The battle for what America values isn’t about America and it certainly isn’t about we the people. Even Biden voters probably understand this. The war over what we believe is fought for the benefit of two political parties. We vote for one or the other and the victor decides what’s important for the party first and the American people last. Self-serving nods to our democratic republic aside, once the votes are cast we are out of the picture and have no recourse until the next election.
If you didn’t vote for the winning party your role is no role. That’s true this year more than ever for Trump voters facing a Biden administration in just a few days. Not only did we lose the election, victorious Democrats have turned us into America’s pariahs. Even criminals are viewed with a less jaundiced eye than Trump supporters. Decarceration Democrats are eager to let them out of jail and would just as eagerly lock us up if they had the chance.
Who is Biden’s “we the people,” anyway?
What does this mean to Joe Biden? Not what you think.*
President-elect Biden announced on November 2, 2020 that his win was A victory for “We the People.”1 He’s right, in a sense, if “we” means his party and the bureaucrats he will appoint to control us. If he’s talking about the American people he’s not telling the truth. The American people no longer exist in Democratic Party think.
To add insult the theme of Biden’s inauguration is America United. It sounds like a cynical joke unless we understand that those of us who didn’t vote for him and especially anyone who supported Donald Trump are not included in “America.” This makes sense for Democrats but it’s a very bad thing for our country.
Democrats understand identities but America doesn’t matter
American greatness is about more than our separate identities. That’s why the Constitution’s preamble is “we the people” and not “we the special interests.” For all his faults Trump understood this. People turned out in droves and took risks during a pandemic to hear him speak because they finally had a president who seemed to care about the people not because we can be divided up for political marketing purposes, but because we are Americans.
Democrats don’t have much use for this kind of broad-based politics. The idea of one America united by a common identity is of no use to their party. It’s the exact opposite of their preference to stereotype us depending on our skin color, income, or the community we live in. Their identity politics governs who is valued and who is best discarded or, in the case of Trump supporters, pursued and hated.
Remember Biden’s remark that “you ain’t black” if you don’t know whether you are voting for Trump or Biden? That kind of thinking controls his party’s every move. Black and brown people are more valuable than white people. Poor people are useful for sympathy but their value lies in staying poor. Wealthy people are important when the party needs an enemy to tax. Workers who belong to unions are more important than workers who don’t work for unions. Immigrants in America illegally are more important than immigrants who respect our laws.
Last year we discovered that working people are less valuable than unemployed people. That’s why a 50-year low, 3.5% unemployment rate2 and low taxes was bad news for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She was unhappy when the Trump economy delivered:
The October jobs report offers further evidence that the Republicans’ disastrous special interest agenda is hollowing out the middle class while enriching the wealthy and well-connected. Clearly, the GOP Tax Scam has left our country with nothing but broken promises and an underperforming economy.3
A bad April 2020 employment report was better news because millions of Americans were out of work.4 The only downside for Pelosi in that month’s numbers was that they weren’t bad enough:
Our nation is in the midst of an historic health and economic crisis, and even this record-shattering April jobs report understates the suffering in our nation today.5
To that end she promised:
Democrats will always put families and workers first.6
She didn’t tell the truth and proved it with eight months of stalling on COVID relief. Why? Because Democrats don’t care about Americans and America doesn’t matter. Their party matters and what’s good for the party is good for the nation. That means stuffing as much special interest pork in their spending bill as possible and placing struggling Americans dead last.
Democrats can’t make America better because they don’t understand America
If you’re confused about what America means to Joe Biden these remarks made last week in Delaware about his Cabinet nominees should help to clarify his position:
This is a Cabinet that looks like America.
That taps into the full range of talents we have in our nation.
And a historic Cabinet.
This will be the first Cabinet ever that is evenly composed of women and men.
It will be the first Cabinet ever with a majority of people of color.
It has more than a dozen history-making appointments, including the first woman Treasury Secretary, the first African American Defense Secretary, the first openly gay Cabinet member, the first Native American Cabinet secretary.7
This isn’t a list of accomplishments. It’s a list of special interest categories and a testament to identity politics. Are any of these people competent? It doesn’t matter. That’s not the point.
This is bad news for Americans because it means we are no longer the American people. We are a collection of identities and special interests to be exploited.
Biden also discussed his priorities for additional COVID assistance:
Our priority will be on Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American-owned small businesses, and women-owned businesses, finally having equal access to the resources needed to reopen and rebuild.8
Biden won’t create his America United by breaking us into pander-ready identities. Instead, he will destroy the idea of a nation united by a common vision we all hold because the most important thing about us is not that we are different groups with different political expectations. The most important thing is that we are all Americans.
