I Have a Dream…

Of course I’m voting for the Biden-Harris ticket and will do so eagerly. But there’s one aspect of Biden’s political philosophy I disagree with: this “unity” myth.

“Biden promises to unify the country” proclaims Yahoo News.

“Biden pledges to unite the country,” headlines the Washington Post.

The Chicago Sun-Times talks of Biden’s “message to unite America,” while ABC News announces, “Biden appeals for unity.”

The message, apparently, is that Biden sees himself bringing enough disparate groups together to form a true centrist government: liberal Democrats, moderate Democrats, Independents and moderate conservatives, who together, in theory, constitute a majority of the electorate.

There are elements of this that may be true enough to get Biden elected; I hope so. But for me, there’s a huge problem: I don’t want to “unify” with anyone who continues to remain a Republican. I’m fine with ex-Republicans, like David Jolly, Steve Schmidt, Justin Amash, George Conway, George Will, Shermichael Singleton and others who have quit the Republican Party because they see the menace and insult it has become. I welcome these people into the Democratic Party. If they can’t go that far, and choose to be Independents, I’m fine with that, too, as long as they vote against all Republican candidates in November.

But that still leaves as many as 40% of the adult population of the U.S. who remain committed Republicans and ardent pro-Trumpers. And I have no desire, no inclination to “unite” with them; nor do I suppose they want to “unite” with us. I don’t want to “reach out” to them for “dialogue.” I don’t want to see my Democratic leaders sit down with them and try to work out compromise positions. I don’t want to mollify or coddle Republicans in any way, shape or form.

I want to crush them.

My strong belief, after the last 3-1/2 years, is that anyone who remains a pro-Trump Republican is the enemy. Or a traitor. Or some evil combination of the two. How can you “unite” with evil? You can’t. This is a binary election—you’re either for Trump or you’re for Biden. There’s no inbetween. And the way I see things, anyone who’s still for Trump deserves to be defeated, put to shame, shunned and punished. Rather than “unite” with them, I want to see them in a courtroom, on trial for their crimes, facing whatever punishments, including financial ruin, are appropriate.

I want to see the Party of Trump utterly repudiated. I want it wiped off the face of the earth. I’m not calling for unConstitutional purges, or extra-judicial practices, or the other murderous apparatuses of dictatorships. I do not want to see America do the kinds of things that Saddam Hussein did in Iraq, that the Mullahs do in Iran, that strongmen always do to their enemies in banana republics. The U.S. still is a democracy where we believe in justice and the rule of law.

But some people just have to be put in their place, when they’ve done such horrific things, for so long, and despite witnessing the sickness of their leader every day of their lives. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mitch McConnell, Devon Nunes, Jim Jordan, and, yes, Trump’s children—these are not individuals I want a President Biden to “unify” with. These are individuals I want sanctioned, who must be made to pay for the madness, the sickness, the bedevilment, the damage they have enabled their leader, Trump, to sic on America.

I want them to hurt.

Maybe that puts me outside the mainstream of the Democratic Party. But I don’t think so. This regime has wounded us Democrats almost mortally. Every Democrat I know has been reduced to tears of rage, for years, almost every day, because of the incompetence, brutality, stupidity, vulgarity, pathological lying and hypocrisy of these Republicans. It’s fine to say “Turn the other cheek,” but not in this case. I want restorative justice—a justice that doesn’t turn the culprits loose with a mere admonition to “be nice from now on,” but that says, “You knew what you were doing. You collaborated with evil. Actions have consequences. Now, you must pay the price.”

I want to sit back and watch the trials on T.V. I want to see Pence in the prisoner’s dock, questioned by Kamala Harris. I want to see Kellyanne Conway confronted with her lies by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I want to see Stephen Miller eviscerated by Eric Holder. I want to see them found guilty, handcuffed and perp-walked away by U.S. marshals. I want to see U.S. school curricula revised to include a through understanding of fascism and religious fanaticism, so that we can recognize them if they arise again and smother them. And because I do believe in a two-party system, I want to see a brand new opposition party arise to the Democrats. I wouldn’t call it “Republican,” because that word, like the word “Nazi,” has been forever tainted. But it’s not my problem to figure out its new name. Let the Lincoln Project—wonderful patriots all—figure out what they want their new party to be called. And I want to see tough new national laws expanding on the First Amendment’s prohibition against religious incursion into our governance, to make it impossible, for all time to come, for fringe fanatics, like so many of the evangelicals, to have any say whatsoever into our politics. But most of all I want Donald J. Trump imprisoned for life.