Dare to dream of unity, Grampa Joe Biden and pals
“To dream the impossible dream, To fight the unbeatable foe, To bear with unbearable sorrow, To run where the brave dare not go…” -- Man of La Mancha, 1972.
I’m not talking about the ultimate results of today’s Georgia U.S. Senate runoff elections and I’m not referring to the prospects of a couple hundred (more or less) Republican congressman and senators to successfully argue there was sufficient voter fraud in several states (that allegedly went for Joe Biden in November’s election) to overturn the result on Wednesday, either.
The bold and forthright GOPers would somehow need to convince majorities in the House and Senate to go along with the proposition, neither of which is likely or probable.
Impossible? Definitely not. After all, Don Quixote swore that charging windmills would work for his love life. Still… the Jets did triumph over the un-beatable Colts in the ’69 Super Bowl, right? And the American hockey team defeated the world-best Soviet squad in 1980. Then Kirk Gibson hit the winning home run (in Game One of the World Series in 1988) despite having a torn right hamstring and a wrecked left knee -- he could barely stand up much less get any leverage on the swing. And there’s this year’s Cleveland Browns making the NFL playoffs. So yes, miracles do happen!
Similarly, if Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win today, what’s the chance Trump voters will work with liberal Democrats on Joe Biden’s agenda -- again, assuming conservatives can’t stop him from being inaugurated at this point. That “cooperation” just ain’t happening… an impossible dream. Ultimate optimist (dreamer?) Lanny J. Davis wrote the other day at The Hill, “Biden can govern by reminding us of the four issues he campaigned on that can bridge the gap — not by ignoring the differences among people with deep feelings but by reminding them that they can act in their self-interest, in common with those with different political views.
“First, the pandemic: Biden must immediately nullify the false Trumpian choice of denying science and ignoring the COVID-19 pandemic vs. opening up the economy and putting people back to work... Second, Biden can prove that the fight to address climate change and save our planet is also about creating tens of millions of new jobs in energy renewal industries — in solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric generation and other technologies... Third, Biden should propose a national ‘Marshall Plan’ for infrastructure (Biden’s own version of FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) on the environment and Works Progress Administration (WPA) on public works, LBJ’s VISTA and Job Corps programs, and Bill Clinton’s AmeriCorps)... Finally, and perhaps most important, Biden needs to stand for guaranteed, affordable national health care.
“It doesn’t have to be Trump’s politics of division. It doesn’t have to be Washington’s too-common partisan gridlock. There is a third choice: Joe Biden’s way...”
Perhaps Davis’s time and column space would be better spent actually showing Joe Biden his way, because it’s pretty obvious that the Democrat presidential candidate turned president-elect couldn’t navigate through a supermarket produce section much less the contentious and intricately complicated world of American politics. Through 48 years of DC swamp history, “Joe Biden’s way” is summarized as thus: Lie, plagiarize, cheat, steal, insult, demagogue, grit your teeth a lot, raise your voice, sniff any woman’s scalp within smelling distance, massage as many shoulders as you can get your grimy hands on, skinny dip in as many pools as you come across, repel as many kids as a creep might do, and, not to be outdone, sexually harass a staffer when no one’s watching.
It’s hardly unexpected that longtime Democrat Davis would express his impossible-dream -- that Joe Biden’s agenda is in the best interest of Trump’s supporters -- but we just spent the better part of five-plus years litigating the subject in the court of public opinion. Quite simply stated, Donald Trump rose to power precisely because he represented an alternative to the “Joe Biden way”, and now that the president has pretty clearly been cheated out of a second term by Biden’s establishment mail-in balloting allies, there ain’t no going back.
If Trump’s was indeed the “politics of division” as Davis insisted above, it’s only because the New Yorker steadfastly refused to go along to get along. Trump speaks in plain, understandable language. His #NeverTrump enemies argued he’s uncouth and unpresidential and that he couldn’t possibly get anything done because he’s so personally off-putting that political harmony wasn’t achievable. But getting everyone in America into a cozy room to croon a rousing rendition of “Kumbaya” was never Trump’s goal. He’s a realist; he knew such single mindedness couldn’t happen and never pretended it could.
In political downtimes, candidates from both parties correctly reason that they can’t do anything if he or she doesn’t win the election. Theoretically speaking, you could be the most principled man or woman in history and not accomplish much of consequence if the scoundrel opposite you has all the power. Politics isn’t about getting along as much as it’s earning fifty-percent-plus-one in a two-person contest.
We’ll find out tonight when the Georgia ballots are counted. Polls and “experts” claim both races will be close. If recent surveys are correct and both Democrats end up winning and head to Washington, it will be the realization of their “impossible dream.” And it will bring the arrival of many of our worst nightmares.
If presidential success was a congeniality contest, Biden might beat Trump
Every liberal op-ed touting Joe Biden’s unique ability to “bring people together” shares one basic premise in common: that Biden is unanimously regarded as a great guy, and since he’s generally liked by those who’ve rubbed elbows with him -- as Davis claims he’s known Grampa Joe since the latter entered the senate in 1973 -- the back slappin’ pol from Scranton, PA will leap tall buildings in a single bound, stall the rise of the oceans (wait, didn’t Obama already do that?) and move policies that no other man or woman could possibly do.
Certainly not Donald Trump, who practices the “politics of division,” remember?
To be fair, conservatives should concede a point to Davis and his kind. If moving a policy agenda was akin to a congeniality competition in a beauty pageant, Joe Biden would win hands down. In today’s Washington swamp there’s no substitute for being well-liked, is there? If you’re a man like Donald Trump, the ruling elites whisper behind your back and call you names to your face. But Trump ignored them and forged on, doing what he considered best for the people who matter -- the constitution-revering American public.
