What does Biden mean by “unity?” Here’s my take on it:
- It includes toning down the harshness of rhetoric in order to avoid demonizing one’s opponents and arousing hatred;
- It definitely does not include reducing your program to the lowest common denominator in order to prevent disagreement; some level of disagreement, particularly as to means, is normal and healthy in a liberal democratic state; and
- It involves emphasizing those issues, such as ending the pandemic, growing the economy, improving access to reasonably-priced health care, and meeting the Chinese challenge, on which there is substantial bipartisan agreement.
The difficult part of “unity” is dealing with the fact that the Democrats and the extremists in the GOP have completely different ideas of the just society. There is no real common ground between a white Christian authoritarian state and a multi-ethnic liberal democracy. Realistically, the best Biden can hope for is to speak to the portion of the GOP that is still willing to defend the liberal democratic state, and to show it that government is, in fact, capable of solving its problems. If he can do that, you should consider him a success.