And there it is. McConnell won't even allow the normal transfer of committee chairmanships to the majority party, but Trump cultists are complaining that Biden carrying forward in presenting plans towards accomplishing what we all knew his agenda was is a sign that he's not trying to unify us? Biden's overt willingness to compromise and work with Republicans isn't good enough because he won't just do what the right-wing Republicans wanted before they lost the presidency and both houses?"Biden made his whole thing about bipartisanship and unity and Republicans are going to join him in precisely none of it then blame him for being unable to fulfill his promise and say that in fact he actually divided things worse. That about cover the next four years?" -Luke O'Neil. O'Neil has a Twitter account here.
"Unity and healing must begin with understanding and truth." -President Joe Biden (link)Reaching out requires someone reach back to accomplish anything. "Unity" has never meant everybody is going to agree on everything. "Unity" means we're agreeing to work together towards the common cause of making things better. Some Republicans seem to think it means, "We lost, but you said "unity" so you should do what we want anyway". To them I'd like to say, "F***k your feelings" and "You lost, get over it, move on" and "Elections have consequences" -you know, like they told me...
but I won't.
No, in the spirit of Biden's longing for unity I'll say, "Can we at least talk about our differences and try to work towards an understanding?" Give up the baseless conspiracy theories and the "We were robbed" plaint and the threats of secession and work with us, for Heaven's sake.
Or not. But don't then complain that Biden divided us.
P.S. This post is in no way intended as a response to anything said by any of my blogging buddies. If it had been I'd've just come right out and said so and quoted y'all and linked to your posts, like I've done in the past.
No, this post is in response to statements I'm seeing from politicians. I'll include a few examples below, just so you can see what I'm seeing if you've quit tracking news reports.
Rand Paul said this of Biden's inauguration speech
"If you read his speech and listen to it carefully, much of it is thinly-veiled innuendo calling us white supremacists, calling us racists, calling us every name in the book."Josh Hawley (insurrectionist cheerleader) said,
"Democrats in DC say they want unity. They don’t want unity. They want total control. Control of what we say, what we think, and who we support."Marco Rubio tweeted:
"A radical leftist agenda in a divided country will not help unify our country..."In the midst of these lies and insults, the ongoing inflammatory rhetoric, Republican refusal to reach back and take Biden's hand, and continuing reluctance of elected Republicans to admit the truth that Biden won a free and fair election, you can't say Biden's the one at fault for continuing division. Well, you can, but that'd be another lie.
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...unity is in the eye of the beholder!
ReplyDeleteWe are not united in that view ;)
DeleteI am in complete agreement with you. Why, mm ever got reelected is beyond me. Well the entire gop is beyond me. Now, I can write this from experience. With the exception of 2 people, my entire family, men and women, think that the"thing" won the election, that everything they view on fox news and youtube is true. My daughter, who is a lawyer, believes every lie told. We use to be able to have conversations but that has been over for quite a few months now. My son is so over the top that I have hung up on him many times. There is NO trying to explain to them that being republican is different that being maga. Even when the proof is right in front of them. My daughter truly believes that the Dominion voting machines come from a country that doesn't like us, but couldn't tell me exactly what country.I tried to tell her they are made in Canada and she told me I was wrong. It is exhausting, and heart breaking that my kids and family are like this. It is frightening that even in my small town, maga assemblies are weekly at church just two blocks from my house. They are sooooo loud with hate.
ReplyDeleteWell, we could say MM got elected because We Were Robbed! and Voter Fraud! ;) but seriously I don't understand why Kentucky wants him.
DeleteIt's hard when you present actual facts to people and they won't even consider the possibility that they might be mistaken about _anything_ :( Unity can't mean just going along with whatever those deluded folks want. We all have to work together on particular things. It's so sad when one of the major Republican arguments now is "You must not want unity if you want [fill in the blank]".
