As each candidate gave his final speech to his supporters, both making it a point to talk about a need for national reconciliation, I was reminded of an old saying attributed to Benjamin Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence: “We must all hang together, or we shall surely all hang separately.”
In remembering this I also recall an old saying about it taking two to tango. It’s fine to talk about a desire for unity, but it’s something else to actually work for it. Reading the polemics from the left in the aftermath of the election and listening to the comments of many students and indeed some professors on this campus, I think national unity is the last thing on some of your minds.
Before Kerry even conceded, liberal analysts were telling us that Bush won because he scared all the right-wing zealots into voting. I’m guessing this is what passes for liberal conciliatory language these days. Of course let us not forget the fear-mongering ads placed in this paper that tried to scare you into believing that a draft was on the horizon. I guess since that’s “liberal” fear mongering it must be okay.
In The New York Times – bastion of objectivity that it is – we have two columns from the whineyass-crybaby wing of the Democratic Party. Just when you thought it was safe to go outside and celebrate a legitimate campaign victory, the king and queen of liberal vitriol, Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd, have placed before us their take on what happened. From Dowd we have, “The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule,” and from Krugman, “President Bush isn’t a conservative. He’s a radical – the leader of a coalition that deeply dislikes America as it is.” House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi expressed a similar sentiment when she continued to put any blame for division squarely on Bush. Yes, she and soon-to-be-former Sen. Daschle had nothing to do with dividing America.
Yeah.
This is not a good foundation for national unity. I think those of you who feel this way aren’t really looking for unity in the post-Kerry era. But now you can admit it. Division is what you want, as you feel it was meant to be. “No peace in our time.”
Of course you could always surprise me and quit whining.
But maybe that’s asking too much.
Scott Wacholtz can be contacted at s.wacholtz@umiami.edu.