Joe Biden won’t enjoy success combatting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP, or Wuhan, if you prefer) virus merely by accepting science vs. keeping the economy closed or restrained as Davis insists he will. As “experts” like Dr. Anthony Fauci amply demonstrated, there is no scientific consensus on what to do about the pandemic. Lockdowns don’t work at all -- if you deny it, look at what’s happened in California recently.
Ordering people to shut their businesses and wear a mask isn’t bearing fruit in the Golden State fiefdom of Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom. So-called “science” hasn’t saved anyone’s life or livelihood, unless you’re talking about the Trump administration’s push to develop vaccines (under Operation Warp Speed) that offer the only real hope of eventually containing the disease. There’s a good argument that nothing should’ve been locked down at all, as here we are ten months into the pandemic and it’s still with us. Controlling human behavior isn’t feasible (the impossible dream?). It only leads to resentment.
President Trump didn’t “ignore” the COVID threat, either. He simply let people live their constitutional freedoms and basic rights as well as supported trillion dollar “relief” packages that helped some folks weather the worst of the government’s disastrous edicts. Opening the economy with “science” isn’t working very well. Trump advocated for a reasonable middle ground.
Being a “nice guy” won’t alter the balance for Grampa Joe, something he’s bound to discover in a couple weeks’ time.
Second, Davis asserts that “climate change” is something most people care about and will consider changing or sacrificing their jobs to stop drilling for fossil fuels -- purportedly to “save the planet.” This will bring unity to the country? How? Every liberty lover understands the duty to preserve the environment. Energy companies aren’t destroying the earth; they’re already heavily regulated for efficiency and safety, as they should be.
The “green jobs” Davis previews aren’t going to happen, at least anytime soon. Renewable sources are far too expensive in comparison to the plentiful and relatively clean current sources. The very wealthy can afford solar panels on their homes and electric cars in their garages but try telling someone on the margin that they must pay to have their furnace replaced or be fined.
It's the impossible dream. Joe Biden isn’t the answer.
Davis’s third issue, infrastructure, was already a major part of Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda. Democrats used the attractive prospect of infrastructure improvements as a political crutch to try and gain leverage on other issues. They wanted to turn roads and bridges and airports into politically correct platforms for social changes. In essence, liberals couldn’t care less about infrastructure, they want more government domination. It’s why they roundly rejected Trump’s proposals for public/private partnerships on big projects. And now they want to steal Trump’s and Senator Tim Scott’s advocacy for enterprise zones to revitalize inner cities.
The last thing America should have is a “Marshall Plan” on infrastructure. We don’t need to rebuild the country like the bombed-out remnants of eastern Europe in the 1940’s. Instead, how about a common-sense plan harnessing the skill and know-how of private industry to supply the brainpower and at least a portion of the costs? More federal intervention is the impossible dream.
And lastly, Trump voters will never go for nationalized healthcare no matter how charmingly it’s packaged by Grampa Joe. The words “affordable” and “national healthcare” don’t belong in the same sentence. Again, what America needs -- and Trump fought for -- was more local control for healthcare decision-making and application as well as realistic pricing. The free market is the answer, not another Obamacare monstrosity that we can’t pay for and is unattainable to implement.
Trump’s voters won’t magically come to Biden’s side because he’s a nice guy. In fact, it’s a myth that Grampa Joe is so affable. Every one of his addresses contains some overt dig at Trump, his supporters or Republicans and he reflexively assaults the beliefs of others if they don’t agree with him.
Davis’s dream sequence further highlights yet another problem Democrats will encounter starting in a couple weeks if dumbo-Joe is indeed inaugurated: They won’t have Trump to pin on the wall as the symbol of division and evil. When Trump is no longer front and center to blame for everything, governing become that much more difficult.
No groundswell of enthusiasm to ditch liberty principle for Grampa Joe harmony
Where were all the liberal writers like Lanny Davis when President Trump won the 2016 election on a populist platform and called for Americans to rally ‘round the ideas and concepts that made ours the most prosperous nation in the history of the world? You could hear crickets chirp from the liberals’ direction… or was it complaints from Nancy Pelosi and “Chucky” Schumer?
Now Democrats plead with conservatives to unite with Joe Biden to achieve their policy aims.
Not surprisingly, people are saying, um, no thanks. Kurt Schlichter concluded his most recent piece at Townhall, “Their only hope for long-term power is to make you shrug and accept it. You have to unify, but under them, and to do so by accepting whatever they hand you. The pandemic is a lucky break for them – yeah, their Peking pals killed a third of a million of us but what an opportunity it has presented to crush the kulaks, separate us from our churches, and make us beg for a couple grand in spending money. Don’t let them win. Don’t concede. Fight all the time. Use the Constitutional processes against them until such time as there are no more processes. And when that happens, adapt and overcome.
“Unity is defeat. Unity is surrender. And unity is off the table.”
Why beat around the bush? Schlichter is right. When Trump was inaugurated four years ago, he said the perfunctory things that all presidents say, namely that he and his administration would make policies and decisions for all the people, not just the ones who voted for him. It’s a symbolic peacemaking gesture to the other side that also has practical considerations. Grampa Joe will mumble something similar on the 20th. Yes, indeed, one signature does impact most if not all Americans.
But it doesn’t mean Trump changed his policy agenda to “incorporate” the views of those who were yelling and spitting and burning and longing to tear down statues. That isn’t “unity,” it’s capitulation. How’re people now being accused of treason and sedition by the elites likely to take it when many of the accusers are then demanding that they “unify” and get in line behind them?
It doesn’t take a genius to recognize there isn’t much middle ground between the opposing ideological viewpoints in 2021. Today’s U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia will determine the partisan balance in the upper chamber -- and in Congress. Should Democrats gain control, there will be resistance. The last four years might seem like a cakewalk by comparison.
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