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So ends, for tens of millions of Americans, a four-year national, political, and personal nightmare unlike anything they have experienced or could even fathom, a living hellscape in which their daily existence has been haunted by the terrifying reality that the very worst person they could imagine being president was daily blowing up their sense of the absolute depths of corruption, mismanagement, self-interest, and human behavior.
So ends, for tens of millions of Americans, the flawed but essential experiment in which the establishment forces allied with both corrupt political parties were shaken to their core, put on warning that large portions of the nation were willing to roll the dice with a person both brazenly unqualified and uniquely qualified to remake a economic, social, and political order that for too long had made them feel alienated from the very country they call home.
Whether you are squarely in either of those two irreconcilable categories (or somewhere betwixt and between), welcome to inauguration day, an occasion that even for the most pro-Biden and anti-Trump soul will likely feel more solemn than celebratory, what with a raging pandemic, a deep recession, fraught racial tensions, the overhang of January 6, and the legacy and looming presence of Donald Trump.
Our societal-political apparatus has more moving parts today than an unassembled IKEA STUVA Loft bed and more questions than Howard Stern during an interview with Elizabeth II.
Rising up to the top of the heap are two queries that will define the days, weeks, and months ahead: Can Joe Biden really unite America and what the heck is Mitch McConnell up to?
I hope President Biden can find a way to spiritually and programmatically bring the nation together enough to meet the challenges we face.
Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, by inclination, emphasis, and experience, were as well positioned to heal our divides as any three people one could imagine becoming president.
Instead, they each turned out to be more polarizing and less up to the task than their predecessor.
Why might Joe Biden succeed where those three Oval Office occupants failed?
Because our challenges now are so immense and existential
Because maybe Scranton Joe and Amtrak Joe and Creature of the Senate Joe and Middle Class Joe and No Ivy League Degree Joe actually might be better positioned biographically and temperamentally to reach across the aisle than that well-meaning trio.
Because more Americans are sick and tired of the tribal Blue-Red divide than ever.
Because Biden will be less of a lightning rod than other recent leaders.
Because he is ascending in the wake of a president whose tragic-comic attempts to polarize were unprecedented.
That’s the best-case list for success on this score.
And this isn’t a small score. If Biden fails to bring Washington and (just as or more importantly) the country together in a spirit of cooperation, our challenges will go largely unaddressed, our culture will become coarser, and national town square will have as much comity as my recent brunch with Josh Hawley, Adam Schiff, Megyn Kelly, and Soledad O’Brien.
I’m not predicting Biden will fail – or, again, hoping that he does.
To the contrary.
But in describing what is – as opposed to what ought to be – consider this:
1. Biden has arguably said nothing to appeal to the Redlands, whose denizens look at his calls for unity, bipartisanship, and togetherness as empty rhetoric. None of the new president’s core policy proposals are of much tangible, practical interest to the 74 million souls who voted for Donald Trump.
2. Despite their occasional protestations to the contrary, Biden is surrounded by advisers who look with abject disdain and incredulity at everyone who voted for Trump. Absent: a desire to understand them, appeal to them, bring them into the community of nations. If the members of Team Biden could exile all Trump voters to Tristan Da Cunha, that would be their preferred solution.
3. By all indications, Biden himself mostly agrees with his advisers on the deplorabilty of the MAGA crowd.
4. Republicans in the House, some in the Senate, and many at the grassroots are rooting for Biden to fail and are not even open to having one day in which they look at something Biden does or says and have the reaction, “Good for him – I’m rooting for the guy.” Not one day, no matter what Biden does, and that includes my old standby of repelling a Martian invasion.
5. Democratic activists (including many members of Congress) think cooperating with Republicans on legislation is by its very nature evil and misguided. If Mitch McConnell is for it, we are against it is as reflexive a reaction for them as a normal human mouth would have to a big bite of salt-encrusted cherries.
6. Republican activists (including many members of Congress) think cooperating with Democrats on legislation is by its very nature evil and misguided. If AOC is for it, we are against it is as reflexive a reaction for them as a normal human mouth would have to a big bite of salt-encrusted blueberries.
7. This sentiment, expressed by the Wall Street Journal editorial board, reflects the thinking of many Wisconsin farmers and Texas truck drivers as well:
Progressives in the House and Senate, urged on by the Democratic media complex and Silicon Valley, view the defeat of Donald Trump as the opening to assert a new level of government control over the economy and cultural dominance over American society….
Mr. Biden’s rhetoric in particular has been more condemning than unifying. He was right to blame Mr. Trump for contributing to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, but comparing Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz to Joseph Goebbels is Trump-like excess. His speech writers seem infused with woke ideology, as they cast the riot and most other events in the language of identity politics.
8. On a lot of critical issues, there is no obvious policy compromise to be found, even if folks were inclined to reach a deal.
9. For Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, the midterms are right around the corner and it is difficult to see how either man could see the path back to the majority made more clear by giving Joe Biden political victories. (See Obama, Barack, presidency, 2009.)
