOP (that is, finding obscure and creative ways to either ensure that those ballots do not reach the destination, disqualifying those ballots, or merely denying for whatever reason the potential GOP voter to vote…and perhaps even disqualifying GOP candidates at the last moment).
They—the “passionately intense”—have proven to be extremely creative, extremely resourceful, and extremely single-minded in pursuit of their goal of TOTAL POWER.
One must therefore EXPECT anything, and everything untoward—MEGA-SKULLDUGGERY—to “occur”.
Which is why everyone has got to get out and vote…
IOW, FORCE ‘DEM TO CHEAT AGAIN—BIG TIME!
Nothing new here, but THIS is how it’s done.
https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/dirty-cops-truth-democrats-claim-monopoly-honesty-while-ignoring
“Dirty cops of truth: Democrats claim monopoly on honesty while ignoring own mistruths;
“From Social Security and border to Hunter Biden and gas prices, Biden and his party have routinely misled the public while claiming the high ground of truth.”—
Yep, “Decent Joe and the Fishy Angels of Truth…”
Related:
“The media is becoming powerless”—
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2022/11/04/the-media-is-becoming-powerless-n507998
H/T Powerline blog.
Key grafs:
“…Republicans oppose all that is right and good and true and compassionate. They hate children and puppies, and want to kill grandma after taking away her Social Security. It sometimes seems as if electronic media was invented to slander Republicans.
“Democrats have to wonder: with all that messaging might, how on Earth has America lost the plot and decided to vote Republican?
“Simple: nobody believes it any more. Not one little bit. It’s BS and we know it.
“Now of course it’s not NOBODY who believes it. But the swing voters sure don’t. How many regret their vote against Bad Orange Man? I don’t even like Trump as a person but I voted for him because he did good things….”
And so…dueling delusions?…
File under: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFutge4xn3w
No one is as blind who doesn’t want to see
Russian Communists screamed Democracy but rigged elections so they got %51 to rule with a iron fist over the %49
As our hostess knows, the human psyche is a complex proposition. That’s why pshrinking somebody at second-hand is a tricky business.
How and why Meachem thinks and does as he is seen to think and do is a difficult issue to understand.
There’s a simpler proposition. I make no assertion as to its being true, except for that Occam guy.
He’s been bought. Or coerced.
A competent wordsmith remains competent, no matter his motivations.
I’m not seeing how Meacham qualifies as a ‘NeverTrumper’. As far as I can tell, he’s had the attitudes of a standard-issue magazine journalist throughout his career, and such people are very seldom Republicans.
I think the public remarks of Meacham, Beschloss, Timothy Noah, and Robert Reich indicate they simply never associate with anyone who argues with them.
IIRC, Meacham and Beschloss were both a part of the group of “presidential historians” who were brought in during the early days of the Biden administration to brainstorm about how to have a “great presidency.” The arrogance of that act stunned me; it wasn’t enough for Biden merely to be president — he wanted to be numbered in the ranks of Washington, Lincoln and FDR. Their advice? spend a lot of money. That’s when he turned on the printing presses at the Mint.
The delusion of believing Biden could be Lincoln by spending enough money shows just how myopic that group was. And Manchin is the latest to see publicly how manipulative and dishonest Biden is. I fully expect many others to experience Manchin’s epiphany in the two years to come. And Meacham/Beschloss will have advised the worst presidency ever instead of the best. The lesson, if they’re smart enough to learn it, is that you cannot start with an empty vessel and create greatness: there needs to be something there to begin with.
For a good look at how “Biden”‘s evil twin north of the border genuflects to the gods manipulation (and pathetic political posturing)….
“Rex Murphy: The Liberals’ Stance on Ford’s Use of Notwithstanding Clause Oozes With Hypocrisy”—
https://archive.ph/kKOdP
H/T Blazingcatfur blog.
Key graf:
“…There are times when gall is so pure, when hypocrisy is so perfect, that it is necessary to stand back and say: This is outstanding. This is so completely shameless and totally without embarrassment that some great artist should paint the moment. It should be memorialized. Either a painting or a statue in marble….”
OTOH, why shouldn’t they lie, and lie, and just keep lying?
