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No, It’s Not Time to Come Together
On the night of the attack on the United States Capitol building, my local public radio station scheduled a program with the theme “Time to Come Together?” It was hard to stay on topic given the day’s events, but they tried.
No, it’s not time to come together. Eventually, yes. But not anytime soon.
There is a lot of blame to go around concerning how we got here. The Republican “southern strategy” which has now borne its strange and rotten fruit. The assumption on the part of right-wing media and internet platforms that the devotion to freedom of expression does not involve a parallel commitment to truthfulness. The fecklessness of establishment Democrats, who have insisted on playing nice with an opposition that is emphatically not “loyal” and which considers them the enemy rather than colleagues in governance. The double standard for stringently policing the attempts of those who wish to hold the republic to its professed standards of freedom and equality while turning a blind eye to white neo-fascists who wish to obliterate those standards. The persistence of income and wealth inequality and its neglect by Republicans and Democrats alike. The badly repressed racism and sexism among “good, moderate (neo)liberals” as well as its overt and exuberant expression by self-professed “conservative patriots”. This list could go on and on and on.