10. The Dominant Media, Big Tech, and other institutional elements of the liberal machinery are continuing to behave (and will almost certainly continue to behave) in the very manner that drove so many reluctant voters back into the arms of Trump.
If you don’t understand why this bevy of Washington Post stories enflames the Redlands, please find someone to explain it to you.
11. Along those same lines, the rallying cries of cancel culture, socialism, violent protests, Hunter, China, immigration, and more will continue to echo and rev.
12. For the Bluelands, there are no clean hands outside the Lincoln Project within the Republican Party, which the Blues see as one big blog of Trump enablers, a view spurred on by stuff like this from one of the few semi-dedicated Never Trumpers out there:
Et tu, Mitt?, I hear from all corners of the Upper West Side this morning.
13. The initial gambits of the Biden years – a path towards citizenship, a $2 trillion spending bill, executive orders undoing the Trump policies, and impeachment – are all sure to turn the Redlands redder. And that is before we get to any possible elimination of the filibuster or the use of the reconciliation process to jam through a progressive agenda.
14. The incentives for conservative talk show hosts, fundraisers, activists, and politicians continue to lead inexorably towards division and incitement, where the power, money, and influence lie.
15. Mitch McConnell’s Tuesday remarks on the floor, from which you should read the kumbaya lines as “blah blah blah” and the last part as his mission statement:
“Certainly November’s election did not hand any side a mandate for sweeping ideological change. Our marching orders from the American people are clear: We’re to have a robust discussion and seek common ground. We are to pursue bipartisan agreement everywhere we can, and check and balance one another respectfully where we must.”
Break a leg, go forth and unite, Joe Biden.
(Much of) America is rooting you on, but not necessarily betting on you.
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As for Mitch McConnell and his further distancing himself from Donald Trump on Tuesday by placing the blame for the Capitol incursion on the commander in chief:
As the New York Times says, “the move was undoubtedly a calculated risk for the leader, but
Mr. McConnell’s allies say he has grown increasingly concerned that if party leaders do not intervene, the president’s campaign to discredit his own defeat could do lasting damage both to democracy and to Republicans’ political fortunes, driving them into a permanent minority in Washington. They pointed out that Mr. Trump had led the party as it lost the White House, the House and the Senate in just a short stretch.
McConnell is a Vulcan calculator of 0s and 1s, and it appears his cost/benefit analysis is clear.
Costs of striking at the king:
A. Sean Hannity Tuesday night:
"Now soon-to-be Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and a handful of other long-serving establishment Republicans are trying to reassert control of the GOP, and their playbook is sadly all too predictable.
"Instead of picking up the mantle and promoting the president's bold America First agenda, they are cowering in fear, wilting under the pressure from the media mob, liberal Democrats, and Big Tech companies," he continued. "Many spineless Republicans are joining forces with their Democratic friends to repudiate all things Trump."
B. McConnell putting himself at odds with the grassroots, Part 1, via the Oregonian:
On the eve of Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration, the Oregon Republican Party issued a statement condemning the 10 Republican members of Congress who voted to impeach President Donald Trump and aligning itself with conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol building.
C. McConnell putting himself at odds with the grassroots, Part 2:
D. Per the Wall Street Journal:
President Trump has talked in recent days with associates about forming a new political party…
Such a move by Trump would end the Republican Party as we know it.
And/but the benefits of striking at the king:
McConnell just wants to win back control of the Senate (and, eh, the House) in 2022 and the White House in 2024.
He knows that doing so requires a united party and conservative movement, for which he is counting on Bernie Sanders and Co. to do his bidding.
But he also knows that he needs his suburban voters and donors back.
If Donald Trump is not convicted and barred from holding public office now, he will likely continue to hurt the GOP with those suburban voters and donors; make mischief in the midterms by knocking off or damaging incumbents in primaries; keep the Republican brand synonymous with the Trump brand; and limit the ability of other potential 2024 leaders/presidential candidates to rise up and establish their own place in the national consciousness.
McConnell could reverse course and decide he doesn’t want to kill the king. But as of now, it appears he wants to kill the king and he plans to and he knows he better not fail.
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Politico on the pardons
Wednesday morning press releases from Team Biden on his initial executive actions here and here.
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Have Mark Halperin (that’s me…) speak to your group, company, or meeting.
Topics: politics, the new Biden administration, the media, the Presumption of Grace, or whatever you wish.
"Mark Halperin was the featured guest for our political club's recent pre-election virtual program and he knocked it out of the park. He was a well-prepared presenter and kept our online audience engaged from start to finish. His ability to translate his astute observations and lifetime of political knowledge into easily digestible talking points for our members seemed effortless. The feedback we have received since then has been overwhelmingly positive and I'm confident we will have him back to present again soon. I give Mark my highest recommendation as a speaker for any club or organization that wants a straightforward and seasoned political commentator."
-- Jay Revell, Capital Tiger Bay Club, Tallahassee, Florida
Send an email to markhalperintalk@gmail.com to set up an event.