Biden the Healer

For John, BLUF:  President Joeseph R Biden, a cranky old man, was not in a position to bind up our wounds following the election of 2020 and the demonstrations and riots that ensued.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The saddest, loneliest Althouse blog tag: "Biden the healer."

From Althouse Blog, by Professor Ann Althouse, 4 May 2024, 11:06 AM.

Here is the lede plus one:

I created this tag on November 8, 2020, and I don't create a new tag unless I think there will be a good number of other posts that will support that tag. I imagined Biden stepping up to the role of healer.  I went back today, looking for "Biden the healer" in my archive, because I've been thinking how much better Biden might be doing — and, more importantly, how much better this country might be doing — if Biden had followed the path of healing — of bringing us together.  But Biden was and is a divider.  Maybe January 6th was too much of a temptation, such great raw material for tearing us apart.  He could have said — like Lincoln — "with malice toward none, with charity for all" and forgiven everyone involved and called upon all of us — on his side and the other side — to "bind up the nation's wounds."  But he didn't do it.  And now it's too late.

Here's my November 8, 2020 post.  Read it and weep.

And weep I do.

I take the point about binding up the wounds.  However, having decided that 6 January was an insurrection, the Democrats faced a choice.  They could continue to pursue the miscreants or they could work to bind up the wounds.  After all, they won the election and were thus in charge.

Binding up the wouonds of 2020 would require forgiving those who were still crying that the election was stolen.  And, maintaining pressure would be useful in the elections of 2022 and 2024.  The die was cast.

But, even if the Democrsts had, collectively, decided to go for binding up the wounds, was President Joseph Biden the leader to do it>  It would seem to me that his temperment is such that he would find that difficult,  He does not seem to handle disagreement well.  And hasn't gotten better with age.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff