What happens when politics, the "Art of the Possible," tries to survive in a world where nothing seems possible? There are a lot of teeth-gnashing reports in many quarters of our media, worrying that Biden's pledge to unite the Disunited States of America is naive and bound to fail. These worriers [let's call them worry-warriors] point to Republicans' suddenly rediscovering their hatred of deficits; to McConnell's continuing stonewalling, to Trump fans of all stripes continuing to worship every lying, traitorous, or deranged word he has ever uttered.
No, the odds for achieving unity, or even mutual respect and tolerance, seem pretty bleak just now. But all these forms of divisiveness were entirely predictable. It's only been five days since Biden was inaugurated. Let's see where niceness leads him. Hope springs eternal, especially, it seems with Biden. And I for one haven't given up on the chance that some weird, unexpected event will break the ice jam on the Potomac.
But I hope he won't be silly about it. There are some red lines on which he and Democrats generally need to be firm. One is that Trump richly and indisputably merits trial and conviction in the Senate. The case is cut-and-dried to any rational person. There is no "it depends" answer to the question at hand. Those who deny it are concerned, not with defending the Constitution, but with keeping themselves in power at all costs. Democrats must pursue impeachment to its end, even if it does reduce chances of cooperation in Congress on other matters.
Which brings us to red line number 2: Hoping for reconciliation, cherishing the ideal that legislation on major national problems should and can be bipartisan, Biden must not fall into the trap that Obama did. Republicans are already signaling that they will play the same games of delay, obfuscation, and eventual flat rejection as they did in 2008-2016. If that continues more than a month, Biden needs to use what power he has to push through what he can, with majorities in both Houses. Not only is that course just, but time-sensitive, for I believe Biden has a shorter window than he realizes - Democratic Party unity will start disintegrating rather quickly - it always does!
What specific tasks should Biden focus on, beyond trying to overcome the Trump virus? I hope to address that in my next post.
Beat the virus, rescue businesses, get people back to work. Urgent as those issues are, the Republicans have already argued about how much money and where it should go.
Unity sounds great, but I don't think it means much to Republicans. Still, good ol' Joe can be disarming. He's not naive. He knows politics as well or better than most of those in DC.
Posted by: PiedType | January 26, 2021 at 12:29 PM
Absolutely. It's too early to suggest that Biden can't bring at least some degree of cooperation in government, though I am less optimistic that he can change voter attitudes - that will take longer but will proceed faster if a few Republicans get involved.
Posted by: JHawk23 | January 26, 2021 at 03:01 PM