(It’s worked exceedingly well up till now…and no one seems to have paid any penalties as a result…)
“Biden chief of staff spreads debunked claim that Trump suggested ‘injecting bleach’ to fight COVID”—
https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/biden-chief-staff-spreads-debunked-claim-trump-suggested-injecting-bleach
‘Georgia county mailing over 1,000 absentee ballots three days before midterm elections;
‘Supervisor reportedly did not “verify that all ballots were created.” ‘—
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/georgia-county-mailing-over-1000-absentee-ballots-three-days-midterm
Maybe we’ll get a definitive answer to THAT question by the end of the week…. Maybe.
“I’m not seeing how Meacham qualifies as a ‘NeverTrumper’.“
I think he’s a good proxy for the second group of NeverTrumpers, even if Meacham himself isn’t a conservative.
Some NeverTrumpers have a fairly obvious and rational reason. There are grifters like the Lincoln Project dudes or Kevin Williamson. Either they were never really conservative and saw hating Trump as the new grift or they thought hating Trump could be their ticket out of the conservative ghetto and entrance into polite society.
And there are NeverTrumpers who are just open borders, free trade, forever war globalists who hate losing control of the GOP and the conservative movement.
And then there are NeverTrumpers whose motivations are seemingly non-rational. And that’s not just conservatives. Why are some liberals and Leftists like Krystal Ball, Jimmy Dore, Glenn Greenwald, and Matt Taibbi able to discuss Trump in some kind of reasonable way while so many others are plainly bonkers about him.
Mike
There are grifters like the Lincoln Project dudes or Kevin Williamson.
Kevin Williamson is a career opinion journalist who has worked mostly for offbeat publications and invested the largest share of his time covering the arts. He’s Terry Teachout with a bad attitude. To the extent he’s a grifter, it’s because National Review‘s board failed as a fiduciary and approved an unconscionable salary for Richard Lowry and Williamson. (And if you think NR‘s board was guilty of criminal negligence, have a gander at what Commentary‘s board permitted for John Podhoretz). He left NR‘s salaried staff for a berth at The Atlantic, which then fired him almost as soon as it hired him, and did so because the cluster B types on The Atlantic staff pitched a fit over his anti-abortion views. (I’m guessing Laurene Jobs may have as well). He’s not clean, but he doesn’t fit your profile.
Last I heard, Williamson had remarried and relocated to Dallas. Not sure how he’s making a living. He’s been vociferously contemptuous of the world of his upbringing, but for some reason has elected to move a great deal closer to his surviving relatives, who bounce between Lubbock and Amarillo.
“Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln…”
Indeed.
One’s first impulse is to be aghast (express aghastness?) at Meecham’s lunatic perversity; to claim with righteous indignation that Lincoln would surely be turning in his grave…
OTOH, who if not Lincoln would grasp the absurd comedy of it all…
File under: Chuckling in his grave…
“To the extent he’s a grifter“
I call him a grifter because it seems clear that he saw slagging on Trump and his supporters as his way to ascend to the George Will/David Frum position of “approved conservative” in establishment discourse. Then he found out lying to his boss wasn’t acceptable for someone of his background.
Excellent post, Neo. Thanks.
I’m sure Biden puts his “whole soul” into everything he says and does. You just need to get out the microscope.
Art Deco:
Meacham was very tight with the Bushes, was George H.W.’s official biographer and gave the eulogy at his funeral.
‘ “…we’re at our best when we build bridges, not walls” ‘
Heh, Biden (or should that be, “Biden”?)!! Bridge builder extraordinaire!!!
No doubt what Meacham meant to say was,
“…we’re at our best when we thoroughly demonize half the country!!…”—
with Liz Cheney riding shotgun!!—but somehow, it didn’t quite come out right. (I blame the spell checker…).
That’s right! We present, Ladies and Gentlemen (and Whatever): The New, Improved, Better, Faster, Sleeker, Smarter, Hipper “With-Malice-Toward-None-With-Charity-For-All” Democratic Party of the United States!!!
(It’s so funny, you could bust a gut…or a gasket…hopefully not a pacemaker…)
OTOH, they got the “With-Charity-For-All” part right, just as long as it’s understood that “All” means “All OUR supporters (and potential supporters)”…and if they have to rob Peter to pay Paul, then hey, make it so (“Peter” being the American taxpayer, many of whom can no longer make ends meet, and “Paul” being “OUR supporters and potential supporters”)…
IOW, anyone outside that select, latter group can take a hike and pay up! (And WE got 87,000 new IRS folks—armed IRS folks—for “encouragement”…AKA, to make that happen!)