Democrats can’t unite us because “the people” have no value
With 2020 over Biden and Harris face an insurmountable problem. Democrats don’t like the concept of America or the American people and they don’t try to hide it. Many of us do and we’re not happy about breaking the nation apart.
Biden made his feelings about America clear when he blamed us for tragedies that befall foreign nationals on their way to becoming illegal immigrants:
It is a moral failing and a national shame when a father and his baby daughter drown seeking our shores.9
Despite his party’s refusal to help desperate citizens while members crafted the perfect year-end special interest spending package, he insisted:
That’s the fundamental difference between Trump and Biden — Trump is focused on further enriching billionaires like himself, while Biden wakes up every day asking how he can help the middle class.10
Asking won’t get the job done, but it doesn’t matter because for Democrats the Middle Class does not exist except as a collection of identities.
Campaigning in Georgia he turned this assistance into a vote-getting bribe:
If you send Jon and the Reverend to Washington, those $2,000 checks are going out the door, restoring hope and decency and honor to so many people struggling right now.11
This is what our new president thinks of Americans. A $2,000 handout is what it takes to make us decent.
That’s an astounding admission that reflects his party’s belief that not only are we dependent on nickels and dimes from Capitol Hill, we care so little about our nation that our votes are for sale. That’s an unforgivable criticism of Americans and America. We are far, far better than that.
Trump understood this. Biden and his party never will. Like Pelosi they relish the thought of desperation because desperate people are an opportunity to split off and exploit with identity politics.
Biden’s unions don’t make American workers great. We are great without them.
Denigrating Americans continued with last week’s remarks from Secretary of Labor nominee Marty Walsh:
Working people have been struggling for a long time — under the erosion of their rights, and under deep inequalities of race, gender, and class.
For the last four years, they’ve been under assault — from attacks on their rights; their livelihoods; and the unions that built the middle class.12
“Unions that built the middle class” devalues our best in the world workers who can’t possibly compete with big labor for the respect of Democrats even after we are divided up by our race, gender, sexual preference, and class. Even identity politics has its limits and this big money donor is one of them.
Instead of uniting America, should we lock up Trump supporters or banish them?
At least there is one broad category of American that’s defined by only one characteristic. If you have read this far without leaving in disgust you are probably one of these people.
You can look, but you won’t find a lot of negative press about Biden supporters. Being a Biden supporter means you are a good American. You are Black, Brown, gay, Latino, Asian, transgender, Native American, or whatever identity of the day rose to the top of the heap. You matter. You support Democratic Party values because they make your defining identity valuable.
Trump supporters are treasonous domestic terrorists who resort to insurrection when we don’t get what we want:
Today’s actions are nothing short of a murderous insurrection and armed coup incited by Donald Trump and executed by his diehard supporters. These actions are an attack on the U.S. Constitution, our democratic institutions, and the United States, as a country. This sort of behavior is repugnant to our democracy, pure and simple.13
How can a minority of Trump voters be so dangerous when a minority of insurrectionists from the left are not even acknowledged? Democrats repeatedly refer to “Trump supporters” as if we are all responsible for last week’s riot at the Capitol. Not only did they take the opposite stance last year when they generalized their own violent insurrectionists as peaceful protesters, they blamed Trump for their own radical left insurrection.
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib summed up her party’s sentiments about Americans who back the president:
Trumpism is a disease …14
This is why Democrats can’t unite America.
If you need more reasons, here are four more:
Democrats can’t unite America because of their intolerance for people who disagree.
Democrats can’t unite America because they only see special interest groups they can use to push identity politics.
Democrats can’t unite America because they dislike an overwhelming number of Americans and aren’t shy about showing it.
Democrats can’t unite America because the very idea of a unified nation is anathema to the principles that govern their every word and act.
The fact is that America doesn’t matter to Democrats. It doesn’t matter to Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, either. The left can’t unify our nation because it detests an overwhelming number of our citizens whose defining characteristic is not voting for Democrats.
Identity politics will govern us for the next four years. Divided we are easy prey for a party that simply doesn’t care about America as one nation of we the people.
UPDATE January 16, 2021: where’s my $2,000 check you promised, Joe?
Gotcha. When Joe Biden promised “those $2,000 checks are going out the door” he didn’t really mean you would get a $2,000 check. Oh no. You already got what he’s now calling a down payment. Just ignore what your new president promised. Do the math.
