Mitt Romney should get Biden cabinet spot.
America is divided. The same could be said at other times in the country’s history — namely along lines of race or class —but today we are separated strictly along lines of political beliefs. And it’s going to be our ruin.
America has a long history of cooperative government not just working, but being the norm. The thought leaders behind the country’s founding documents themselves were obstinately opposed to political parties — or “factions” as they were then called.
Hamilton referred to them as “the most fatal disease,” while Madison believed the gov’t should act “to break and control the violence of faction.”
Pres. Washington’s choice of Jefferson as secretary of state and Hamilton as treasury secretary would ultimately lead to the two party system that has since become the norm in American politics. His choice of Jefferson is also notable because it would begin another political norm. That being to include differing viewpoints.
Washington “had been warned if he didn’t have Jefferson in it, then Jefferson might oppose his government.” 😱
What’s changed? America has its problems like any other country but has also done some pretty big things over the last ~250 years. Those big things themselves were really only ever possible because of the country’s willingness to focus its efforts on a shared goal; a common good worth devoting its resources to completing. A functioning government was always a necessary part of the equation though.
What’s changed is the meaning of the political party label and the meaning that it carries. No other label has been as effectual at dividing Americans. I say effectual because the divisive impact the label has created is not by accident. What would seem an accident is if every 2A advocate somehow had the exact same opinion on income tax law, or voting rights. Or if as a block the ‘right to choose’ voters came out for Biden’s $2.1T infrastructure proposal — a great cross-initiative, but two exclusive beliefs.
Party membership has come to define any individual’s allegiance toward / outlook on any number of civil and societal issues. The attribution of that set of beliefs onto the party member on behalf of the labeler has come to outweigh the influence those beliefs actually have in the lives of the individual themselves. Consider this…
- ‘Green new deal’ legislation was drafted by a few freshman congress members, had no chance of ever getting floor debate or committee time. But the other side could point it out as a negative, so it became a conversation.
- Migration on southern border has little impact on the average citizen’s everyday life yet it’s been a leading election issue since the ‘70s.
Where’s the disconnect? How do these groups become so at-odds? How did Republicans become “those” people to Democrats. How can Democrats view their fellow Americans as an “unfavorable” group of folks, even deplorables!? This “otherizing” and the complimenting reassurance one’s chosen “side” has found thrived in, and been exploited by media. Namely cable news networks and terrestrial radio broadcasts.
This really leads to the crux of the entire issue at hand which has directly led to the challenges America is facing. Until we’re ready to step back as a society and even understand that the problem will persist. But that doesn’t mean Biden can’t make a difference.
To Romney. The norm Washington set by including Jefferson’s opposing voice in his cabinet has been lost. There is no venn diagram that could show the parties support on an issue because there’s no overlap. Would just be two empty circles that don’t touch. And no one is willing to budge, which they point to as if it’s something to be proud about.
Someone has to be the adult. In an environment where people are allowed to say what they want, exploit people’s beliefs with their ability to say those things, and an unwillingness on behalf of the people to guard themselves from such predatory actors, there has to be a benevolent actor that’s willing to buck up against it. And do so in a way so clearly in contrast with the established order as to disrupt complacency in it.
Romney is no particular friend to Biden, nor Biden to the senator. I don’t have some outsized confidence in the senator himself in particular. As Americans we should all be proud of one of our citizens accomplishing as much as he has in his life. But more than anything he could be a bridge. A level-headed American willing to serve his country regardless of party membership.
We all know he wanted it under Trump. If Biden were to pluck him from the senate this first term, maybe even campaign on the fact he did so and promise to do more in his second, that could be a repair in one of those bridge planks. Just one of those rickety old pieces of lumber holding this democracy together may be mended in doing so.
And America could finally return to one of it’s longest standing norms: cooperation.
