Biden’s final pre-election State of the Union is behind us, but the real action took place outside the Capitol, where hundreds of pro-Palestine demonstrators attempted to block the president’s motorcade route.
They wore keffiyehs, waved Palestinian flags, called cops “fucking slave catchers” and demanded an immediate ceasefire. (RELATED: Chaos Erupts Outside White House, Capitol Building Just Before SOTU)
I sat at home watching clips of the demonstrations, half-expecting these jokers to pull a Jan. 6 for Hamas. I even considered catching an Uber downtown, joining the crowd and yelling some Ray Epps stuff — “We gotta go INTO the Capitol!”
🚨#BREAKING: Hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters are blocking the motorcade route as President Biden heads to the US Capitol for the State of the Union Address⁰⁰📌#Washington | #DC ⁰
Currently, hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters have shut down Pennsylvania Ave right… pic.twitter.com/pSLoBeYUuN— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) March 8, 2024
During the speech itself, Biden tried to address the accusations he’s presiding over a genocide. He assured us that (somehow) the U.S. military would build a pier to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza without putting any American boots on the ground. So what’s the plan here? Dump a bunch of construction materials in the Med and hope they wash up on shore?
And what happens when a Hamas speedboat loaded with explosives blows a hole in a U.S. naval vessel? Or when construction crews call for increased security after terrorists steal everything they can carry from the job site? Either could happen. It’s not like Hamas cares about the people of Gaza. (RELATED: QUAY: Democrat-Run Cities Are America’s Gaza)
Sure, they’d be biting the hand that feeds them, but that can be a reasonable response when some lunatic is feeding you with one hand while crushing your windpipe with the other.
The day after Biden’s speech, only two New York Times columnists rated it as less than an 8/10. One was the conservative writer Ross Douthat. The other was Megan K. Stack, who said the president “owed Americans a more direct explanation for his continued support for the onslaught on Gaza.”
Stack isn’t alone. On Super Tuesday, “Uncommitted” got almost a third of the vote in Hawaii’s primary. In Michigan, the same non-candidate racked up over 100,000 votes. That’s about two-thirds of Biden’s 2020 victory margin in the key swing state. This protest campaign, NPR notes, was especially popular with Muslims (who could end up voting Trump) as well as “young voters and progressives” (who never will but might just stay home). (RELATED: Massive Protest Vote Sucks The Wind Out Of Biden’s Michigan Primary Victory)
Biden faces a serious conundrum. He can stop sending weapons to Israel, but that would only alienate a different Democratic constituency. He can keep shouting for a ceasefire, but Israel has shown no signs of wavering in its determination to destroy Hamas. He can telekinetically construct a few humanitarian aid piers, but that won’t be enough to win over his critics.
So we have an unpopular Democratic incumbent. Whose support for a foreign war is alienating the youth. Facing a Republican who lost his last bid for the presidency. And an independent challenger who’s polling at about 15 percent. And the Democratic National Convention is in Chicago.
Hold on … I’ve seen this one before.
In 1968, incensed by the war in Vietnam, some 10,000 radical young Democrats descended on the Chicago convention to protest the coronation of pro-war Vice President Hubert Humphrey. They threatened to drug delegates with LSD and to “piss and shit and fuck in public.” They even raised a Viet Cong flag in a city park.
Iron-fisted Chicago Mayor Richard Daly called out the riot police, and households across America spent the next few days watching cops beating down on hippie scum.
A photographer bleeding from a head wound given to him by police during the riots outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, gives the peace sign as he is interviewed, on August 28, 1968, in Chicago. (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)
Humphrey got the nomination, but the divisions in his party proved insurmountable. Richard Nixon defeated him by 110 electoral votes.
If, by November, Israel is still bombing Gaza or has subjected what’s left of it to full military occupation, we could be in for a repeat of 1968.
Grayson Quay is an editor at the Daily Caller.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.