The editors of the Washington Post are ecstatic about Joe Biden’s having been inaugurated president:
IF WORDS alone could unify a nation, the United States would have come together after then-President Donald Trump proclaimed, in his inaugural address four years ago, “The Bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity. . . . When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.†And so, after President Biden’s inaugural address, in which he repeated the word “unity†eight times and portrayed the country as able to accomplish great goals when it acts as one, the public is entitled to ask: Could this time be different?
We would answer skeptics with an emphatic yes. There are many reasons to hope Mr. Biden’s message, delivered with evident passion and no little eloquence, could have real effect.
They conclude:
Mr. Biden did not urge unity at the expense of principle, or in service of some bland policy agenda. His welcome reference to the right to dissent and disagree as “perhaps this nation’s greatest strength,†in no way denied that he, too, would fight for what he and those who voted for him believe in, including long-postponed action to stem climate change and uproot systemic racism. He called out white supremacy by name and pledged to “defeat†it. Whereas four years ago, Mr. Trump launched a bizarre lie exaggerating attendance at his ceremony, Mr. Biden demanded adherence to truth.
A final reason to hope: Actions speak louder than words. Four years ago, Mr. Trump repaired from the Capitol to the White House to sign an executive order curtailing Obamacare and, a week later, issued his notorious ban on Syrian refugees as well as travelers from certain Muslim-majority countries. Mr. Biden spent his first day undoing those orders and others, while directing his administration to extend pandemic-crisis protections for renters and student borrowers.
In both tone and substance, this president spent his first day harking back to the serious, responsible traditions of the office. It felt bracingly, refreshingly new.
That is mild praise indeed compared to some of the pieces from their and the New York Times’s columnists and the gauzy, dizzy pieces on broadcast news.
The editors are right to be happy and to give the incoming administration the benefit of the doubt.
However, none of that detracts from the reality that we need a press willing to, in the words of Mr. Dooley, “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. More on this in a subsequent post.
Easy to call for unity when you need give no ground.
CNN is now his press secretary.
Social media giants his propagandists.
You see that fenced in area over there? Conservatives may feel free to protest in that space. Not online, not within earshot.
We will have peace and unity as long as we adhere. What can you say to conservatives who can see no other reason for mass immigration than to form a permanent underclass voting block to cement Democrat power for a generation? That they are paranoid and delusional?
We will get another divisive regime. Americans are divided into two broad but ultimately incompatible groups, which hold mutually exclusive plans for the future of the country. One groups has to win, and the other has to lose. Period.
Note that last night in both Seattle and Portland the Progressives rioted against Biden. They want vengeance. Their word.
“The editors are right to be happy and to give the incoming administration the benefit of the doubt.”
Why should they be given the benefit of the doubt by the Post, or anyone? In the last debate he said he would not ban fracking. Well, one day in and the XL pipeline and fracking are on the chopping block. So it was a bald faced lie.
None other than the Post itself has now retracted the notion that Trump incited the Capitol breach, noting that the FBI determined it was plotted weeks in advance. The Post’s own story.
Yet Biden himself invoked Goebbels against Cruz and Hawley who noted same. heh. Normalcy. Decency. Respect for the office and all that tripe. Its a bald faced lie.
And on day one the WHO admits what any damned fool knew: Ct counts up at 35-40 produce huge proportions of false positives. How convenient. Soon expect the CDC to call for a reduction to 30, if not lower. Viola! Cases will fall. They have already put out stories to their media allies that there is no existing vaccine plan. (Answering a question posed here recently that any damned fool already knew: blame Trump.) And so soon we will have stories about how Biden’s mask mandate and aggressive vaccine program – started from scratch on January 20 no doubt – have saved the day.
Its America. I guess one can be a fool and go along with the gag. Count me out. I actually care about civil liberties, the small business crowd etc who were sacrificed in the pursuit of political power.
They have to. “Incitement” has a legal meaning and Trump’s comments don’t meet the definition. Since impeachment is a political action rather than a legal one, the Congress is not bound by the legal definition but WaPo is. If they accuse Trump of incitement, they become liable for libel despite his being a public figure. It is untrue and there is plenty of evidence of malice on their part.
I stick by my snap judgment at the time. Context matters and in the particular context Trump’s words were reckless. There should have been consequences. There now have been. Whether they were the right consequences is a matter of judgment. IMO his second impeachment was enough. That will be his historical legacy. My prediction at this point is that he will not be convicted by the Senate and there may even be a bipartisan majority who declines to convict on constitutional grounds. Everything else is battlespace preparation.
Was it the progressives or the radical left? I suspect many Americans have not heard about that and are unlikely to hear of it since to the best of my knowledge it hasn’t been covered by the national media. That tallies with my remark about the “battle lines” of the coming political struggle. It won’t just be Democrats against Republicans or progressives against conservatives. Anarchists, the radical left, the radical right, progressives, conservatives, institutionalists, “corruptocrats” of both parties, and more. If we’re lucky, it will blow over soon. If not the jinn has been released from the bottle and will be darned hard to push back in.
Because every incoming administration should be given the benefit of the doubt. “He hit me first” is a good retort if you’re a six year old.
“radical left”
Seeking both anarchy and revenge for historical atrocities, as they call them. History always looks different from a long vantage point than in the heat of battle, from the perspective of men’s times.
I’ll listen to you and next year lecture you where you were wrong.
Most of these people are going to find their lives and times were wasted like the the motley crew that stormed the capitol on the 6th.
The pre-Confucian Chinese philospher Guan Zhong said that the best investment for one year is to grow rice, the best investment for ten years is to plant trees, the best investment for a hundred years is to teach children. Those breaking into the Capitol or breaking the windows of the Oregon Democratic Party office don’t even have a one year plan. They have a five minute plan: break stuff.