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Divisions in American politics are deep-rooted

Published:Monday | February 22, 2021 | 12:13 AM

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Joe Biden’s inauguration promise to “unite the country” is still fresh in our minds; along with endless repetitions that he’s the oldest American president, and only the second Roman Catholic. Some of us remember when the first Roman Catholic was sworn in, and he was the youngest to be elected to that office. That was in 1961, and John F. Kennedy’s inauguration promise 60 years ago was to “unite the country”. Six decades have passed with the identical and unanswered call for unity, and today the two political parties seem to be lacking unity, even among their own ranks.

The Republicans billed themselves as ‘The party of Abraham Lincoln’ for many years, but now have many elected members calling themselves ‘The party of Donald Trump’. The Democrats control the Oval Office, Senate and House of Representatives, but don’t seem to control what goes on among its elected party members; with major division between those who want to throw all caution to the wind and adopt the Green New Deal, and those who want to tread more carefully in traditional ways. Most Democrats want President Biden to show the world that he has some ideas of his own, rather than believe his surreptitious campaign slogan which seemed to say : “Elect me, because I’m not Donald Trump”. They also want Mr Trump and all he stood for in the rear-view mirror, but Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has other ideas.

VENDETTA-like determination

Pelosi has an angry bee in her bonnet with a vendetta-like determination to reduce the 45th president to roadkill, having already initiated two Senate showcase trials where everybody already knew the outcome before the ink was dry on both Articles of Impeachment she signed. So now, she’s turning the spotlight back on Mr Trump, and galloping roughshod over Joe Biden’s presidential platitudes of unity by having an independent commission investigate the storming of the Capitol Building on January 6.

The protesters had broadcast for weeks that their rally would be a no-holds-barred affair, yet the Capitol Police Service was not boosted in any noticeable way. The stable door at the Capitol Building was closed after the horse had bolted on January 6, when 20-foot-high fences were immediately erected for the inauguration, along with a National Guard presence in excess of 25,000. From the elevated position in the saddle of her high horse, Nancy Pelosi has the whip hand, but there’s a possibility of the horse throwing its rider regarding who held responsibility for security that fateful day. With the shoddy and shambolic way politics have been conducted in Washington for so many decades, there’s every chance that an over-ripe odour from the horse barn will intensify as the commission proceeds.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada