By Hank Beckman -
Joe Biden’s first public comment upon being prematurely declared the winner of the presidential election was to call for unity.
“To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemies,” he said after media declared him the next occupant of the White House.
He sounded sincere when he said “let’s give each other a chance,” and that it was “time to put away the harsh rhetoric.”
Nice words.
Who doesn’t want the country to come together for the common good, especially after the last four years? The nation hasn’t been this divided since the late 60s/early 70s, when race riots and the turmoil over the Vietnam War pitted races, classes and even family members against one another.
But you have to wonder if the person who wrote these remarks gave any thought to exactly which audience needs to hear this soothing rhetoric. If he or she had even a shred of integrity, they’d admit that if Biden really is interested in unity, he’s got a lot of work to do with his own party and supporters.
Biden might want to start with a little chat with Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who made it clear that she wasn’t interested in any healing of our country’s divisions.
“We are not interested in unity that asks people to sacrifice their freedom and rights any longer,” she told Politico.
She didn’t bother to elaborate on exactly which rights and freedoms were being sacrificed, wondering why the headline writer at Politico didn’t affix the phrase, “without evidence” or “unproven” to the charge, the way journalists routinely do when President Trump makes a statement with which they disagree.
Since she’s an open socialist who once urged her colleagues to “impeach the motherf****er,” one might assume that she’s an outlier in her party. After all, any political movement can have extremists; a cretin like David Duke once ran for office as a Republican.
But a quick review of the rhetoric following Biden being declared the winner reveals far too many leftists essentially treating what they interpret as surrender with machine gun fire.
Tlaib’s partner in the “Squad” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is interested in keeping track of those who ever supported President Trump.
“Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future,” she tweeted. “I foresee decent probability of many deleted tweets, writings, photos in the future.”
In an answering tweet, former Obama staffer Michael Simon tweeted, “Yes, we are. Every administration staffer, campaign staffer, bundler, lawyer who represented them—everyone.”
Call me paranoid, but that doesn’t sound like Biden’s supporters are interested in a Kumbaya moment any time soon. Simon apparently thought better of his rash display of honesty, because he deleted the tweet; too late, the Internet is forever.
Then there is the Trump Accountability Project, an attempt to ensure that members of the Trump administration, whose web site said it wants to make sure that Trump supporters “are not rewarded with book deals, TV contracts, or six-figure contracts in the private sector based on that experience.”
Emily Abrams, a former staffer on Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, took credit for launching the vendetta.
“We’re launching the Trump Accountability to make sure anyone who took a paycheck to help Trump undermine America is held responsible for what they did,” she tweeted.
Hari Sevugan, another Buttigieg staffer, tweeted his approval of the sentiment, also claiming credit for its founding.
“Everyone considering them should know there are consequences for anyone who helped Trump attack American values.”
Robert Reich, former labor secretary in the Clinton administration, is also eager for revenge. The poor little guy seems confused about the country he’s been living in, mistaking America in the last four years as being the equivalent of Apartheid South Africa.
He’s calling for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, tweeting, “when this nightmare is over, we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It would erase Trump’s lies, comfort those who have been harmed by his hatefulness, and name every official, politician, executive and media mogul whose greed and cowardice enabled this catastrophe.”
No word yet on whether it will be executions or just prison for the guilty.
Jennifer Rubin, the quisling working at The Washington Post, also wants to keep track of Trump supporters for future reference.
In a television interview she said that it was not enough for Trump to lose, “his enablers have to lose” and the Republican Party has to be burned down, “because if there are survivors, they will do it again.”
She doubled down later, tweeting that anyone “making baseless accusations of fraud should never serve in office, join a corporate board, find a faculty position or be accepted into “polite” society. We have a list.”
Got that? She’s got a list, presumably one she’s been composing ever since Trump was elected, causing her to lose what was left of her sanity.
The Trump Accountability Project later informed us that with Biden’s call for unity, it would no longer be active. They’re Democrats, so I’m guessing the expiration date on that promise will be similar in length to the one that promised we could keep our health insurance.
Of course, Biden himself might have a problem closing the deal on the unity message.
Writing teachers and rhetoricians like to speak of three distinct ways of persuasion being logos, pathos and ethos.
Logos refers to persuasion through using logic and merely stating facts; pathos involves swaying an audience’s emotions; ethos seeks to persuade by pointing to the rhetor’s established authority; his or her trustful-ness.
That trustful-ness thing might just be a problem for Biden.
It’s hard to take seriously any call for unity when it comes from a person who remained silent in the face of the violence committed against Trump supporters recently; or waited until the riots this year started affecting Democrats' poll numbers before condemning them; or told one factory worker he was “full of sh**” in a disagreement over gun control; or called one female who challenged his electability a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier.” (Seriously, Democrats…this is your best?)
Even excusing all that, telling a largely black audience that Republicans “want to put y’all back in chains,” as Biden did during the 2012 campaign leaves him unsuitable for even having a drink with, let alone lecturing the rest of us about common decency.
Conservatives and Republicans need to be ready for all sorts of vindictiveness from the Democrats and state-sanctified media. We need to be ready to fight back when we’re smeared, not be scared off by baseless charges of racism, nuisance lawsuits, or any other tactic the Left uses…legal or illegal. Above all, we need to identify and keep track of our enemies, and make them pay a political price for their actions.
I’ve got my own list, Ms. Rubin.
