How’s That “Unity” Thing Coming Along?
By: Brian Diveley
Tags: Biden, America, 2020, Polarization, Unity

(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

It’s a dumpster fire, and to be fair: it was doomed from the start.

Leading up to the election, there was a great deal of hope within some channels of the Democratic Party, that the divisiveness of Trumpism would be finally replaced with a common cause of healing, as well as unifying leadership. Of course, after four years of hateful rhetoric and chaotic misgovernance all culminating in the most abrasive assault on democracy since the Civil War, unity only truly exists today in a fever dream.

Just take a look at the reactions of right-wing personalities to the calls for unity by Biden; see how quickly they’ve inflamed their hypocrisy. Those who were deafeningly silent in the wake of Trump bragging about groping women, who were cowering in fear when Trump attacked a judge for his Mexican heritage or mocked a disabled journalist, now suddenly are crying at the top of their lungs at the mere notion of being held accountable. All the excuses, all the misinformation they’ve peddled, and yet they have the gall to try the “mightier than thou” approach? They’ve laid out their hand of victim cards all across the table for everyone to see, hoping to scrape by until the next hand is dealt with no one noticing their desperate attempts to rewrite history. Those who denigrated those on the left with insults of “snowflake” and “libtard,” now complain when someone says a curse word in reference to them. Unabashed hypocrisy and an utter disregard for civility are at the highest levels they’ve been in a long time. As long as that remains true, the course to achieve unity sits at a far distance out of reach. Of course, we should have seen this coming.

After this presidency; after the deepening polarization of the two mainstream political parties, any semblance of unity would be next to impossible, save for divine intervention. This year, with all its calamity and tragedy, proved as much. Even under the specter of the heartbreaking loss of over 300,000 American mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, neighbors and friends: half the country neglected all safety precautions and called their deaths a Democratic hoax. After the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, we saw our fellow citizens applaud the brutalization of protesters, and attack the heart of the movement towards racial justice. Thanks to gullible ignorance and vanity, even in the face of what would normally be considered catastrophic and unacceptable death, our compounding crises still weren’t enough to bring the country together: so why would an election be any different?

Now I want to make one thing clear, those in government who are driving a message of coming together in trying to heal our country aren’t wrong for doing so. In fact, we should give some level of gratitude for taking on a sadly politically risky position in an effort to steer the American ship back on track. Rejecting the notion of reaching across the aisle is what set us further down our course of hyper-partisan polarization that we are engulfed in today, so making inroads at least on a governmental level is a good step towards progress. Somehow, someway, we need to reach a level of cooperation, instead of solely working to undermine one another. However, the pursuit of unity has many lines that should never be crossed.

In this election, it was a battle for the soul of our nation. Were we a nation that was defined by our hopes and our aspirations, rather than our fears and distrusts? Were we a society that welcomed those that needed our help with open arms, or did we seek to build barriers and blockades of hate? Were we a country that despite all of the shortcomings, all of the failures, all of the cold realities, could still attain the fulfillment of our dreams and creed, or were we doomed to repeat the stains of our history? In such a stark divide between what's right and wrong, coming together seems like a very difficult task. Why would marginalized communities like LGBTQ+, immigrants, refugees, or Muslims, want to link arms with those who sought the destruction and denigration of their rights? Why would two totally separate and incompatible visions of the United States want to push towards the dream of unity that some of us still cling to? Principles and values guide us in how we carry ourselves, and thankfully provide a roadblock against nonsensical compromise to the evils that linger in what divides us. The pursuit of unity should never result in the casting aside of our morality, nor should we accept actions of pure convenience (looking at you, Congressional Republicans).

That is the core problem we are confronted with today. We have a not-so-insignificant portion of our country in vocal revolt against our very democracy, who are openly discussing possibilities of military coups, secessions of states, and civil war itself. Violence and threats against the people who keep our elections safe and secure have become the norm, and conspiracy has replaced all semblance of fact and reason. There could be no starker contrast in our politics and our partisanship than what persists today, and that contrast presents a troubling path ahead.