These Performative Optics will Backfire
The decision to wall off the Capitol and deploy 25K unarmed National Guardsmen ostensibly to “protect” Biden’s Inauguration has got to be some of the stupidest, most short-sighted performative optics in the history of the country.
Understand, the stated motive behind these performative optics is to create the perception that Trump supporters are so unhinged and dangerous Washington DC must be treated as a war zone to stop an impending “insurrection.”
But like most things Democrats do, these optics are backfiring.
Optics are all about how things look. And these performative optics look like a regime change after a military coup.
Worse still, it was reported yesterday that the FBI is running background checks on all of the Guardsmen deployed to Washington to ensure that none of them are a “threat” (read: support Trump) who might carry out an “insider attack” against the senile old codger who is so wildly popular he garnered more votes than Barack Obama.
If this were actually the case, if, in fact, there was evidence of a potential “insider attack,” would the Defense Department send out a press release to the AP letting them know? Seems to me they’d be keeping it on the QT.
There really isn’t evidence of such an attack. This is just more performative optics.
This performative drama isn’t sending the message they think it is.
Instead, it makes one wonder if these guys know Joe Biden isn’t wildly popular and didn’t garner more votes than any other Presidential candidate in history.
David is right. These performative optics reveal far more about Team Biden than they do about the military.
They might have thought these optics would make Trump voters look bad. But in reality, it makes Team Biden look insecure and deeply paranoid.
And that is not a good way to start your Presidency, n’est-ce pas?
What kind of Commander-in-Chief demands his troops be vetted to ensure loyalty to him and not to the Constitution they all took an oath to defend and protect?
And what does it say about that Commander-in-Chief that he and his team don’t believe the Guardsmen’s oath to the Constitution is sufficient?
At this point, I wonder how long before Biden goes full Gaddafi and is guarded 24/7 by hot women in uniform.
In the end, here’s what the Inauguration performative optics inadvertently reveal:
Biden, a man who spent the last several months of his campaign holed up in his basement, now insists on holding a “virtual” Inauguration devoid of any actual voters behind 12’ high fencing and surrounded by 25K National Guardsmen who have been “vetted” to ensure their loyalty to him.
All this coming from the man who claimed “The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be President for all Americans – whether you voted for me or not.”
Is this the kind of Commander-in-Chief the US Military should take orders from?
Nothing about turning DC into a war zone is a good look for the incoming Administration. Not one thing.
If you want to create the impression that Biden legitimately won this election with unprecedented support and the American people are wildly excited about him entering office, these performative optics aren’t the way to do it.
In fact, they will only ensure the opposite impression.
And no amount of “America United” propaganda can undo the damage these optics cause.
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