The signing in the senate yesterday whether impeachment is constitutional or not is a total bogus act. It reminds me of how republicans acted when Obama tried to get a supreme court nomination and it was stalled. Why do these republicans want to protect a man who sent people in to get them? If anything is impeachable, the former presidents actions on Jan 6 (and even before then) is and he has to be held accountable. I won't quote MM and what he would say about doing that, but they are a desperate group to have stoop to that. And even worse, people vote for them. Are they, these Republican leaders, afraid of Trump's supporters and acting like cowards signing that document? If they sign it then next time the insurrectionists act up they think they will be safe? Or are they truly so self centered and care nothing for bringing the country back together? Not sure this is is the most cohesive response, but today I am just in disbelief that any of them would support the former president.
ReplyDeleteTheir political calculus is about where they think the power is, and they do seem to be thinking Trump's base is still a force to be reckoned with. I know here in Tennessee Marsha Blackburn is being threatened with being primaried on the right for not being enough of a Trump loyalist. They don't seem to care a whit about accountability for Trump, which does strike me as odd.
DeleteI do know that working together doesn't seem to interest them. And they'll blame Biden.
I stopped back to read your reply and noticed DVArtists comment. It must be tough to have your kids totally brain washed. Thank goodness my daughter thinks for herself.
ReplyDeleteMy kids are liberals but not as vocal online about it as I am. My other relatives otoh :(
DeleteYou are not reaching out to your opponents when you say everything that happened over the past four years is bad and try to executive order them out of existence. Biden has no mandate, instead of doing the smart thing and actually trying to work together and enact legislation he tries to appease the far left and alienate half the country. What happens in 4 years when people have a choice that Isn't Trump and vote him out the next president can just unilaterally right off his orders with new orders. People voted out Trump because of fear of a virus and his Bluntness. It is entirely fair to call him out on a theme of unity when you feel he is just giving unity lip service.
ReplyDeleteThe executive orders are not surprising given what Trump's were like, as Trump's were devoted to executive ordering Obama out of existence lol His replacing cabinet positions with qualified people instead of the types of people Trump had in there is the same kind of thing. I look forward to see what happens with the USPS, for example, and the Education department and HUD, but trying to fix those won't mean he's not trying to reach out. As administrations change these things change, too.
DeleteHe's open to compromise, he's just not open to starting his efforts where the Republicans currently are. I mean, what kind of "compromise" is that? It's not fair to expect Biden to give up his agenda before you'll work with him. "Unity" requires working together. If they don't like what he's offered, let them put forward a counter offer and work towards compromise.
I agree the executive order has become a problem, but Congress could fix that if they would. When was the last time the Senate brought something to the floor to work out a compromise?
His "Bluntness"? roflol! His corruption, self-dealing, nepotism, insults, vindictiveness, and I could go on... isn't "blunt". I certainly don't mind "blunt". He was vile.
You laugh at bluntness if Trump had no twitter account he would have won easily most people just wanted him to shut up. The Republicans weren't campaigning saying they could unify the country that was Biden therefore it entails more effort on his part. So far he has just driven wedges. The bickering over cabinet appointees is standard fare I don't see this as devisive.
DeleteI'm not laughing at "bluntness" as a thing but at calling Trump's language "blunt". That "most people just wanted him to shut up" may well be true, but it's not because of his being "blunt". And there was more than his insulting language to object to.
DeleteBiden has said he's open to compromise on his legislative suggestions and working together for the benefit of the American people. "No" is all he's getting from the Republicans so far. It's true that Republicans didn't govern or campaign on a unity theme, but for Biden to be able to effect any unifying spirit a positive response from Republicans is necessary. He certainly can't do it alone, and -as the quote at the top of the post suggests- it seems Republicans' plan is to stand and not cooperate in any way and then blame Biden for a lack of unifying spirit.
It's almost as if the Republicans have no plan of their own but only "not that" -now as was the case with Obama. We're still waiting, after all, for that Trump healthcare plan.
Unity is tough when you as a party have been calling into question the legitimacy of the last election for 4 years. Unity can not be achieved if you do not compromise, Biden's idea of unity seems to be I'm going this way you are too. Signing a bunch of executive orders the day you are inaugurated is great for your base but does nothing but antagonize your opposition. In fact I would go further and say the EO's cement opposition by removing debate on issues. Because most EO's couldn't get passed as legislation it leaves the opposition feeling not led but ordered. This is why both parties say no a lot.
