Dear President Biden,
It makes sense to me that you’re staying in your lane and not interfering or trying to influence (at least not overtly) either the DOJ or Congress when it comes to which of the various malicious actors to hold accountable for what aspect(s) of the January 6th attempted self-coup. After the norm-shattering previous administration, restoring a sense of order and respect for the checks and balances that allow our democracy to function is really the only viable way forward, which you all are obviously crystal clear on.
I’m also seeing from the online blurb about the VP’s role in the Senate, that Harris can’t really do much other than break ties unless the Senate formally invites her to address them. This is a bummer, but is clearly another of those democracy guardrails that are meant to keep the Executive branch from overreaching and interfering with the Legislative branch.
So, ok, your all’s hands are tied when it comes to directly addressing the GOP’s completely fraudulent laments about how DJT’s second impeachment trial is trashing any hope for “unity.” Still, though, I hope lots of people in your administration are keeping a close eye on the WP Opinion writers and how they’re talking about the GOP’s damn crocodile tears and the illogic of insisting that the country sweep a massive pile of insurrectionist crap that was fomented by them and their lies under the rug in the interest of some chimerical, but patently false “unity.”
Rubin, Gearson, and Boot (all conservative crossovers) have been making strong arguments calling out the hypocrisy and political expediency of the GOP members who are still willing to follow Trump’s Death Star. Gearson, in particular, does a good job of speaking plainly in questioning what it would have taken for GOP members of Congress to be willing to tell the truth about all this – what if 10 Capitol police officers were beaten to death instead of 1? What if the crowd had found Mike Pence or Nancy Pelosi and had taken them hostage or harmed them – would these actions have sealed it for them? And most infuriatingly, where would they have set the bar had a Democratic POTUS and/or Congress people been the responsible parties?
What I’m not seeing in these arguments, though, is that the GOP surely knows that if they were to come clean, as a body, and tell the American people that the election was free and fair and that they (and DJT) have been lying to them, there would be some actual chance that we could get to a real sense of unity (after the drama this would kick up in their base dies down). They also surely know that continuing to perpetrate the lies they’ve been telling is the absolute best way to guarantee the continuation of the division and strive that feeds their coffers.
Down is up and up is down; unity is division and division is unity. They’re gaslighters supreme, every one of them.
This take is akin to what you said recently about the country’s need to grapple with the historical and present-day truth about systemic racism and how such a reckoning would lead to a far greater sense of unity. Jennifer Rubin did give a nod to this parallel in her morning editorial, but she didn’t spell it out so even though I’m 99% sure you’ve already thought of this and I’m also 99% that the chance my letter will be brought to your attention is nil, I felt compelled to pass the thought along anyway.
May we all be safe from disingenuous power mongers.
May we be willing to do the critical thinking that still needs doing.
May we be strong for one another as we manage both these constructed distractions and the heaviness of the pandemic.
May we accept that there is no known cure for the GOP, but carry on anyway.
Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson
The Biden Letters 