And, BTW, if ye’ don’t like it, then yer ANTI-AMERICAN! No Malarkey,nosssir! (Just ask “The smartest man I know”(TM)—THE BIG GUY DOESN’T FOOL AROUND…
Nope you just can’t make this stuff up. (That’s why the Democrats are using “1984” as their playbook….)
The only question(!) is…WHO will have the last laugh. O’Brien—sorry, “O’bama”—I’m looking at YOU!
More “Soul of the Nation” “stuff”….
“Zeldin slams Bill Clinton for joking about anti-crime push at Hochul rally”—
https://nypost.com/2022/11/06/zeldin-blasts-clinton-for-joking-about-his-anti-crime-campaign/
Opening grafs:
‘ Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin on Sunday blasted former President Bill Clinton for making light of his stand on crime during a rally for Gov. Kathy Hochul, saying the comments indicate how much the two Democrats “care about your life and safety.”
‘ “Yesterday, @BillClinton and @KathyHochul were laughing and joking about recent subway crimes,” the Long Island congressman wrote…
‘…“This tells you everything you need to know about how little they care about your life and safety…”…’
Those Deplorables sure don’t know how to take a joke…
(NAnd then there’s Philly…)
Are they saving the pushing wheelchair bound granny off the cliff until Monday?
Meacham was very tight with the Bushes, was George H.W.’s official biographer and gave the eulogy at his funeral.
I think that tells you something about the Bushes. They also allowed Bilge Clinton to worm his way into their social circle.
Here’s what I remember about Meacham. On a long plane flight in 2008, I ran out of things to read and found a Newsweek magazine. The cover story, written by Meacham, was about Barack Obama’s connection with religion. Meacham went on for pages to impress us with Obama’s sophisticated religious views, invoking many famous theologians he was alleged to have been influenced by. Curiously, in the midst of a very long piece he only devoted part of one short paragraph to Rev Jeremiah Wright, who Obama himself described as the man who brought him to Jesus, and even that passing reference avoided certain unsavory aspects of Rev Wright’s theology. Meacham was a flack for Obama in 2008 and nothing has changed since then.
Art Deco:
It quite obviously tells something about the Bushes AND about Meacham, who is the subject of this post. He was obviously very tight with the Bushes and probably still is. He denies being a member of either party.
If you’ve lost CNN —-
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/05/politics/fact-check-biden-midterms-2022/index.html
Other people here have already commented on Meacham’s lack of historical credentials and his education at Sewanee in southeastern Tennessee. I just want to say that he won the Pulitzer prize for a book that he did not research and may not have written. I know his researchers and i know that several of the claims in his Andrew Jackson book are simply false. That book was written not as a work of history, but as a political primer for Barack Obama published the week after the 2008 election. I gave it one star on Amazon; they pulled my review after 48 hours and it hasn’t been seen since.
I really just breezed through the previous comments – so, if I’m repeating – my apologies.
I, too, was perplexed by the Never-Trump phenomenon when it first reared its ugly head. For me, it began with Glenn Beck. I had been listening to his radio show for so long, that I could remember when it was nearly pure comedy. He did bits that made me laugh so hard, I’d nearly have an accident driving into work. I’ll never forget the day I turned him off forever – in all of his forms.
During the primary season, Beck was an advocate for Ted Cruz. I also thought Ted would be the best candidate, and I voted for him in my state’s primary. However, after Trump won the nomination (fair & square, I might add), I was more than ready to support him. In fact, I completely understood why so many of my fellow Republicans/conservatives, chose to give him their vote. You knew he would take off the gloves and put on the brass knuckles – which is what our candidate would need to do to beat Hillary.
Back to the day I turned Beck off forever. It was in 2016, after the primaries were done, and we knew that the race would be between Donald and Hillary. He was relating a story that Charlie Sheen told a late-night host, about Trump giving him a watch or some type of jewelry – and swearing to Charlie that it was genuine – which, it turned out, it was not. Beck believed that the story was indicative of what a grifter Trump was – and how he was not a “real conservative” – and that no one, on our side, should vote for him.
He had been railing against Trump for months, at that point. I just could not believe that, even then – at that point – when Trump was our only hope against Hillary – he was still gunning for him. I could not believe my ears. I could not understand how he thought that conservatives would do better to either vote for Hillary or stay home.