It’s possible feckless Joe meant what he said before other priorities intervened. Democrats won Georgia, so it’s time to reinvent that promise. Everyone should know how helping we the people works in practice. Pelosi and Mitch McConnell can help eliminate any confusion.
Will we the people who are hurting benefit from the $1.9 trillion package that’s being shopped around by the new administration? Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) doesn’t think so:
Biden wants to spend more than $350 billion to bailout wasteful states. I’ve been clear – asking taxpayers to bailout failed politicians in liberal states like New York and Illinois and save them from their own bad decisions isn’t fair to fiscally responsible states like Florida.14
I live in Illinois. I have to agree. Any handout to my state would be better off used to roll joints with the legal weed that was my state legislatures’ last brilliant idea to keep the Land of Lincoln afloat.
After many months of threatening us with the consequences of keeping Donald Trump in office Biden needs a big win coming out of the box. Misrepresenting to the people what the size of their next relief checks would be if they voted correctly won’t get the job done.
Too late now, folks. America made its decision and now we’re stuck with him. Looks Biden’s first handout will be about $600 light.
Sources
1“My fellow Americans.” JoeBiden.com https://joebiden.com/presidency-for-all-americans/, retrieved January 11, 2021.
2“U.S. Unemployment Rate Falls to 50-Year Low.” Whitehouse.gov. October 4, 2019. https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/u-s-unemployment-rate-falls-50-year-low/, retrieved January 10, 2021.
3“Pelosi Statement on October Jobs Report.” Nancy Pelosi. November 1, 2019. https://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/pelosi-statement-on-october-jobs-report-9, retrieved January 10, 2021.
4“Pelosi Statement on the April Jobs Report.” Speaker.gov. May 8, 2020. https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/5820, retrieved January 10, 2021.
5Ibid.
6Ibid.
7“Remarks Announcing Labor, Commerce, and SBA Nominations as Prepared for Delivery by President-elect Joe Biden in Wilmington, Delaware.” BuildBackBetter.gov. https://buildbackbetter.gov/speeches/remarks-announcing-labor-commerce-and-sba-nominations-as-prepared-for-delivery-by-president-elect-joe-biden-in-wilmington-delaware/, retrieved January 8, 2021.
8Ibid.
9“The Biden Plan for Securing Our Values as a Nation of Immigrants.” Joebiden.com https://joebiden.com/immigration/, retrieved January 10, 2021.
10“Explore all of Joe Biden’s plans.” JoeBiden.com. https://joebiden.com/joes-vision/, retrieved January 11, 2021.
11“Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by President-elect Joe Biden at Georgia Senate Drive-In Rally in Atlanta, Georgia.” BuildBackBetter.gov. January 4, 2021. https://buildbackbetter.gov/uncategorized/remarks-as-prepared-for-delivery-by-president-elect-joe-biden-at-georgia-senate-drive-in-rally-in-atlanta-georgia%f0%9f%a5%b2/, retrieved January 10, 2021.
12“Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Economy and Jobs Team Nominees in Wilmington, Delaware.” Buildbackbetter.gov. January 8, 2021. https://buildbackbetter.gov/speeches/remarks-as-prepared-for-delivery-by-economy-and-jobs-team-nominees-in-wilmington-delaware/, retrieved January 10, 2021.
13“Rush Statement on Armed Insurrection at U.S. Capitol.” Rush.house.gov. January 6, 2021. https://rush.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rush-statement-on-armed-insurrection-at-us-capitol, retrieved January 12, 2021.
14“President-elect Biden Announces American Rescue Plan.” BuildBackBetter.gov. https://buildbackbetter.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/COVID_Relief-Package-Fact-Sheet.pdf, retrieved January 16, 2021.
15“Sen. Rick Scott on Biden COVID-19 Spending Package: Families Need Targeted Relief, Not Blue-State Bailouts and Wasteful Liberal Priorities.” RickScott.house.gov. January 15, 2021. https://www.rickscott.senate.gov/sen-rick-scott-biden-covid-19-spending-package-families-need-targeted-relief-not-blue-state, retrieved January 16, 2021.
*“Constitution.” National Archives Identifier: 1667751. Constitutional Convention. 5/14/1787-9/17/1787 (Most Recent). Series: The Constitution of the United States, 9/17/1787-9/17/1787. Record Group 11: General Records of the United States Government, 1778 – 2006 in “Ten Ways to Teach the U.S. Constitution.” EDSITEment! https://edsitement.neh.gov/closer-readings/ten-ways-teach-us-constitution, retrieved January 16, 2021.
Author’s note: content edited after original publish date of January 13, 2021.
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