Today, Joe Biden was sworn in as the nation's 46th President. He focused a number of times on "unity" in his inaugural speech. "...My whole soul is in this: bringing America together, uniting our people, unifying our nation. And I ask every American to join me in this cause." "We can see each other, not as adversaries, but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect." "We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts." "...disagreement must not lead to disunion."
For those of us who still believe in America as one nation, under G-d, indivisible, the sentiments are fitting. Clearly, we have significant policy differences between left and right. Those will not go away; and to the extent the left-wing of the Democratic Party gains influence and control, the differences will be exacerbated. I have previously questioned whether we can return to having a "loyal opposition." A bigger problem, perhaps, is that Biden's fellow Democrats in Congress, as well as his Democratic followers in the media and Hollywood, seem to have little interest in Biden's call for unity.
As I mentioned in the last post, I was hoping that Biden would display some of that unity by calling on Pelosi not to pursue impeachment a second time. But the Democrats could not help themselves. As I watched the House hearing it occurred to me - there are not going to be any Judiciary Committee hearings first. It is going to be a rushed, emotional vote with absolutely no fact finding, no evidence, no opportunity for anyone to fairly present the arguments on the other side. It was unprecedented in my lifetime, as Nixon, Clinton and Trump 1.0 all had Judiciary Committee hearings. Instead, members voted out of fear and anger, with a rush to judgment. Pelosi argued that immediate impeachment was required for the good of the country, as Trump presented a "clear and present danger." But that was a lie, as she knew the Senate could not proceed to a trial until after Biden was inaugurated and Trump would be out anyway.
It turns out that there was evidence that those who illegally forced their way into the Capitol may have planned their attack in advance through social media. In advance of Trump's speech that day. Now, maybe, Trump would have been impeached anyway, just based on the words he said. Maybe. But maybe not. What was clear was that through the impeachment there was an intent to harm not just Trump, but the Republican Party. Not to mention the obvious attack on the 74 million people who voted for Trump. Now we are headed for a Senate trial to remove a man from office who is already out of office. I am not seeing a desire by Biden's fellow Democrats to treat those with whom they disagree with "dignity and respect." I am seeing a desire to harm those with whom they disagree.
Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo) is a new member of "The Squad." She has introduced a resolution calling for the removal from office of all those Republican House members who objected to the electoral college vote of any state. She equated their objections to an "insurrection," even though federal law allows for exactly that process - for Congress members making objections to electoral college votes. Bush also claimed that the objections were based on a "racial animus," given the minority population in the states having their electoral votes challenged.
The Lincoln Project (apparently started by Republican Trump haters, with at least one founder having switched party affiliation to Democrat) Tweeted this: "we are constructing a database of Trump officials and staff that will detail their roles in the Trump administration and track where they are now...no personal info, only professional. But they will be held accountable and not allowed to pretend they were not involved." Yes, let us return to the days of yore - to McCarthyism. "Are you know, or have you ever been, a Trump supporter?" These people are sick bastards. Definitely not unifying, and completely un-American. I guess it will not matter if the Trump administration officials worked to bring about the best unemployment rate in 50 years, or helped pass criminal justice reform, or helped bring about new peace agreements in the Middle East. They will all have to pay!
Forbes magazine's chief content officer wrote an Op-Ed expressing this: "let it be known to the business world. Hire any of the fabulists (Kayleigh McEnany, Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and presumably others) above, and Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie." Anybody still believe that big business supports the Republican Party? Hallmark wants Senators Josh Hawley and Roger Marshall to return campaign contributions received from the company's employees - because they dared to follow the legal procedure for challenging electoral college votes. Kansas City Commerce Bank said they were suspending campaign contributions to those who challenged the votes. The list of big companies rushing to punish Republicans includes American Express, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Marriott, Dow, AT&T, Airbnb, Coca-Cola along with others. "My Pillow" will no longer be carried by Kohl's, Bed Bath and Beyond, Wayfair and others. How could they? The owner supported Trump.
Not surprisingly, the mainstream media had no interest in unity. Here is Don Lemon of CNN: "If you voted for Trump, you voted for the person who the Klan supported. You voted for the person who Nazis support. You voted for the person who the alt-right supports. You voted for the person who incited a crowd to go into the Capitol and potentially take the lives of lawmakers." You know what? I agree. It would be nice if every fellow conservative and Republican all held my values, or at least decent values. But you know what, Don Lemon. You voted with the people who caused 2 billion dollars worth of damage to mostly small businesses this past summer. Businesses that were often minority owned because those doing the damage did not care. They were violent thugs - the people you voted with, Don Lemon. You also vote with anti-Semites, a growing number of which inhabit your party. Are you an anti-Semite, Don Lemon? Maybe you supported Bernie Sanders. But the deranged man who shot up the Republican baseball game and nearly killed Congressman Steve Scalise, was a Sanders supporter. Do you support murder of your political opponents, Don Lemon? It is truly difficult to believe that a man with such little capability in analytical reasoning has such a prominent position with CNN.
And then there is this from Mr. Lemon: "No one has ever, ever gone this far in terms of saying an election was illegitimate." So, a liar too. No one? How about you and your cronies at CNN for the last four years claiming that Trump was an illegitimate President, claiming the Russians stole the election for Trump. Just like the 2016 loser Hillary Clinton has continued to do. Just like Madame Speaker Pelosi has claimed. Just like a number of Congress members did. Just like much of the mainstream media has done for four years. All claimed that Trump's 2016 win was illegitimate.
Treat others with dignity and respect? Eugene Robinson, of the Washington Post, said this: "there are millions of Americans, almost all white, almost all Republicans who somehow need to be deprogrammed." Here is what a now fired PBS attorney thought: "Even if Biden wins, we go for all the Republican voters and Homeland Security will take away their children. And we'll put them in reeducation camps." They can watch PBS all day. Here is Katie Couric, referring to some Republican members of Congress: "...the question is how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump."
Deprogram? Reeducation? Communist Russia come to mind? Let's think about this. Just who is more likely to suffer the effects of being propagandized? Conservatives have Fox News. And probably a small number read the Wall Street Journal's editorial pages. Democrats, however, have the same message drilled into them minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day...you get the point. By whom? Just about everybody - NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, The New York Times, The LA Times, The Washington Post, and on and on. Almost every TV show my wife and I watch have left-wing talking points written into the scripts. And, of course, the left-wing viewpoint is the only accepted and acceptable viewpoint in academia. So, maybe, for the tens of millions of Americans who have grown up only hearing left-wing talking points, maybe they are the ones in need of deprogramming and reeducation.
So this is Joe Biden's America. Harm your political opponents. Prevent them from working. Kick them out of Congress. Deprogram and reeducate them. I would humbly suggest, if he is sincere, that he needs to do an extensive amount of work to bring his followers in line with his goal of people being respectful of others. Biden responding to all of the above would be a good start.
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