Tough to ‘unify’ while fueling division

Within hours of winning the presidency in November 2020, Joe Biden was all about unity.

In a nationally televised address, he vowed to be “a president who seeks not to divide, but unify.” And echoing earlier speeches, Biden said it is “time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again.”

We couldn’t agree more.

So … what happened?

In his latest address to the nation, Biden came uncomfortably close to writing off almost half the country as a threat to democracy.

“There’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans,” Biden said. “We can’t be proinsurrectionist and pro-American. They’re incompatible. We can’t allow violence to be normalized in this country. It’s wrong.”

What he failed to point out was this: More Republicans are finally turning away from Trump, and most do not approve of the violence that shocked our nation Jan. 6, 2021. So, for him to say the entire party is “dominated, driven and intimidated” by such a mindset seems, well, harsh.

A poll by Navigator Research and Global Strategy Group this summer found 58 percent of Republicans opposed the attack on the Capitol while one third (which, granted, is still a frightfully high number) supported it.

The numbers are continuing to move in the right direction on those topics — as Trump’s popularity sinks while the legal walls close in around him.

Meanwhile, blowback to Biden’s speech from conservatives is intense, and understandable. Make no mistake, we absolutely do condemn those who are calling for further violence — but why couldn’t Biden have gone to greater lengths to emphasize that’s not what most Republicans want?

Or, then again, was this just a case of Joe being Joe? When a reporter asked Biden on Friday whether he considers all Trump supporters to be a threat to the country, Biden responded: “I don’t consider any Trump supporter a threat to the country.”

Oh. Just a threat to democracy?

We’d love to see somebody, somewhere, in a position of power make an actual commitment to unify instead of divide. And again, we’ll note neither side has raised the bar in this regard, and Trump has often been the most divisive of the lot. The desire to score political points is apparently too powerful for most people in positions of authority and influence to resist.

For another example, one need look no further than our own California State University

system.

Friday, CSU released yet another new list of states that are on the “banned” list thanks to AB 1887. There are now 23 states on this list following the addition of Arizona and Georgia.

That’s right. Basically half the country has been deemed not worthy of business by the state of California.

Let’s take a look at that list, shall we?

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas,

Utah and West Virginia.

Gee, anybody notice a trend here?

AB 1887 became law in January 2017. We’re curious about its effectiveness; almost six years later, have any of the states on that list changed their positions on any of the issues because of California’s ban? Or suffered serious financial pain as a result? Or, in retrospect, was this just another feel-good measure that hasn’t done anyone a bit of good, while ramping up hatred of fellow American citizens?

Seems like if the state were serious about this, they’d make it a two-way street. A great baseball prospect from Arizona wants to come to school in California? Sorry. We don’t need your type here. The perfect fit for a new dean or administrator? Sorry. You’re from Ohio. We don’t want that kind of thinking in our state. A sudden influx of students, enough to offset CSU’s embarrassing enrollment drop? We’ll need to check your IDs to make sure you’re from a state worthy of our intellectual approval.

Oh, but that’ll never happen. We’ll condemn entire states, but still pick-and-choose select people if they happen to be good for our cause. (And, of course, select administrators are allowed to do business with those banned states if the business is deemed “required.” Cough-cough.)

Is anyone else as sick of this kind of thinking as we are?

Common ground, and unity, has to begin with people. Our leaders, regardless of their party affiliation, sure aren’t going to get us there. That’s been proven repeatedly, by all sides, especially in the past few decades.

So, we’ll repeat Biden’s words from November 2020. And we mean them:

“It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric. Lower the temperature. See each other again. Listen to each other again.”

Not painting entire groups of people, and even entire states, with such a broad, hate-filled brush would be a fantastic place to start.