In a recent city hall held in Wisconsin, President Joe Biden saw a sharp change in direction for American political culture and told his audience, “For four years, everything on the news has been Trump. For the next four years, I want to make sure all news is the American people. “
In other words, we have endured a figure in the White House for the past four years who not only insisted on being the center of attention, but insisted that the nation’s energies and resources be focused around him To take care of. He abused his office in a selfish manner for personal gain and political gain. and those who worked for him, as well as the Republicans of Congress, walked around him on eggshells, always expecting to calm his fragile ego and ease his hurt feelings when he routinely caused childish tantrums.
Trump’s presidency was all about Trump at the expense of the American people, whose interests as a whole weren’t even on Trump’s radar.
He never did the typical mandatory spin after his 2016 election to declare that he would represent and work for all Americans, whether or not they voted for him.
And it was clear that he didn’t want to represent all Americans. Rather, the president’s power was his tool to punish his political enemies, defined as anyone who did not vote for him or unanimously agree with him.
Its tax policy was written to punish blue states. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the nation, Trump’s failure to respond was based on his belief that the virus would primarily affect blue states, as he scrapped testing plans as the virus passed through states like New Jersey and New York.
And Trump didn’t even really represent or even serve the interests of his most ardent supporters. Just ask the many Capitol rioters who Trump has turned his back on because of criminal charges and jail terms.
To put the focus on the American people in national political culture is a big change, an incredibly meaningful shift in our attention and a realignment of our energies.
I believe that Biden will use the nation’s resources, energies, and attention for the welfare and interests of the entire American people in emphasizing the importance of unity.
It is important that we are clear about what Biden means by unity.
I hear many Americans claim that they have no interest in uniting with white supremacists, right-wing extremists, or even gardening republicans, who often seem complicit with racist thinking and tend to favor policies that bring prosperity to them Lace distributed, and so on. Serve the richest few over the many who work to actually produce the nation’s wealth.
We hear Republicans claim that Biden’s “left agenda” is not united. When Biden lifted the ban on transgender people from serving in the military, Republican Senator John Cornyn tweeted, “Another” unified “move by the new administration?” – as if unity meant jeopardizing the human and civil rights of the people in order to recognize an ideology or even to bridge it. (71% of American adults supported Biden’s policies.)
For Biden, unity does not mean political or ideological unity; it does not mean reaching a political compromise or an agreement.
Unity for Biden is really about serving the American people – all, regardless of political issues – and modeling an ethos of caring for one another.
It doesn’t mean compromising with those who believe the COVID-19 pandemic is a hoax. It means protecting the health and well-being of all Americans, whether they believe the virus is real or not.
It doesn’t mean compromising with Americans, whether Republicans or others who don’t believe Americans are in need or who are suddenly worried about the nation’s deficit and debt. It means passing laws so that Americans can meet their basic needs in emergency situations so that small businesses can survive and the economy doesn’t collapse completely.
Unity is about caring for one another. And when the American people don’t practice it, Biden is trying to make sure the federal government does what we haven’t even seen remotely in the past four years.
While Biden spoke in Wisconsin about refocusing government energies on the people, Texans suffering from a breakdown in their energy systems due to a frost experienced a betrayal, a task by their Republican leaders.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz notoriously left the country for a luxury hotel in warmer areas because his house was too cold and millions of Texans had spent days without heat, electricity, or water.
It wasn’t his concern or concern. Little government forever! Let’s keep the government out of our lives!
Former Trump Secretary of Energy and Texas Governor Rick Perry was blatant on this dismissal of mutual welfare and the government itself, saying “Texans would be without power for more than three days to keep the federal government out of its business.”
Maybe he should do a poll of freezing Texans.
The Texas fiasco was the failure of the government to serve the rich rather than the people at large. It is the result of the rejection of the federal government and the services it offers to help the people.
El Paso, for example, didn’t suffer as much as the rest of Texas because they relied on a power grid that crossed state lines and connected to fourteen other states. It is subject to federal regulations. In addition, when the adverse weather hit El Paso, the city could rely on the other states for energy.
And El Paso learned its lesson after a 2011 storm turned off its grille. They dedicated the resources to wintering to serve the people. The rest of Texas, which purposely kept its nets within state lines to avoid regulation, didn’t. To avoid regulations, they didn’t invest in wintering and could also run out of energy so companies could demand more and benefit from people.
Texas outside of El Paso displayed an ethos in search of disunity and separation from the federal government that was the opposite of mutual caring. The people suffered a lot.
It is not difficult to see that working together as a nation, which does not mean agreeing politically but recognizing the needs of the people, can better serve us all.
In a small sentence, Biden made a big point. Let us serve people, not presidents or politics.
Tim Libretti is a professor of American literature and culture at a state university in Chicago. A longtime progressive voice, he has published numerous academic and journalistic articles on culture, class, race, gender, and politics, for which he has received awards from the Working Class Studies Association, the International Labor Communications Association, and the National Federation of Press Women and the Illinois Woman’s Press Association.
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