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Ok I hate hearing all this talk of unity as much as anyone but I also firmly believe that Biden needs to say it. Same reason he has to say god bless America and god bless the troops. Here’s why:
Him explicitly saying this kind of shit means that republicans cannot attack him for being anti-America, anti-troops, anti-bipartisanship, whatever. (I mean, they can try, but it sounds...a lot more ridiculous)
All they’re left with is to just say the quiet part out loud. They’re going to have to say that Americans should NOT get $2000/$1400 checks, that vaccine distribution should NOT accelerate, that people do NOT deserve a living wage, that the police SHOUKD murder Black folks...
...and now we’re having a conversation about what we actually mean and not about whether or not Biden believes in bipartisanship or cares about the troops enough.
It’s the politician’s version of non-violence: give them NOTHING to actually be provoked by, so everyone sees how flagrantly violent they themselves are.
It sucks that we’ve come to this, that this is the political conversation now, but him doing this is a good thing. That’s why his job is not the same as an activist’s job or a reporter’s job or a community organizer’s job.
Now when y’all go home to see your folks this year (post-vaccine I hope), they’re more likely to be like “I dunno, Biden wants me to make $15/hour but my douchebag state rep doesn’t” and not “I dunno, this Biden guy seems alright but I don’t think he cares about veterans”
They’ll remember TONS of instances of Biden mentioning unity and bipartisanship and reaching across the aisle...as well as GOP lawmakers shrieking about communism because the Senate passed a living wage. Not a good look.
Like I don’t want to seem condescending cuz it’s easy to forget this after four years of what we just had, but...normal politicians don’t say what they LITERALLY think all the time. I don’t think Biden personally wants to feel unified with fascists.
I think he wants the GOP to know that he IS open to unity...on the agenda he’s going to pass. And if they don’t wanna unify on that, every single American is going to know who tried and who took their toys and went home.
Anyway, this isn’t like, A Defense of Biden, I feel good today but I’m not here to stan any elected official. I’m just saying, when he says that unity shit, I don’t think that’s in the speech for you. I think that’s in there for republicans, and it’s a threat, sort of.