Is there any way for unity after all that we’ve been through as a nation the last twelve years? “Twelve years? Shouldn’t that be four years?” Nope: remember that Barack Obama actually defined just how wide is the political chasm between people in our nation.
Throughout the Biden campaign, we heard the incessant cries that he wanted to be “the President of all the people, not just Democrats.” He claimed he would “work for the good of ALL the country.” He, as does every presidential candidate, taught us all that ‘“Now is a time for healing.”
Then came the November 3rd election. Chaos erupted. Any hope for unity was dashed on the rocky shores of the sea of “Just ignore the unproven Trump claims of a stolen election and trust us.”
The calls for unity continued and grew deafening: “Stop investigating ballot fraud. What we need now is unity!”
Do you want unity? That’s fair. Do you define unity between the political Left and Right as silencing the cries of one side? Which side should be silent?
What to do. If the Right in this case opted for the Left’s historical examples of unity in the U.S., it would look like this:
In unity with you, we will follow your example of the past four years and…
- Deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election for the next four years.
- Investigate the Biden family’s every business dealing at home and abroad.
- Continually question Biden’s mental fitness to hold office.
- Continually question Biden’s physical fitness to hold office.
- Blame Biden for every person who dies from the coronavirus after January 20.
- Blame Biden personally for every Black person who gets shot anywhere in America.
- Never stop publicizing that Biden has been accused of grabbing a woman’s crotch against her will.
- Emphasize that, any time a woman makes a claim of sexual harassment against Biden, she must be believed.
- Continue publicizing that Kamala Harris slept her way into public office.
- Remind people that, no less than Stormy Daniels, Kamala Harris was a public figure’s mistress.
- Accuse Biden of treason for consorting with enemies like the wife of the Moscow mayor, who gave the Bidens $3.5 million, the Chinese who put the Bidens on their payroll, and the Ukrainians of Burisma.
- Investigate the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, and if and when those photos can be released, they will be To the entire nation.
- Demand that Biden condemns racism, anti-Semitism, and misogyny at least once each month while he’s in office.
- Work to disrupt and slow the process of confirmation all of Biden’s appointments which require Senate advice and consent.
- We will make one small exception and will not impeach. Just as Richard Nixon knew precisely what he was doing when he made Spiro Agnew his running mate (aka his life insurance policy), so did Biden by running with his.
Unifying Good Americans and Bad Americans
Empathy and a common cause are imperative for unity. Although, the effort to delegitimize Trump over the past four years also resulted in the de-legitimization of his voters. Clinton set the tone in 2016 when she referred to Trump voters as “deplorables.” The Democrats and the liberal-leaning media have since continued to depict Trump’s voters as stupid racists who supported a fascist committed to destroying America.
Will the Democrats recognize that Trump voters are not bad people, or will unity depend on Republicans first repenting for their sins to rejoin enlightened and civilized America? Michelle Obama pointed to the urgent need to unify America by reaching out to Trump voters as she stated that half the country — the Republican half — voted for “supporting lies, hate, chaos, and division.”
If the Trump voters have supported division and the Biden voters supported unity, the polarization of America has been between bad Americans and good Americans. There does not appear to be any empathy for Trump voters who believe that President Trump made America great again and blamed Democrats for destroying the country. Does unity entail mutual understanding and a common cause, or for the virtuous to emerge victorious over the wicked?
Unity under Identity Politics?
The self-acclaimed role of the Democratic Party as the defenders of minorities has implied that the Republican Party, as the opponent and the “other,” seeks to marginalize minorities. As Biden brazenly told a black voter during the campaign: “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” The tendency to view supporters of the opposition as bad people was also exemplified with Biden explaining to an interviewer that around 10-15% of Americans are “not very good people.” Does unity entail giving Trump voters a path to redeem themselves by supporting the right policies and voting the right way?
How will Biden respond to the fact that Trump increased his support with every demographic group except white men? Identity politics explained the Trump phenomenon in 2016 as racist and misogynistic white men unleashing their fury upon marginalized groups. Hannah-Jones, The New York Times’ 1619 Project author, explained that the large vote for Trump among Cuban Americans was because they are not Latino but white – who betrayed people of color by joining the White Supremacist movement. Will identity politics be ended or will the tolerant find common cause with the White Supremacists?
Unity Requires Consensus
There’s just than one way to reach unity: it’s not “I win, you lose.” That will NEVER inspire unity. There must be a recognition of differences with a mutual understanding and agreement that for unity to EVER happen, each party must be willing to concede some things to the other that caused the divisiveness that both claim to be trying to eliminate. Are we seeing ANY of that today?
Democrats are outraged that Trump and his supporters are undermining the legitimacy of the Biden presidency, which is believed to reaffirm the absence of a moral compass among these deplorables and irredeemables.
However, the Democrats did not recognize the legitimacy of the Trump presidency! The Trump presidency was tarnished with four years of Russia-Gate and depicting Trump as a Russian agent. Hillary Clinton just days ago repeated that the 2016 election was “stolen” from her, and in August she advised that “Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances.” Yet the Trump voters are asked to concede the election without any plausible explanations for the obvious vote irregularity in six swing states.
What is the lesson learned for the Trump voters? Voters made excuses for Trump’s unabashed and un-presidential demeanor as a necessary personal trait to take on a biased media, tech-monopolies and the deep state. In the end, they consider Trump to have been deposed by a media that misrepresented Trump and never held Biden accountable, tech-monopolies that manipulated algorithms and imposed politically motivated censorship, and a security state that continuously undermined his presidency. Is the lesson that the next Republican candidate they vote for will have to be even more unapologetic and unabashed in the endeavor to make America great again?
The Divided States of America
One does not need to agree with the Trump voter or share their frustration. But the absolute resistance to recognize and accept how intense are their frustrations and beliefs will prevent unity.
The Biden election campaign consisted of delegitimizing and rejecting everything that Trump stands for, which implies there is not much room for a common cause. Trump aimed to reverse and undo all of Obama’s policies, and Biden has committed himself to reverse everything done by Trump. The Republican challenger to Biden in 2024 will likely seek to undo everything Biden seeks to do.
Let’s be honest: the U.S. has fragmented towards two sets of identities, values, and ambitions that view the other side as an enemy attempting to destroy America. Biden’s ambition to be a president for all Americans is “presidential.” It’s going to be difficult at best for Joe to hold onto the standard Democrat processes of constantly denigrating Republicans, diminishing their value in the World while preaching the need for all to unite.
Summary
Remember that old saying: “The proof’s in the pudding.” Americans have heard much lip service from Democrats about seeking unity. But I’m suspicious of there being a Democrat today who genuinely wants to compromise on the policies on which they have marched for four years demanding each and every one of them in “their” administration.
Unity requires compromise. We could list examples ad nauseum that illustrate that Democrat leaders have voiced numerous demands for unity in a Biden presidency. But little if any evidence of willingness to negotiate on any of their demands has been rumored.
Today on “TNN Live” at 9:00 AM Central, we dive into the “specifics” of the actions Biden Democrats have already announced. We detail specifics. You’re encouraged to join us live by clicking on the blue horizontal banner at the top right of this story. If you cannot join live, any time after 12 noon, a link to today’s completed “TNN Live” show will be posted below on which you can click to get the completed streaming two-hour show. There’s no charge, of course.
In a nutshell, I am suspicious of the Democrat leaders in Congress as well as those already confirmed to be part of the Biden White House. But we all should give them the benefit of the doubt for now. I hope I’m wrong. But sadly, my optimism vanished just hours after the inauguration. Join us for the deep-dive every Monday through Friday as we dig into what’s happening — really happening — in D.C.
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