What America Needs More Than 'Unity'
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 3 years ago • 3 commentsBy: Syreeta McFadden (The Atlantic)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Biden's pursuit of solidarity is well intentioned. But without concrete plans to hold bad actors accountable, his efforts will be useless.
Syreeta McFadden January 22, 2021 
Unity requires hard work and accountability, or it risks granting unearned forgiveness for harmful transgressions.
On Tuesday, the eve of the presidential inauguration, then-President-elect Joe Biden stood on the perimeter of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to honor the more than 400,000 Americans who have died from the coronavirus. In his brief remarks, he said, "To heal, we must remember; it's hard sometimes to remember, but that's how we heal. It's important to do that as a nation." Those words set the tone for the next day's peaceful transfer of power, which had been endangered just two weeks prior by a violent coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead.
The threats to the future prosperity of the United States are multiple: the pandemic, near economic collapse, insurgent white-supremacist extremism and antidemocratic forces, and myriad systemic racial inequalities. But watching the inauguration, where President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris recited an oath of service to the nation and fidelity to the Constitution, felt reparative. Rituals and traditions have an anchoring effect that counters moments of upheaval. Even as political theater, Wednesday's spectacle was a temporary but necessary balm for the wounds acquired from a chaotic and destructive Trump presidency. In his address, Biden emphasized the resilience of democratic order: "To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America, requires so much more than words," he said. "It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy: unity."
Much has been made of the word unity in the past year. After the Capitol attack on January 6, many Republicanlegislators called for unity, responding to the righteous ire from their fellow lawmakers who demanded investigations, arrests, and impeachment. The unity theme was also a main pillar of the Biden-Harris campaign, messaging intended to implore the nation to fight for a new future. Unity, for some, is pure sentiment. A quick, uncomplicated cure-all that is achieved merely by being summoned. For others, however, unity calls for hard work and accountability, or it risks granting unearned forgiveness for harmful transgressions, papering over deep injustices.
To his credit, Biden acknowledged the daunting challenge of achieving unity in a nation that hasn't been this divided since the Civil War: "I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days," he said on the Capitol steps. "I know that the forces that divide us are deep, and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart. The battle is perennial, and victory is never assured." The inauguration backdrop of an abnormally empty Washington, D.C., fortified by 25,000 National Guard troops, dramatized that battle, showing the enormous distance between the unity ideal and the country's stark reality.
Biden called white supremacy by its name and rejected euphemistic language that obscures meaning. Although these were welcome acknowledgments, questing for unity without executable ways to hold bad actors accountable will render the pursuit useless. Disunion was a cornerstone of the previous administration: family separation at the border; the banning of immigrants from Muslim-majority nations; the telegraphing of support for white supremacists; and the political weaponization of the coronavirus pandemic, to name a few examples. To achieve unity moving forward requires swift and decisive steps from lawmakers to correct these wrongs and stamp out their effects through clear policy initiatives.
When Frederick Douglass addressed the American Anti-Slavery Society in December 1863, he named concrete terms for what unity would necessitate—"making every slave free, and every free man a voter." Douglass imagined an America that integrated 4 million African Americans into the body politic, and emphasized that solidarity would mean nothing unless backed by action. These principles were embodied in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments introduced after the Civil War, but still needed forceful implementation and support from the federal government. President Andrew Johnson's lax approach to the enforcement of these reunification provisos led to the re-entrenchment of slavocracy's tenets and the continued disenfranchisement of Black Americans. It is a prime example of what happens when calls for unity are unaccompanied by action: a return to the status quo.
Biden's inaugural address acknowledged "the work ahead of us" and attempted to map a path forward, one that provides space for civil disagreement rather than "total war." But the president's unique challenge is that his vision for unity puts him at odds with his impulse for compromise with Republicans who have consistently evaded accountability and consequences for their actions. For now, the image of Wednesday's multiracial, bipartisan dais at least demonstrated for Americans this administration's commitment to the democratic experiment. Whether that performance of unity amounts to more than just that depends on Biden's ability to move past sentiment and into hard work.
Tags
Who is online
470 visitors
Meghan McCain went on a four minute rant on Tuesday’s episode of The View, lamenting the state of the Republican Party and railing against those who are still against impeaching former President Donald Trump.
Responding to Whoopi Goldberg’s question asking if it’s time for the longtime Republican to abandon her party, McCain stressed that she would “die fighting for” the GOP.
“I was born into this. Raised into it. It’s my whole entire life,” McCain exclaimed. “Truly at the bottom of my soul, I think as all of you know, I believe in the principles that I was raised on.”
McCain admitted that the QAnon aspect of her party has gone too far, calling it “deeply embarrassing,” and even lambasting Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) for “going on the horse of full MAGA” amid the impeachment trial.
“It’s very difficult for me to come on this show right now because I’ve always prided myself of having my finger on the tenor what’s going on in conservative circles,” she added. “Even when I didn’t agree with Trump, you know, I’m not a squish, I’m not someone who went full brainwash Lincoln Project. That everything that’s conservative is a bastion of evil and I must reject it and atone myself.”
The host then clarified that regardless of her loyalty to the party, some things are simply unjustifiable.
“I’m not that kind of Republican or conservative, but right now, I can’t defend this,” she said. “I believe Donald Trump should be impeached. I believe we have to take a stand and have a fine line about what’s acceptable for a president or not. He incited riot. People got violent. People died. Full stop.”
McCain later lamented that some members of the GOP are not invested in preserving the party, also noting that most of them are white and older.
“I think we have to start looking about what’s going to happen going forward in the future,” she added. “As much as Trump expanded the coalition, he didn’t do it enough to bring in full winds. We lost the Senate, we lost the Congress, we lost the presidency.”
“I also think that the people who think that whole coalition of Trump supporters are irredeemable and garbage and have no place in the party, I think they’re wrong as well,” she added. “I hope for healing and I hope for unity — whether it’s going to happen, I don’t know.”
"Unity" Is Another Word for "Clean Up the Fucking Mess Republicans Made"