BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JAN. 10, 2022) — At his inauguration Joe Biden pledged to stop the “uncivil war” that has divided America. He called on all Americans to come together, turn the page, and move forward in unity. How that’s different than totalitarianism may come down to a matter of semantics, for there are no countries more “unified” than, say, Belarus, Eritrea, or North Korea.

Syracuse Joe wasn’t talking about THAT kind of unity but a kind of homogeny that remains a moving target for this crumbling liberal democracy. E pluribus unum‘s prescription has been turned on its head. Out of one we have many, and they ain’t talking to each other. Can you have both? Far left liberals such as  seem to think so, as do those who have adopted “diversity and inclusion” as buzzwords.

Those cliches trip easily off the tongue for the Blue (State) Meanies, but logically and practically, can a nation, a state, a city, even a neighborhood be both diverse AND inclusive? In 1958? Yes. Today? We think not, although THE PLANET shall leave the adjudication to the social critics, you know, the “experts” and “consultants” that Pittsfield regularly calls in at $65K per clip to produce a “study” that tells politicians how smart they be.

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One year after the inauguration, Biden’s call to “Come Together” has changed to “I’m Down.” On the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, he got the flamethrower out and began torching the bunkers where the Red (State) Meanies reside. He even had his VP, Giggling Kamala Heartbreak, echo the call. Biden blasted “the former president” for “holding a dagger at the throat of America, at American democracy,” positioning himself as the nation’s defender, its Captain America, in what he called the battle for the country’s soul.

“I will stand in this breach,” he roared. “I will defend this nation.”

The political philosopher in us agrees that American democracy has a dagger at the throat, but we don’t think any one person holds it, let alone Donald Trump. We wonder if it’s not American democracy itself that’s holding the knife against its own throat, like the scene in Blazing Saddles when the new sheriff, Cleavon Little, holds a gun up to his own head.

“A republic, if you can keep it,” Franklin said.

After 245 years, the answer has come in: “We can’t.”

Meanwhile, for practical purposes, COVID rages as does inflation, while Biden’s Build Back Better agenda swims with the fishes. “Success” in America gets measured only in political terms, as Biden’s speech made clear. Actual progress, actual peace, and actual prosperity have fallen prey to party politics, Democrat v. Republican, liberal v. conservative, black v. white, women v. men, Christian v. Muslim, us v. them. What’ya got? Name it, and there will be division, animosity, and hatred.

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Biden’s applause lines had applause lines in what was the president’s best and most fiery moment. He never named Trump by name, but it’s safe to say that when he mentioned “the defeated former president” he wasn’t talking about George Bush the First.  Taking on Trump marks a 180 for Biden, who for a year more-or-less kept quiet about his predecessor. Funny how election years change things, though. Democratic strategists have decided on a new “get loud” strategy as we get into 2022 and begin the march toward November.

Will the new plan work? Will confronting Trump cause him to back down, or have they prodded and poked the hornet’s nest? If there’s anything we know about Trump, he won’t retreat. He will bully, bluster, bluff, and battle, no holds barred. Is that what Biden intended? IS that the plan for November?

Enjoy the coming cold snap, because it promises to be a long, hot summer.

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Confronting Trump and what Biden called his “web of lies?” All we can say is that it’s about time. We’ve been fond of heavyweight battles ever since Sonny Liston KO’d Floyd Patterson in 1962. Actually, it was two years earlier, when Patterson and Ingemar Johanssen see-sawed in three fights for the heavyweight crown. Biden’s Jan. 6 speech had what Johanssen said of his right hand. It packed “toonder” — the Swede’s pronunciation of “thunder.”

Biden’s stemwinder also points to the dangerous state of American politics, namely our tolerance for political violence. We have lost the ability to hash out political differences over coffee and dialogue. Social media is the new coffee, burning and looting the new dialogue.

Of course, Republicans won’t sit idly back. They sense blood in the water and will counterattack. They will continue with voting-rights legislation and gerrymandering at the state level while continuing to hound the administration over everything from disaster response to foreign relations, for example, Biden’s poor handling of Russia and China. Rather than acknowledge geopolitical reality, his administration has played right into their hands: Kazakhstan and Ukraine with respect to Russia, the Pacific Rim and trade concerning China.

The smartness in Biden’s attack speech on Trump is that he identified the danger. He would have done better by actually naming “Trump;” nonetheless, it gave a signal that the Democrats do not intend to go quietly into that good night.

“It was essential to be specific about the problem, and the source of the crisis,” said Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University. “Otherwise the vague rhetoric, without agency, that we hear about polarization misses the way in which Trump and the GOP are the source of so much instability.”

Make no mistake. There’s a high-stakes global game going on, one where missteps could prove fatal.

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“This has got to be the nicest place in the world to play” — Robert Lamm, keyboard player, Chicago, on playing at Tanglewood July 21, 1970/

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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