Unity in Name Only

President Joe Biden’s message from the beginning of his campaign and through his inauguration centered around the immeasurable and drifting notion of unity. He sold a picture of America at war with itself that could only be mended by his rise to the presidency. By defeating Donald Trump and turning the page from his divisive brand of politics, America could come together–from a safe distance of course–and repair our deeply corrosive state of political discourse. He diagnosed the mood of the country accurately, fooling a majority into thinking replacement of the figure head at the top was the magic elixir that would allow us all to go back to ‘normal.’ And so it is a shame his administration has so far lacked the maturity in practice that his platitude sandwich of an inauguration address preached. 

In his inauguration address which the lap dog mainstream media effusively praised, Biden never once mentioned his predecessor, Donald Trump, by name. He steered clear of blame and honed on the proposition of reconciliation with the dissenting 74 million Americans. In theory, he recognized that the overwhelming majority of these voters neither participated in nor condoned the capitol violence of January 6th. It was a convincing start to the Biden presidency, and for a moment, appeared to be exactly what this wounded nation needed. 

But it did not take long before Biden’s unifying words proved nothing more than just that: words. His immediate actions embody a president bent on erasing the existence of his predecessor and injecting hard left policies with the stroke of a pen. His administration’s messaging, prioritization, and legislative political maneuvering reflect a diversion from the unity he espoused not so long ago.

On COVID-19, the Biden world has opted for the politically attractive game of lying about his predecessor in order to escape blame. Calling Trump’s vaccine rollout a “dismal failure” in a recent press conference, Biden promoted his 100 million doses in 100 days program. If Trump’s vaccine rollout–which currently averages 1.5 million doses per day–was such a failure, it’d be interesting to hear Biden’s characterization of his own plan. 

Why does Biden still label it a “dismal failure?” His lackeys have ventured into the friendly confines of the mainstream media to answer that question. They indignantly point fingers at Trump for completely lacking a “plan” for vaccination. CNN breathlessly reported chatter from Biden officials including Chief of Staff Ron Klain and senior adviser Cedric Richmond about the alleged dereliction of the Trump administration. This ridiculous suggestion is easily disproved by the existence of an HHS website dedicated to explaining the vaccine distribution process under Operation Warp Speed, along with a graphic that details the step-by-step rollout to states. The CDC even offers recommendations for vaccine prioritization. Of course, if CNN or any other outlet wanted to actually prove their worth, they could have discovered this. But the larger issue is the immaturity by which Biden and his administration discuss the vaccine rollout. It might come as a surprise to Americans who have been inundated with the endless stream of drivel from the propagandist media, but the federal bureaucracy is composed of career public health officials and military logistics personnel whose work is not contingent on who is in the White House. They did not disappear when Trump took office and they did not reappear when Biden succeeded him. It would do all Americans a great service to understand that continuity exists in government, no matter which septuagenarian figurehead sits atop it.

Biden himself proves this fact by proclaiming the end of “Operation Warp Speed.” Does this mean the professionals across the government who made this landmark success possible will be replaced too? Of course not. It is a messaging tactic of a cynical Biden team that has chosen point-scoring over continuity. So much for unity.

The Biden administration also discarded its former message with its early positioning on legislation. The President unveiled a $1.9 trillion non-starter COVID-19 relief package, dubbed the “American Rescue Plan.” This bloated wishlist comes just a month after Congress hashed out a $900 billion package, but unlike that package, Biden snuck in Democrat goodies devoid of pandemic-relation. 

His demands include a heavy handed $15 national minimum wage, even for tipped restaurant workers. The Congressional Budget Office projects between 1.3 million and 3.7 million job losses during an economic boom period if this policy were to be enacted, before accounting for the 600% wage jump tipped workers would receive. This is hardly an attempt at bipartisan unity while restaurants are experiencing the brunt of the economic pain of Democrat lockdowns.

He even adds $350 billion to bail out states, far exceeding the necessary level, and an escalation of the $150 billion recently provided by the December relief package. One could only imagine where this stream of money would go if in the hands of Governors Cuomo or Newsom. 

Brian Riedl, budgetary expert at the Manhattan Institute, finds that more than half of the $1.9 trillion spending bonanza bill is filled with “mostly extraneous proposals.” This effort is hardly a play for bipartisanship in Washington. Republicans and even some Democrats have lined up in opposition to the proposal citing the price tag and lack of targeting. 

Rather than introducing a bipartisan bill in a closely divided House and Senate, Biden has opened the door to using the budget reconciliation rule to jam through his wishlist without any Republican support. This would test the limits of Senate rules and only mirror the very partisanship of previous administrations that he claimed to deplore. 

Biden also throws out unity in favor of satisfying the leftist fringe of his party on the divisive issue of immigration. While most presidents make an issue of immigration during their second term, Biden has committed to actively weakening border security and introducing a compilation of unserious demands in a legislative proposal. 

His immediate actions have included a suspension of deportations for 100 days, an end to border wall construction, groundwork for a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants, and the goal of expanding temporary worker visas. With the mere stroke of a pen, Biden has done his best to throw open the southern border at the worst possible time, all in reflexive opposition to his predecessor. 

It is especially shameful to see him clearly ignore the lessons of the previous immigration overhaul effort of the Obama presidency. Bipartisan players who nearly hashed out a compromise bill trading enforcement for amnesty have now soured on the Biden proposal. Again, Biden has shown his true stripes: trying to satisfy the unsatisfiable left flank of his party and turning the cold shoulder to Republicans. 

In almost every early move of the Biden administration, unity has taken a back seat to unprecedented partisanship and power grabbing. Biden’s 36 executive orders dwarf the four signed by Trump in the same period. Accompanied by unrealistic legislative schemes and threats of shutting out Republicans entirely, the new president is shedding the unity of yesterday and embracing a new brand of destructive politics. 

For Biden, unity is a rhetorical tactic to garner support, and a mask to hide behind unmistakable partisanship. In heeding his disingenuous call for unity, conservatives are to sit down and accept a heavy dose of his party’s far left agenda. If that is the price to pay for Biden’s brand of unity, he will surely be greeted with something very different.