Healing the National Divides – First Thoughts
We are a sharply divided nation at the moment. There is no particularly good reason we need to stay that way. So let’s figure out what needs to be/can be done about it.
What’s causing all the hatred and division? We can all blame Donald Trump and rightly so, but he just stepped into existing national divisions and set about making them worse and worse to his own political advantage. There is a history of virulent white racism towards Native Americans, blacks, browns and Asians that goes back centuries and continues in too many communities to this day. There is a rapidly changing economy, and working class Americans in certain sectors of economy are losing their jobs and livelihoods. There are widening economic inequalities and gross disparities in wealth. There is an outdated, tattered and barely functional social safety net to feed, house and provide needed medical care. People have lost their jobs, their businesses, their livelihoods and in too many cases their loved ones from the pandemic; they are panicked and their politically divided governments have not done a good job responding. There is a dysfunctional, bitterly divided federal government where Congress can but rarely summon the necessary consensus to move forward. There are mechanisms to rapidly spread lies and untruths without consequences or correction. And as we have just seen, these open big opportunities for dangerous demagogues offering scapegoats like Donald Trump and his many corrupt enablers inside and outside government have done.
There is much that the new Congress and the incoming Biden Administration can do. There have to be consequences, changes and course corrections undertaken with judgment and wisdom. The Senate is split 50/50 with Vice President Harris as a tiebreaker. There is still a filibuster rule requiring 60 votes. Major legislation can be passed, but only with all 50 Democrats and 20% of the Republican caucus. The courts are packed with Trump/McConnell appointees. State legislatures with gerrymandered majorities are not ready to change their chosen courses. And of course there are 74 million Americans who voted for Trump, many of whom believe Trump’s lies that the election was stolen, and a surprising number believe yesterday’s Capitol take-over was warranted to keep their favorite man as President. Finally, the President is highly likely to pardon himself and many of his colleagues and supporters on his way out of town; bans on self-pardons and conduct for which one has been impeached are the only clear limits on the Presidential pardon powers. Yet, we are also at a potential moment for broad, essential and far reaching change; the American people are appalled and looking for leadership that responds to their immediate crises and creates the building blocks for a better America, and changes, if done well, can cascade.
One first step is to get the vaccines produced more quickly, and distributed more rapidly and widely. Only if the nation’s health can recover, can the nation’s economy quickly rebound. The second is to get targeted help to those suffering from the Covid recession; that means food, shelter, health care and mental health services as needed. The third is to get teachers vaccinated and rapidly back in classrooms teaching their kids who have lost so much time for essential learning. The fourth is to provide targeted support to the state and local governments on the frontlines of responding to the pandemic. The fifth is to provide targeted help to those small businesses, like restaurants, that have been ruined by the pandemic closures. These should all have bi-partisan support. There has to be accountability built in for rapid and effective results.
Once we respond effectively to the immediacy of the challenges facing everyday Americans, then we can summon a more united citizenry to the task of moving the nation forward.
Prepared by Lucien Wulsin
Dated: 1/8/21