Do You Hate Democrats More Than You Hate Putin?
I watched President Biden’s State of the Union address this week and the Republican response given by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.
Biden came out against a number of threats to America. He talked about fighting inflation, fixing infrastructure, improving healthcare. He spoke of passing “the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — and I thank my Republican colleagues who joined to invest and rebuild America”. And he opened the speech with a discussion of the American and international response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said, “Tonight, we meet as Democrats, Republicans and Independents. But most importantly, as Americans.” and “Yes, we, the United States of America, stand with the Ukrainian people.”
There was hardly a word against the other party in the entire address.
The Republican response also mentioned Ukraine. Governor Reynolds said, “Now all Americans must stand united in solidarity with the brave people of Ukraine as they courageously defend their country against Putin’s tyranny.” But not before she first attacked Biden for the crime wave which started during the Trump administration, for inflation, for the exit from Afghanistan that was agreed to by Donald Trump, and for North Korean missile tests like the ones that occurred during the Trump administration.
Based on that opening and the rest of the speech, in which she also accused the administration of treating “parents like domestic terrorists,” suppressing freedom, and crippling American energy production, her idea of “all Americans” uniting in solidarity seems to exclude the over 50% of all Americans that vote for Democrats.
To hear her attack the President for “focusing on political correctness rather than military readiness”, you would never guess that Biden spent the last three months rallying the world against an imminent Russian invasion, or had ramped up military support for Ukraine before the invasion.
There’s plenty of partisan attacks Democrats and Republicans can launch at each other. We have heard Republican culture warriors professing to hate liberals more than they are bothered by Putin, accusations that Trump was praising Putin for his invasion of Ukraine, and criticism of Obama for hesitating to arm Ukraine faster. Much as I would like to join in the pile-on regarding the Trump-Putin nexus, the truth is that most Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and the President, are more or less on the same page about Ukraine. Almost everyone wants to help Ukraine repel the invasion. Almost no one wants our military shooting at the Russian military.
So can we call a truce on Civil War II while Cold War II threatens to heat up?
First a Moment of Agonized Liberal Self-Examination
But isn’t this post itself an example of partisan bickering?
I’m really just making two points here:
- Republicans and Democrats mostly agree about Ukraine.
- Biden gave a major speech in which he intentionally laid off attacks on Republicans, and the Republican response attacked him.
I’m sure there are plenty of people who will want to convince me that Trump has turned Republicans into a bunch of Putin-worshiping traitors or that Democrats are either war-mongering globalists or self-disarming defeatists (or both). I don’t think that’s a very productive argument to have right now.
On any day, you can find about twenty thousand examples on the internet of Dems bashing Pubs and vice versa. All we can do is demand good behavior from our leaders.
And while we Democrats should focus on threats to democracy rather than scoring political points, we have to respond when the other side isn’t doing the same. The obligation to not attack does not remove the right to defend.