DeleteWe haven't "been calling into question the legitimacy of the last election for 4 years". Not at all. As Democrats we're used to winning the popular vote but seeing the Republican get elected by the Electoral College. It's old hat to us. Why do you think we questioned the legitimacy of the 2016 election?
DeleteIt's Republicans doing that. Right now. Still. Refusing to say Biden won a free and fair election and continuing to sow doubt among their base. I think you're experiencing projection.
That "Unity can not be achieved if you do not compromise," is what I've been saying all along and is what the quote says that kick-starts the post above. Trump supporters (which seems to include the majority of the Republican Party still) won't come up with a response to reach out with. If they think he's too far left they should propose a response further towards their own stance. Have they? Not that I've seen. They just see what he's offered and say, "No, nope, not that, no way". That's the point of the whole post.
Executive orders are a problem, I've agreed with you there, but if the legislative branch would get off their asses and debate and vote on stuff they could fix all that. I ask again: "When was the last time the Senate brought something to the floor to work out a compromise?"
Unity doesn't require that Biden enact plans according to Trump's agenda.
I don't know where you were but the whole Russian collusion thing was questioning the legitimacy of the 2016 election. When you sign an executive order it is done and leaves no room for compromise. I think the senate thing is like Pawn Stars. Someone will come in with some treasure they wish to sell and when the pawn broker asks how much and they want twice what it's worth. At that point they say something along the lines of were just too far apart I can't even make an offer. Biden doesn't have to push Trump's agenda but he'd be a lot better of if he didn't try to go from home to third base on day one. Great grand gestures have us ending up with some abomination like Obamacare. we would be far better off with small incremental steps in legislation than these grandiose plans . Unintended consequence are inevitable and once you start a government program it is really hard to rollback. Part of the reason the Senate doesn't bring things to the floor is that Republicans are happier when the government is staying out of our business. Democrats and liberals take the opposite stance and like government to be fixing things.
DeleteNo, "the whole Russian collusion thing" was not about questioning the legitimacy of the 2016 election. Not at all. He was legitimately elected. Whether or not Trump was involved in Russia's attempts to meddle in the election is in no way relevant to "unity" now.
DeleteI don't know why you're so focused on the EOs. They certainly can be undone through legislation. Whether or not the man y'all said was too sleepy to do anything is doing too much is an interesting question lol Whether you believe incremental steps work better than larger projects is worth discussing. None of that is relevant to whether or not Republicans will in any way at any point work with Biden on _anything_. It's not looking like it. Which was the whole point of the quote which inspired this post. Biden can't achieve unity without Republicans being unwilling to reach out and be open about what they themselves would propose.
That's a weird view of the Senate. An elected body elected to make sure nothing gets done.
The Senate has been at it for 259 years very rarely do they manage to make anything better. Even if like the proverbial blind squirrel they do stumble upon an acorn of goodness it generally cost many times more than they project.
DeleteI focus the eo's because that is so far been Biden's method of reaching out to Republicans trying to achieve unity. If Biden's focus was on unity and not just lip service I'm sure someone around him could have found someway for him to reach out. First impressions are a big deal and he made his as president with his eo's. I don't know how many Republicans or Independents voted for Biden but he is coming across as way more liberal than the moderate he claims to be.
Whether they make it better or not McConnell's idea of the Senate as a place where nothing happens and where his desk is the graveyard where bills go to die is not an age-old tradition. The cost of projects and whether or not you like bills they've passed in the past isn't the point. If unity is going to happen, if they are going to work with Biden at all, the Senate must be willing to consider, debate, vote on and pass legislation.
DeleteNo, the EOs aren't how Biden's reaching out. That's pretty obvious. The EOs are trying to fix what Trump's EOs broke, which was part of what he campaigned on. You act like if Biden enacts any of his campaign promises other than unity that he can't possibly also be working on unifying for the purpose of passing legislation. Biden is meeting with elected members of the legislative branch and has been since his election. Are you not _watching_ the press conferences? Biden won the Democratic nomination because he's a moderate. He doesn't just "claim" to be one. But whether or not you see him as a moderate doesn't affect the point that for people to be unified going forward they have to work together, and if the Republicans' only answer to everything is "not that" instead of "not that, but this other thing" then unity is impossible.
