Unification needed
More Americans voted in the 2020 presidential election than in any previous election. Citizens are engaged, euphoric and enraged.
President-elect Joe Biden has the ear of the people now. He has an opportunity to launch the return to normalcy he often discussed on the campaign trail.
In his acceptance speech, Biden pledged to work to unify the nation: “It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric.
To lower the temperature.
To see each other again. To listen to each other again.
To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy. We are not enemies. We are Americans.”
All excellent and much-needed sentiments. Meanwhile, however, other public-facing members of his party have been sounding off with less cooperative messages.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Nov. 6 authored a tweet, asking: “Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future? I foresee decent probability of many deleted tweets, writings, photos in the future.”
Others have created the “Trump Accountability Project” in a direct attempt to blacklist those who took a paycheck from the current administration.
Now, Biden is not responsible for the words of other members of his party. However, if he is serious about his intent to unify, he must recognize that Democrats and Republicans alike need to stop demonizing one another with accusations of ill intent.
He should take a firm stance when members of his party misbehave.
It’s easy to cast President Donald Trump as a bully— he is, at times—and as the sole party responsible for this latest level of polarization and vitriol.
The ideological and political divisions running through the country, furiously stoked by new and old media alike, are not new. Trump is a symptom of and a catalyst for such vitriol. He, too, should have worked far harder to promote unity.
If Biden is to transcend party and lead all Americans, let him do so without speaking out of the corner of his mouth to his base and winking at the fierier members of his party.
These coming weeks are critical and will determine whether Biden speaks for all Americans or, like Trump, doubles down on the half that backed him in this election.