And then – one by one, all these other Never-Trumpers started popping up: George Will, Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer (I loved him so much. That one really hurt.), etc. I was devastated at the turn of these men that I had previously enjoyed hearing pontificate conservative principles. I just couldn’t understand how they thought we would do better to let this election go – as opposed to electing Trump.
And then, it hit me. You know what all those folks had in common, Neo? They had money. They didn’t have fear of the future – from a financial standpoint. They had all made their nut – and didn’t NEED to earn money anymore. Not like the rest of us. And that, Neo, is what makes them tick.
And
“…sophisticated religious views…”
Including “God Damn America”, one may presume.
(Doesn’t get more sophisticated than that….)
…And we are witnessing—and many are alas LIVING—the results of that remarkable EPIPHANY(!)
Hello again.
Dropped in this morning and this posting caught my eye. Before I had half finished it, I had what I thought was the answer, which I was not going to post up, as it was related to my nearly monomaniacal old obsession here with essentially the same question directed toward the psyche of former progressives and Marxists.
But scanning down, I see that Kate has it exactly, and I think – with provision for smug egocentric self-regard and interest being allowed – irrefutably so.
It’s the apostate or heretical Christian version of that secularized Tikkun Olam sh*t.
Those of you who years ago slogged through John Rawls’ infamous, ” A Theory Of Justice” and took especial note of what seemed to be offhand or easy to miss points, will instantly know what I am talking about.
Which includes the unconditional “Commitment to a shared fate” business; the eventual necessity for managed eugenics; and, the mythical nature of, and outright foundational lie, which must be embraced in order to accept the starting position.
Of course there is more to the story as far as background goes, with the Big Three or Four playing an important stage setting role – Marx, Darwin/ Spencer, and Freud; but the Unitarian, Reform Jewish, then Episcopalian, and now Roman Catholic fiascos illustrate the mindset at work quite nicely.
The result is what we hear now: the hymns of the crotch-sniffers and those who thrill to the line of a trouser crease.
Be well …
Sean Wilentz, an actual historian who has also written about the Jacksonian era, is also quite paranoid about Trump. Trump hatred is common in universities and almost unavoidable, but I wonder if Wilentz’s desire to rehabilitate Jacksonian Democracy at a time when it’s considered disreputable in academia leads him to double down on the fear mongering, so as not to be considered an old White reactionary.
Old Time and Newsweek writers — Jon Meacham, Evan Thomas, Walter Abramson — have big egos and regard themselves as wide-ranging intellects qualified to opine on almost anything. So do “presidential historians” — Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michael Beschloss — though many authors of presidential biographers do get less airtime. By belonging to both categories, and also being on close terms with Biden’s team, Meacham’s ego swells that much larger.
Those old Time writers long for the days when their magazine mattered, when writing for it made them part of the Establishment. They want to be statesman-journalists, close to those with power and pedigrees. That could account for Meacham’s attaching himself to the elder Bush, who was certainly Establishment. Now that the Republicans are seen as anti-Establishment, Meacham clings that much more closely to the Democrats.
All this “Soul of America” talk leaves me cold, especially coming from Biden. It’s just so much BOMFOG, like the reverential and ritual references to the Brotherhood of Man and Fatherhood of God were in the 1960s.
I have had so many issues with Trump lately and his stupid, impetuous, immature mouth as well as his egotistical selfishness – but never once even remotely considered going over to the Democrats.
I have had so many issues with Trump lately and his stupid, impetuous, immature mouth as well as his egotistical selfishness (he referred to Ron DeSantis as Ron DeSanctimonious) – but never once even remotely considered going over to the Democrats.
Abraxas noted ” . . . the reverential and ritual references to the Brotherhood of Man and Fatherhood of God . . . in the 1960s.” You left out the third article of the post-Christian Unitarian creed: The Neighborhood of Boston.
