Thought experiment. When the Oregon Brandon dad was a cop, imagine he helped a black couple with young children change a tire on I-5. As he's leaving a parent turns to the kids and says "do you smell bacon kids? I sure smell bacon." Does Brandon dad hear that as "a joke?"
My point here is that Brandon dad is emblematic of an authoritarian political culture that expects that "people like us" can do and say whatever we want because of who we are, while others "who are not like us" must be quiet, respectful, and obedient.
Biden handled the situation perfectly by just passing over it and letting the guy embarrass himself. Saying snarky or disrespectful things to authority figures is not a crime.
That said, it's not great to have the political culture of one of a nations' two main parties built around a) a resentful cult of personality focused on a "strong" leader who will "destroy our enemies" and b) a corrosive distrust in all democracy-sustaining social institutions.
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