Republicans Keep Handing Biden Big Sticks

He has been walking softly but the GOP better be wary

MartinEdic
4 min readFeb 28, 2024

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Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

It was Teddy Roosevelt who made the phrase widely popular. Walk softly but carry a big stick. It’s good advice, especially when you are facing a bully and a blowhard who is known for whining when things don’t go his way.

We all know Joe Biden is a quiet man these days, in part because he must choose his words carefully because of a childhood speech impediment. As is typical of bullies, the right has taken every opportunity to mock him for it, standard bullying tactic number one.

But that quiet voice is misleading if they think it indicates weakness. And behind that voice is a man walking quietly with a whole quiver of big sticks, including many that the GOP under Trump thought would work in their favor.

For example, making demands for a tough border policy and then failing to pass one when Biden handed it to them. It’s hard to claim an issue is urgent when you don’t take action on it, even when you get what you want.

On Long Island they lost a desperately needed House seat when the Democrat who won it beat them hard with that club.

Now, with a possible impending shutdown of the federal government this week, they are handing Democrats yet another huge issue…

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MartinEdic
MartinEdic

Written by MartinEdic

Mastodon: @martinedic@md.dm, Writer, nine non-fiction books, two novels, Buddhist, train lover. Amateur cook, lover of life most of the time!