Which brings me to that long-time Hahvahd-based “presidential historian,” Doris Kearns Goodwin: she has been the subject of at least two plagiarism controversies, one of which led her to “resign from the Pulitzer Prize Board and to relinquish her position as a regular guest on the PBS NewsHour program.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Kearns_Goodwin#Plagiarism_controversies
As for politicized historiography– I doubt I’m the only one of Neo’s readers who remembers the 2001–2002 scandal about Michael Bellesiles’ book titled Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture. The book was initially welcomed by a swarm of academic historians because it could be weaponized, so to speak, in opposition to the NRA and mainstream American gun culture. The book was awarded the prestigious Bancroft Prize in 2001– but after Bellesiles’ research was found to be wildly inaccurate in some areas and fraudulent in others, he lost his professorship at Emory, his prize was revoked, and he ended up working as a bartender– see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arming_America
Meacham’s The Soul of America is Profiles in Courage without the gestures that Kennedy/Sorenson/Schlesinger had to make to appease Southern segregationists and Midwestern Republicans. The smarm factor is much higher, since Kennedy and his ghost writers could make those little nods acknowledging those on the other side. In those days, some chivalry towards one’s opponents and history’s losers was expected in order to keep the country together — and Kennedy, who didn’t take a stand against McCarthy had a personal interest in tolerating of divergent views. Meacham lines up all his heroes in one procession and slathers them with pious approval. It’s a simpler view of the world.
The endless repetition of the same phrases in Biden’s speeches, and presumably in Meacham’s contributions to them — is that a rhetorical or propaganda device, or an indication that Meacham and Biden have very few ideas and very few arguments? Also, doesn’t the mixture of the pious and the militant appeal to both the better and the worse angels of his listeners’ nature? If the soul of the country is at stake, isn’t anything allowable to win the battle?
June:
Unlike the others, though, Beck later said he’d been wrong and apologized to Trump. See this.
I don’t see any evidence from the Wikipedia article about Meacham (to which Neo links) that he was ever a “Bush Republican” or any other kind of Republican. His having been chosen as official biographer of GHW Bush and Barbara Bush is no indication that he was a Republican; typically, establishment Republicans choose mainstream academics or journalists (virtually all of whom are on the Left) as official biographers (e.g. Reagan’s and WF Buckley’s respective official biographers).
djf:
See my comment here.
among bush biographers, mecham wasn’t as bad as jean smith, or stephen ambrose, or others that are out of my memory, the level of innuendo they allow into republican bios, is rather startling, like the october surprise, or the discredited rathergate,
Neo, I don’t think the fact that Meacham was chosen as the official biographer of GHW Bush & wife (after they left the White House, of course) means that he is or ever was “tight” with the Bushes. Do you really think he knew the Bushes socially and one day, over gin and tonics after golf or sailing, George said, “Gee, Jon, wouldn’t it be the bee’s knees for you to write my biography?” I can’t imagine that, or anything like that, happening.
Obviously, people like the Bushes have staffs that, among other things, can search for writers of popular history (who probably did not even vote for the subject) who are willing to be paid (no doubt handsomely) to rehabilitate a moderate Republican president’s reputation in the eyes of at least the center-Left portion of the media and the book-buying pseudo-intellectual gentry. That seems to be what happened here.
The only significance of the question of whether Meacham was somehow a “conservative” is that, if he’s always been on the Left (even the “center” Left), it really makes no sense to call him a never-Trumper.
The Never Trumpers can be explained, IMHO, as a feature of belonging to a class, or aspiring to do so. The “class” is not so much socio-economic as enlightened (self-described), believing themselves sophisticated, virtuous, capable of running the country according to its best interests, because those who are not similarly enlightened can’t be entrusted with such grave responsibility. They are especially fearful of being categorized with others of their party who have supported Trump. They are incapable of grasping the fact that Trump accomplished things they might have applauded were it not Trump who made them happen. They are driven by the need to be seen as virtuous and the need to belong to the better class, not much else that I can see.
They are mission-driven, and, unless they’ve already defected to the Democrats, their commitment to saving the Party and the country is fanatic and lets them easily disregard facts and the authoritarian actions of those in power.
It’s not about the issues, it’s all about themselves and how they need to be regarded.
JanMN:
I agree with what you say as far as it goes. What I can’t understand is the ones who support the Biden administration and so many other Democrats.
Some say they are grifters and it’s all about money, but that’s not the way I had perceived people like Bill Kristol or Joshua Goldberg previously. If they never cared about conservative principles, they certainly gave a good imitation of it before Trump came along.
Or maybe their conservative principles were something like: speak in academic terms and never enter the rough-and-tumble fray.
his wife’s influence and omidyars money, that drove him off the road, metaphorically,