A real unity agenda for Joe Biden

National Post, 13 November 2020

Herewith are four policy areas where a Biden administration might forge some political unity with voters who opted for Trump.

The new president of the United States will be a “president for all the people,” who will now “come together” in unity after a “divisive” campaign. So said Joe Biden last week. So said Donald Trump four years ago. I suspect Thomas Jefferson said it back in 1800.

Last week I wrote about how “Sleepy Joe” — to use Trump’s distasteful deprecatory designation of his opponent — was likely attractive to many Americans who wish to turn down the volume on national politics and take a long winter nap.

Readers inclined to think that every newspaper column ought to be encyclopedic in its breadth and depth of analysis were kind enough to get in touch, professing outrage that I had become an enthusiast for partial-birth abortion, which the Democratic party — and Biden and Kamala Harris — favours with disturbing intensity.

Unity will not be so easy to achieve, given the readiness of so many to impute the worst possible motives to others, and to construe all events in the worst possible way.

Last week I wrote about the shift that Biden will bring in style and temperament, but it is more critical that he pursue an agenda of unity. Rhetorical calls for unity while pursuing a radical agenda are really invitations for the other side to roll over and abandon their positions. That will not go well.

Herewith, then, are four policy areas where a Biden administration might forge some political unity with voters who opted for Trump. Much of it amounts to not poking a finger in the eye of those culturally conservative Americans about whom Biden rhapsodizes so often when he speaks of his roots in Scranton, Pa.

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