Jon Elswick / AP
The West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020, in Washington.
Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020 | 2 a.m.
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There was a lot of talk during the 2020 election about healing the country, and now it’s time to make it happen.
Republicans, we’re looking squarely at you. For America to move past the crushing polarization it has experienced in recent years, GOP leaders must come to the table and become a constructive force.
Through their obstinacy and refusal to govern in recent years, the Republicans have been the primary driver of the destruction and division in the nation. Beyond installing conservative judges and implementing economic policies that benefit the extremely wealthy at the expense of everyone else on the socioeconomic ladder, they appear to have zero interest in governing or solving problems.
Instead, they seem bent on creating problems — damaging the environment, removing health care coverage for Americans, weakening the voting power of minority communities through voter suppression and gerrymandering, eliminating workplace protections, and much more.
The GOP’s approach: Oppose anything coming from the other side, give absolutely no concessions, and treat politics as a winner-take-all game in which there’s no middle ground.
But governing requires leaders to work together in the best interests of the people, not a single party.
After the race was declared for him, Biden made a simple ask of Republicans: Give him a chance. With that statement, the president-elect offered the GOP an open hand to work with him and prove to Americans that their party can serve the interests of the entire nation.
That’s exactly what they should do. With the outcome of this year’s presidential election, voters sent a message that Republican extremism and obstructionism needed to go. Yes, the Democratic Party didn’t gain as much ground as it had hoped for, but Democrats emerged in control of the White House, the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate.
Smart Republicans will take that as a strong hint to start working across the aisle.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear likely at the moment that many will do so. Although some Republicans are calling for President Donald Trump to concede and move on, far too many are once again abetting Trump in his appalling behavior.
This is the GOP that Americans have grown to expect. Republicans have presided over historic destruction of institutions and political norms in America, whether it’s enabling Trump’s corruption of the Justice Department and other institutions, his purge of government experts and oversight bodies, his war on science and public health, his fawning attitude toward the authoritarian leaders of foreign enemy nations, and more.
These vandals now need to help clean up the mess they’ve left behind.
To do it, they need to start treating the Democrats serving alongside them as colleagues, not members of an enemy camp.
Do they need to agree with everything coming from the other side? Of course not. But they need to work for a better America — not a better red one or a better blue one, but for a better America as a whole.
Poll after poll shows that the American population doesn’t support the Republicans’ hard stance on any number of issues — the Dream Act and other immigration policies, gun safety, elimination of the Affordable Care Act, etc.
After the election, the Republicans who wake up, recognize the will of the people and work for the good of all Americans will distinguish themselves and be remembered.
It’s a simple choice. In the same way politicians can adversarially choose not to work, they can choose instead to work collegially, and to compromise.
It’s time for them to do just that. There’s a vast amount of healing to do, and the GOP owes it to Americans to do its part to bring it about.
