Unity

Congressional Republicans, when they aren’t touting authoritarian proposals or spouting QAnon nonsense, complain that President Biden isn’t honoring his pledge to work together when he doesn’t listen to their deeply unserious ideas. 

 Signing on to Republican unreality is not unity. What is unity is the response of Americans who overwhelmingly support President Biden’s efforts to address the Covid crisis, and in particular the American Rescue Plan, which became law without a single Republican vote, despite its provisions being supported by anywhere from two-thirds to three-fourths of American surveyed. 

 A similar pattern is now developing in response to President Biden’s infrastructure package. Republican leadership has denounced it in its entirety, the day it was proposed. Yet according to public polling cited by the White House, “between 74% and 87% support among Americans for seven elements: new job training for coal miners, highway and bridge work, increasing affordable childcare, expanding broadband access, expanding family and medical leave, upgrading public transportation, and investing in clean energy.” 

 Reported in Axios, this was repeated on the Political Wire which added this quote from Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post: “The media, it seems, are caught in a Republican framing of policy that does not match reality. There is not a hue and cry over a mammoth infrastructure bill. To the contrary, it is super popular. And Republicans might want to stop harping on the tax increases: Those make the bill even more popular.” 

 And what is likely to be even more popular among non-rich voters are two little publicized pledge Biden made in his Pittsburgh speech: first, “I start with one rule: No one — let me say it again — no one making under $400,000 will see their federal taxes go up. Period.” And second: “When we make all these investments, we’re going to make sure, as the executive order I signed early on, that we buy American. That means investing in American-based companies and American workers. Not a contract will go out, that I control, that will not go to a company that is an American company with American products, all the way down the line, and American workers.” 

 Moreover, as political scientist Jonathan Bernstein notes, even though passing this package without Republican votes will require near total (in the House) or total (in the Senate) Democratic support, Biden has a very good chance of getting that unified support, if for no other reason than the popularity of its provisions and the behavior of voters who reward congressional candidates for the success of their party’s President.

 What is crystal clear is the need for this country to rebuild its decaying infrastructure, and to build the infrastructure of the information age. This benefits everybody—every corporation, every small business, every Republican, every American, period. We all depend on the same roads and bridges, the same Internet, the same power plants, and by the way, the same planet. 

 No corporation, no matter how many tax cuts it is provided, ever builds a public bridge. (In fact, they usually demand private bridges and roads be built for them, or they won’t come into your city or township.) It is ridiculous to be arguing about some socialist conspiracy when this is the work government—and only government—has always done.

 And in today’s world only government has the muscle to see it’s done fairly. No corporation is ever going to guarantee that only American materials will be used for anything. They don’t use American materials or manufacturing for shoe laces, why would they do it for roads?

 So why does the media insist on parroting Republican talking points? Mostly because they’re out of office and the media doesn’t have the imagination to come up with their own critical questions. It might require them to, for instance, actually listen to the Biden speeches they report on. 

 President Biden has said it clearly a number of times: his call for unity doesn’t mean unanimity, and it sure doesn’t mean giving into congressional Republicans. In his March 25 press conference he also said, very clearly: And here’s the deal: I think my Republican colleagues are going to have to determine whether or not we want to work together, or they decide that the way in which they want to proceed is to — is to just decide to divide the country, continue the politics of division. But I’m not going to do that; I’m just going to move forward and take these things as they come... All I know, I’ve been hired to solve problems — to solve problems, not create division." 

 “There is nothing we can’t do when we do it together.” President Biden has repeated this mantra time and again. When are we going to take it seriously? It doesn’t mean total agreement. It means once the commitment is made, we make it work. That’s how it worked in the 1930s, which was at least as contentious as now.