A year after the Covid-19 pandemic struck, President Joe Biden delivered a prime time address from the White House and offered a much different tone than his predecessor, Donald Trump. Yet for all of Mr. Biden’s words and wishes, he still presides over a divided republic and, at times, his call for bipartisan legislative action is being used against him as he tries to execute on his agenda.
It may seem like an often sung song but can it be good that a nation finds itself unable to agree on national interest and what’s best for its general welfare? When the president spoke March 11, he didn’t gloat over passage of a $1.9 trillion package to help pull the country, its citizens, its states and its businesses out of a crisis. He tried to call the country together.
“A year ago, we were hit with a virus that was met with silence and spread unchecked. Denials for days, weeks, then months that led to more deaths, more infections, more stress and more loneliness. … While it was different for everyone, we all lost something. A collective suffering, a collective sacrifice, a year filled with the loss of life and the loss of living for all of us. But in the loss, we saw how much there was to gain in appreciation, respect, and gratitude,” he said.
“So I’ve told you before, I carry a card in my pocket with the number of Americans who have died from COVID to date. It’s on the back of my schedule. As of now, total deaths in America, 527,726. That’s more deaths than in World War I, World War II, the Vietnam war and 9/11 combined. They were husbands, wives, sons, and daughters, grandparents, friends, neighbors, young and old.
We lost faith in whether our government and our democracy can deliver on really hard things for the American people. But as I stand here tonight, we’re proving once again something I’ve said time and time again, so probably tired of hearing me say it. I said to foreign leaders and domestic alike, ‘It’s never, ever, a good bet to bet against the American people.’ America is coming back.”
Despite Mr. Biden’s speech from the bully pulpit, declarations of vaccine safety and success, and hopes for a bright future, there is still plenty of national darkness to overcome. Officials say some 400 people could be charged in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Jan.
6 as part of an effort to stop official recognition of ballots that put Mr. Biden in office. For millions of Republicans, Mr. Biden remains an illegitimate president while Mr. Trump continues to dominate the party and attack any GOP lawmakers who try to work with the other side.
Meanwhile in the Senate where the White House holds a one-vote advantage, Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia has threatened and opposed Biden appointees and altered the president’s massive spending bill. The senator seems determined to protect relationships and stances by Republicans who aren’t supportive of his party, his president or his party’s agenda. Then there are the Covid-19 variants spreading across the country and fears opening up America, as many states are doing, will lead to another coronavirus crisis.
These are huge issues to be overcome not to mention questions about whether a much-touted federal policing reform bill named after George Floyd, who died after a Minnesota cop kneeled on his neck for nine minutes, or a bill that would end heinous disparity and higher sentences for those convicted of crimes with crack cocaine versus powder cocaine, when both are the same drug, can pass the Senate.
No national vision and no agreement on national agendas and priorities can’t be good for a country that faces these and other major problems that need to be solved. But you can’t solve a problem if both sides can’t agree that a problem exists nor what the problems are.
On the political front, Mr. Biden’s talk of working with Republicans is being used against him—even while Republicans won’t do anything to reach a compromise. So GOPers are bemoaning the inability to work with the president while working against him.
How can this be good for America? Can America survive these divisions, economic challenges, racial divisions, class wars, budget deficits and national debt and skepticism about her intentions and her promises internationally?
A recent Pew Research poll gave the new president positive ratings on several areas but in one area Americans weren’t so hopeful: “About half of Americans (48 percent) have confidence in Biden to bring the country closer together, while slightly more (52 percent) have little or no confidence he can foster greater unity in the United States.”
America is in trouble. She has been warned for 90 years that her incredible, diabolical evil done to Africans dragged to these shores, enslaved and murdered along with her genocide against the native peoples have earned the wrath of God by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and His Servant, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. She has been warned that the Covid-19 pestilence is a plague from heaven that is not to be overcome. Kind words aren’t needed today. Sincere repentance is.