Again "unity" and being unified in purpose doesn't mean everybody has to agree on everything. They just need to be willing to work together towards the common goal of making things better. The Republicans so far have decided to opt for "no" instead of "no, but...". That is the point of the quote and my post.
Biden won 81 million+ votes, or 51.3 percent. Trump won 74 million+ votes, or 46.8 percent. In the past 6 presidential elections, only Obama in 2008 won by a larger total vote margin than the 7 million+ Biden had. Biden’s percentage point lead is the largest win in the past six elections other than Obama’s 7-point win in 2008.
DeleteI mean none of this is relevant to working for a unity of purpose, but I realized I hadn't addressed your "Biden has no mandate" claim.
Biden has no mandate because people weren't voting for Biden as much as against Trump. Which is fine people can choose for what ever reason they want. There are already story of people and states that voted for Biden that are not happy with the way things are starting off.
DeleteIt's kind of funny how it is important to Unite behind Biden and were supposed to give his agenda a chance and see how things workout. We heard the same things when Obama was elected unite give his agenda a chance. There was never the idea of giving Trumps agenda a chance I get Trump is a hard guy to like but no one called for unity. There was a little bit of unity after 9-11 but that was short lived and it was back to people calling him Bushitler and questioning his intelligence. During Trumps administration dissent was patriotic now it is treasonous. As much as you believe Trump was damaging democracy and hurting our country, It is felt equally by the right that Biden and the lefts agenda horrible for our country and damaging our democracy. So if dissent is patriotic it would be unamerican for someone on the right to unify behind someone who we believe is not working in the best interests of America. When and if he proposes something positive I'm sure he will get the support he deserves.
Again, whether or not you consider that kind of win a mandate or not... It's arguable, but beside the point. I just wanted to put the numbers out there ;)
DeleteSo, if you assume people were voting more against trump than for Biden that puts the call for unity in the context of "My, aren't we sick of his vile, vindictive self." Trump always framed everything in terms of red vs blue, of people loyal to him vs those who weren't. A unity platform promises a president who won't do that, who'll see things differently and treat people on all sides with respect Unity doesn't require he abandon everything else he campaigned for in favor of leaving all trump's mess in place. He's promised to work across the aisle with _respect_, a quality sorely lacking in the way Trump treated people. Nobody's saying the right needs to drop their ideas in favor of wholesale adoption of Biden's agenda but rather to put forward their own ideas and be willing to work together _towards_ something. I'm not hopeful. I'm still waiting for the Republican Obamacare "Replace" part of "Repeal and Replace".
About "dissent": I can't believe you're suggesting the January 6 insurrection was "dissent". That _was_ treasonous.
No violence is always wrong but dissent is treated much differently in the media when it is coming form the right as opposed to the left. Look at the way dissent was treat during Obama's presidency, it all had to be racisnot the fact that his policies were distasteful.
DeleteProtests during the Obama years aren't relevant to the whole point I was trying to make in this post, but I will say there was a reason some of those protests were seen as racist. They _were_ racist. It's not like it was subtle. https://likeawhisper.wordpress.com/anti-obama-protest-signs/
DeleteIt's sad that the Republicans value their power more than they do the Constitution and Democracy. They throw around words like Liberal and Socialism to things they don't agree with when they themselves are all about Fascism.
ReplyDeleteYes, words don't seem to mean what they think they do. I'm seeing news about Marjorie Taylor Green the last few days. This is who they're giving committee assignments to? Yikes!
DeleteThis whole situation is driving me crazy. I just want people to give Joe a chance. To be able to say "let's do this and see if it's better for people." (How could it be worse?) After driving up the debt so much in the previous administration, how can they argue that point on anything. And don't start me on Mitch! Or Hawley. Or McCarthy. I know you are largely preaching to the converted here, but know you aren't alone!
ReplyDeleteWe knew the deficit would be their tune as soon as the administration changed party. It's always the way. Benefit the rich and the GOP is all for it no matter what the cost.
DeleteI do enjoy the discussion with the politically other-minded, but so few are willing to talk to me unless the goal is to change minds. We all know that'll never happen, but we might improve understanding.
How Mitch keeps getting elected, considering what I know of the state of Kentucky, is something I don't understand. And Hawley's behavior has been despicable :(