Unity

Some years ago a was involved in a car accident. Another driver wasn't paying attention and blew through the intersection hitting my car square on the driver's side. As I looked at the vehicle speeding directly at me I was sure I was going to die. My car was totaled, but I walked away from it without a scratch. I was angry at the damage done to my car, but was relived that I was alive and unhurt. The feeling was similar to how I felt on Inauguration Day this year. Not that I thought President Biden was the savior that would fix it all, right all the wrongs and heal all wounds, but that our nation had made it through the last few years - and that we still had a nation. If anyone had any doubts about how unfit for the presidency Trump was, the two and a half months between the election and the inauguration, with his ham-handed attempts to overturn the election and his pardons of corrupt politicians, should have knocked them off the fence. 

Somehow the myth that those who opposed him did so because we were offended by his crude, coarse manner, that he wasn't "presidential", or that he allegedly spoke his mind, was accepted by his most ardent supporters.  In fact, most of what he accomplished was boilerplate Republicanism: lower taxes on the rich, eliminating regulations and lots of anti-immigrant rhetoric. What most of us disliked about Trump was his gleeful stoking of hatred and division, labelling anyone who disagreed with him as anti-American, going so far as to call the mainstream media "The Enemy of the People" and suggesting that his political opponents be locked up. Any hope that we had that he would settle into the job, listen to the advice of "the adults in the room" was squashed pretty quickly. His documented lies reached the tens of thousands. His ignorance, not only of how government worked, but of basic economics was abysmal. His contempt for our allies and solicitousness of our enemies was worrying. His persona was that of a petulant child, when he wasn't acting as the playground bully. He had barely dodged the bullet that was the Mueller Investigation when he attempted to bribe the president of Ukraine in order to start an investigation of Joe Biden and his son Hunter. His incompetence and laziness came to the fore as he ignored the seriousness of the Covid-19 virus that has so far killed 400,000 of us. 

While I probably would have voted for a can of green beans over Trump, Biden, whatever his shortcoming's, is someone who takes the job seriously, has the knowledge and experience needed for the job, and in contrast to his predecessor, sees himself as the president of all Americans, not just those who voted for him. He has the perhaps unlikely dream of our nation being united. 

Let's talk about unity. The reality is that we are a deeply divided nation. A not insignificant minority believes that his election was fraudulently won. There are deep disagreements on just about everything. There is an impeachment trial still pending in the Senate for the former president. The progressive faction of the Democratic Party thinks Biden is just another establishment hack; Trump's core of support think he's a communist. No matter what he does or doesn't do is going to make somebody mad. But unity and governing with eye to making decision's that are best for all Americans isn't about accomplishing the impossible, i.e. making everybody happy. It's about doing what's overall in the nation's best interest, knowing that not everyone agrees on what the best interest is. 

There are two competing realities. One is the old saying "elections have consequences". Not only did Biden garner a healthy majority of the electoral votes, the exact same number that Trump claimed as a landslide in 2016, but unlike Trump, he also received a healthy majority of the total votes cast nationwide. Surely this gives him the right to honor his campaign promises and take whatever unilateral actions that are available to him, even if the Republican Party doesn't like it. The second reality is that his party has only a slim majority in the House of Representatives (221-211, with 3 vacant seats - it takes 218 votes to reach a majority) and a 50-50 tie in the Senate, with several conservative Democrats unlikely to support what the consider any ultra-liberal proposals. These slim majorities will make it all but impossible to get anything done with the cooperation of at least 10 Republican Senators, since the filibuster still exists for legislation, although not for judicial appointments. Mitch McConnell is still the leader of the Republican caucus.

Let's not forget that it was Mitch McConnell who obstructed everything that President Obama attempted accomplish. It was Mitch McConnell who stole a Supreme Court nomination based on the suspect reasoning that a president shouldn't be able to appoint a Supreme Court Justice in his last year in office, a reasoning that he conveniently changed when it was Trump who had the opportunity to nominate a justice during his last month before the election. It was Mitch McConnell who virtually shut down the Senate, except for judicial appointments, refusing to consider any bills sent over from the House of Representatives. I don't envision much legislation getting passed. We're already hearing from politicians like Ted Cruz who think "unity" means that Biden and the Democrats roll over for the Republicans, as if Biden hadn't won the election.

This isn't very optimistic, I know. But it's realistic. There's still a lot that President Biden can do without the cooperation of the Republicans. He can fill judicial vacancies, he can appoint people who support the mission of the cabinet departments, instead of those whose goal was to dismantle them under Trump; he can re-engage us with the international community and strengthen our alliances; he can re-institute environmental protections that were gutted in the last four years. 

He can take the job seriously.