Former Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) condemned President Donald Trump and praised presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention on Monday. He called Trump a divider who pits Americans against one another, claiming that Biden is a unifier and “decent” by contrast. He also promised moderates that Biden won’t “turn sharp left.”
What planet has John Kasich been living on?
In reality, Biden is just as divisive as Trump, and he has already turned sharp left, embracing a raft of far-left positions while crafting a “Unity” platform with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — the radioactive candidate whose nomination posed such a threat to Democrats that they rallied behind Biden as the only alternative. Will Biden restore the “soul” of America? Fat chance.
What Kasich said
Naturally, the former governor made hay of the fact that he’s a Republican speaking to the DNC. He claimed that concerns about Trump drove him to support Biden as the better alternative for America’s soul.
Kasich said he was “deeply concerned” about America’s “current path” under Trump, a path of “division, dysfunction, irresponsibility, and growing vitriol between our citizens. Continuing to follow that path will have terrible consequences for America’s soul because we are being taken down the wrong road by a president who has pitted one against the other.”
Kasich argued that Trump has divided, rather than united, the country, and America needs to choose “a better way forward.”
He called Joe Biden “a good man, a man of faith, a unifier,” and “a man who can help us to see the humanity in each other.”
“He knows that the path to a restored and a rejuvenated America lies in respect and unity and a common purpose for everyone,” Kasich argued. “I know that Joe Biden, with his experience and his wisdom and his decency, can bring us together to help us find that better way.”
The former governor also directly addressed moderates and conservatives who “fear Joe will turn sharp left and leave them behind. I don’t believe that because I know the measure of the man.”
"Joe Biden is a man for our times — times that call for all of us to take off our partisan hats and put our nation first for ourselves and, of course, for our children," says former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, at the #DemConvention https://t.co/a6pfETeyPZ pic.twitter.com/o4RiNWcS3c
— CNN (@CNN) August 18, 2020
Joe Biden Is NOT a ‘Return to Normalcy’ Candidate
The real Joe Biden
Of course, Joe Biden is not a true unifier. He is not a steady hand defined by decency. He has already turned “sharp left.”
MoveOn.org recently praised Biden for running on “the most progressive platform in Democratic Party history,” providing an opportunity for “big, structural changes.” While the former vice president rejected many far-left proposals during the Democratic primary, after he won the nomination, he rushed to embrace aspects of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.
The Democrat has repeatedly called the coronavirus pandemic an “opportunity” for “institutional” and “structural” change. Biden chose Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate, and GovTrack ranked Harris as the most liberal senator in 2019.
Biden condemned Trump for sending federal law enforcement to protect a federal courthouse in Portland that antifa rioters had repeatedly tried to blow up and set on fire. The former vice president said Trump was attacking “peaceful protesters.”
When it comes to steadiness, Biden’s gaffes are legendary. In the lead-up to the South Carolina debate, Biden said he was running for Senate. During the debate, a moderator hilariously referred to him as “Senator Biden.” Also during that debate, he said nearly half the U.S. population died of gun violence since 2007. Biden also said, “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids… wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids.” He has also encouraged Democrats to “choose truth over facts.” He has insisted that there are “at least three” genders — before grabbing a young lady’s arm when she asked, “What are they?”
Biden is just as divisive as Trump, if not more so. The Democrat has called the radical pro-transgender Equality Act — which would enforce conformity on LGBT issues and which a broad coalition, including lesbian feminists, opposes — his number-one priority. During the LGBT town hall in October, he appeared to advocate for a terror-style watchlist ostensibly to prevent attacks on LGBT people, which would likely mimic the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) defamation and tracking of organizations they accuse of being “hate groups.” A similar SPLC-inspired “hate-crimes unit” in Michigan is currently being challenged in court.
Joe Biden: Coronavirus Is an ‘Opportunity’ for ‘Structural’ Change on Voting, Climate Change
In addition to his radicalism on LGBT issues, Biden has bragged about the character destruction of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, which was so vicious it created a new word in the English language — “to Bork.” This grand Borking arguably set American politics on the polarization and demonization track that so divides the U.S. today.
Biden also falsely accused Trump of defending white nationalists in Charlottesville, further inflaming divisions.
Despite all this, the Democrat had the nerve to suggest that any black person who even considers voting for Trump instead of him simply “ain’t black.”
As for Biden’s decency, the Democrat repeatedly lied about Curtis C. Dunn, the tractor-trailer driver who tragically struck and killed Biden’s wife and his infant daughter in 1972. In 2001, Biden said, “An errant driver who stopped to drink instead of drive and hit — a tractor-trailer — hit my children and my wife and killed them.”
Jerome Herlihy, the then-prosecutor who investigated the incident, insisted that “the rumor about alcohol being involved by either party, especially the truck driver (Dunn), is incorrect.” Furthermore, Dunn’s vehicle had the right of way, and Dunn immediately got out of his truck to render assistance after the crash.
Pamela Hamill, Dunn’s daughter, demanded an apology from Biden in 2001. The Democrat responded with a handwritten note. “All that I can say is I am sorry for all of us and please know that neither I nor my sons feel any animosity whatsoever,” he wrote.
A few years later, however, the Democrat lied about Dunn yet again.
“Let me tell you a little story. I got elected when I was 29, and I got elected November the 7th. And on Dec. 18 of that year, my wife and three kids were Christmas shopping for a Christmas tree. A tractor-trailer, a guy who allegedly — and I never pursued it — drank his lunch instead of eating his lunch, broadsided my family and killed my wife instantly, and killed my daughter instantly, and hospitalized my two sons, with what were thought to be at the time permanent, fundamental injuries,” Biden said in a 2007 speech at the University of Iowa.
If the 2020 election is about unity, decency, and restoring the soul of America, Joe Biden is not the candidate to meet that challenge. True moderates — as opposed to #NeverTrump poseurs like John Kasich — should consider Trump instead.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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