Unity bites back
Joe Biden wants to unify America. It’s an unfortunate verb for a country as large and diverse as this one. It’s a feature, not a bug, that the United States is home to socialists, hard-line conservatives and everything in between, with many differences irreconcilable. But what ought not be elusive is some semblance of civility, and a Washington in which Democrats and Republicans push past the worst demons of their natures to try to find common ground rather than constantly scorching the Earth, then pointing fingers through the smoke.
Which brings us to Neera Tanden, whose nomination to run the Office of Management and Budget has run aground, to the chagrin of those usually considered establishment Democrats and to the delight of many Republicans and further left progressives.
Tanden’s policy chops are not disputed, but her sin was consistently demonizing the GOP on Twitter. In since-deleted tweets, Tanden called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Voldemort, the dark lord who menaces Harry Potter; Sen. Tom Cotton was a fraud; Sen. Susan Collins was “the worst.” Sen. Bernie Sanders also ran into her buzz saw. Those insulted are the same officials needed to confirm her, which seems very unlikely.
In the new Washington, if there is one, the burden of behaving decently falls on Republicans as much as on Democrats. And by any reasonable standard, the GOP — most of which still stands with Trump, who far more nastily vilified people before breakfast, lunch and dinner — has done much more to damage the chances for productive partnership than Democrats in recent years. Because of that, it’s hard to take seriously the feigned outrage of so many Republicans claiming to be appalled by Tanden’s language.
But Biden is the one who said he wanted to change the tone and who, as president, has a greater burden than anyone else to set an example. If he wants a glass White House, he needs people who won’t throw stones.
North Babylon, L.I.: I’m sorry you’re cold, Voicer Leonard Stevenson, but lucky for us New Yorkers, all we’re getting is a normal winter. The mess in Texas is the freeze you get when global warming melts the Arctic and pushes the jet stream south. More greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuel is not the way to stay warm in a cold snap that it created! Wind turbines work upstate where it gets mighty cold. Under Gov. Cuomo’s administration, New York is investing in renewable energy. That’s what the future must hold. Alexa Marinos