It probably seemed like a good idea at the time.
With his presidency already a failure and the November midterms sizing up to be a bloodbath for his party, President Joe Biden decided Tuesday to take another shot at rolling out what he probably is hoping will be the slur that turns the tide of politics in his favor.
But like most Biden ideas, it started out bad and keeps getting worse — for him, anyway.
During his embarrassingly disjointed speech on the inflation that’s infuriating Americans, Biden attacked Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida as having an “Ultra-MAGA” agenda that would supposedly destroy whatever remains of the working class Biden and his policies haven’t already impoverished.
MAGA, of course, is the acronym for “Make America Great Again,” the slogan former President Donald Trump rode to victory in the 2016 election and spent four years implementing, when he wasn’t being kneecapped by “Russia collusion” lies and a sham impeachment trial. It was a record that drew the support of 74 million American voters in the 2020 race.
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It wasn’t Biden’s first use of the phrase. That was last week, when he called MAGA Republicans the “most extremist” political group in “recent American history” and took an initial jab at Scott’s supposed “Ultra-MAGA Agenda.”
But, contrary to the hopes of Biden, his Democratic Party and the mainstream media, Trump supporters aren’t shying away from the “ultra” tag bit. In fact, it backfired on Biden when he first rolled it out. And it blew up again this week.
“Ultra-MAGA means always putting America First,” Stephen Miller, who served as a senior adviser in the Trump White House, told The Washington Times. “It is the heart of the mainstream of public opinion across all groups. It means voters over special interests. Strong borders over bloodthirsty cartels. American workers over guest workers. Domestic production over foreign production. National security over needless war.
“Cops over criminals. Education over indoctrination. American values over woke ideology. Adoption over abortion. Family over government. Equality over equity. Free speech over censorship. Individuals over corporations. Patriotism over globalism. The United States over the United Nations.”
Are Trump supporters going to embrace the “Ultra-MAGA” label?
All of those issues represent political ground on which conservatives and Republicans are more than willing to fight in the campaigns to determine control of Congress in the next two years. In fact, they’re issues that Democrats would have trouble contesting anywhere outside their traditional urban strongholds.
Biden no doubt intended it as an insult — attempting to convey the kind of extremism that Americans who actually follow the news have come to associate with progressive Democrats, the rabble who try to use thuggery to intimidate Supreme Court justices, bully sane adults into pretending men are women despite the evidence of nature and their own eyes, or want teachers to use public school classrooms and learning time to engage prepubescent children in conversations about their sex lives.
But for the targets of his intended insult, it’s a badge of honor that only highlights the real extremism of the modern Democratic Party’s leadership, particularly on a day when only one moderate Democrat’s vote stopped the Senate from approving a law to make legal abortion the law of the land.
What about super ultra maga.
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) May 11, 2022
Dammmmm ?
Reporter: “You’re being called ultra MAGA..”
Rep. Elise Stefanik: “I am ultra MAGA, and I’m proud of it.” pic.twitter.com/w8G4VRqPRI
— Rusty Griswold (@Rusty__Griswold) May 11, 2022
Every Senate Democrat today except one is about to vote in favor of a bill that would make killing an unborn baby legal at any moment for any reason.
Our abortion laws would be more extreme than the rest of the world.
They are the extremists, not “Ultra MAGA.”
— Mercedes Schlapp (@mercedesschlapp) May 11, 2022
Newsflash: Calling us “Ultra-MAGA” doesn’t offend us. It’s a compliment.
— Damani Felder (@TheDamaniFelder) May 11, 2022
Both the funniest and saddest part of the whole business is how White House press secretary Jen Psaki beamed like a young mother whose toddler just tied his own shoes on Tuesday when she assured reporters that the president had thought up the idea all on his own.
Psaki is asked who came up with the term “ultra MAGA” and why:
“It’s the President’s phrase.” pic.twitter.com/UTmOWyX645
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 10, 2022
“I will tell you, it’s the president’s phrase, and the president made those comments himself,” Psaki said.
She then embarked on a typically slanted list of issues where Republicans are allegedly extreme and noted that, to Biden, “adding a little ‘ultra’ to it, gives it a little extra pop.”
No doubt, it’s reassuring to learn that the man who holds the most powerful job on the planet is capable of coming up with an idea of his own “with a little extra pop” — next thing you know he won’t need a push on the swing or a boost to climb trees! But that doesn’t mean this brainstorm is going to have the impact Biden and his babysitters seem to think.
As when Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton deemed Trump supporters “deplorables” in 2016, the “Ultra-MAGA” label is likely to only solidify Biden’s opposition even more, if that’s possible.
Biden’s policies have proven to be a disaster for his country — from deadly appeasement in Afghanistan to ineptitude on inflation, to the invasion of illegal immigrants.
Every indication already is that a reckoning is coming in the midterm elections.
Every conservative and Republican needs to turn out, though. An “ultra” reckoning is what this country needs.
