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| cartoon by Benjamin Franklin Pennsylvania Gazette, May 9, 1754 |
However, looking past the irony—or blatant hypocrisy, depending on your perspective— reveals deeper moral and political failures taking place.
Many Republicans are attempting to cast unity as moral principle in and of itself. To be clear, it’s not, but the average American might be forgiven for assuming it is. After all, we are the United States of America, and we pride ourselves on our collective capacity to accomplish great things as a nation—or, as President Biden would put it, “there’s nothing we can’t do if we do it together.”
But these are statements about the efficacy of unity, not its ethicality. The Huns were no more or less united behind Atilla than the apostles were behind Christ. Both were relatively effective in achieving their goals, though we universally judge the latter as the moral exemplar.
The ethical value of unity lies in how a people are unified, the ends they achieve and the means by which they achieve them. So what are Republicans asking us to unify for and how are they going about it?
Here’s their pitch:
The Capitol riots were tragic and disturbing. The violence and lawlessness perpetrated do not reflect who we aspire to be. We have to find a way to peaceably move forward together.
I think most Americans would agree with that sentiment. Problematically, however, Republicans hope to achieve this unity in place of accountability, rather than in addition to it. To look productively toward the future requires honest reflection upon the past. Were Republicans to engage in such reflection, they could undertake good faith gestures to pursue the unification they claim to value, which would require at least acknowledging if not apologizing for the active role many took in sowing discord—particularly in perpetuating specious claims (or outright lies) about 2020 election fraud. They might even go a step further by at least conceding the legitimacy of the second Trump impeachment process now under way, even if they chose to vote for acquittal.
Instead, as these Republicans frame it, unity can only be achieved on their terms: The past is in the past. Best to forget about it—or better yet, pretend it didn’t happen—and move on.
Moreover, there’s a not-so-subtle blackmail at play. If Democrats don’t comply, Republicans will be forced to assume Democrats don’t value unity, and therefore they’ll have no choice but to adopt an obstructionist platform moving forward.
But of course that’s the point: To create a rationale for a position they’ve already decided to take for political expediency, but without moral justification. Republicans’ continued willingness to alter the rules of engagement and their ability to do so without consequence or reprimand inevitably results in democratic decay. If the only immutable rule is a Hobbesian one, that all one has is whatsoever one can obtain by any means necessary, then days like Jan. 6 won’t live in infamy. They’ll be just another Wednesday.
