Townhall Review | Commentaries

Republicans would do well to stop fighting among themselves.

Henry John Temple-Lord Palmerston-was the prime minister of the United Kingdom during the American Civil War. He's celebrated for saying many memorable things about politics, including his remark about an up-and-coming politician nearly 50 years his junior-the Conservative Robert Cecil. "Beware of that young man," Palmerston said, "He possesses one of the secrets of success. For instead of defending himself and his cause, he attacks the other side."

The GOP ought to ponder that observation as it considers its course as the "loyal opposition." For all the talk about splits within the respective parties, the sharpest, deepest divide remains between the two parties.

The GOP ought to attack the other side- not themselves.

While in the minority, Republicans should attack the points of difference-drawing distinctions with Democrats and not with each other.

Unless, of course, they'd like to remain in the minority.

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During his presidential campaign last year, and as recently as in his Inaugural Address, President Biden promised to work together with Republicans to solve our country’s biggest problems.

But, less than a month into his presidency, he’s already broken that promise.

President Biden is relying on party-line support to pass a $1.9 trillion spending bonanza that includes hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out liberal states like New York, Illinois, and California. This despite the fact that ten Republican Senators presented him with an alternative approach that would have addressed the health and economic challenges created by COVID-19. It was a good faith offer that could have been the start of negotiations over a compromise bill. But Biden rejected the GOP offer out of hand and chose to work only with Democrats.

Now, “Biden World” is reportedly planning to run negative ads against Republicans who don’t vote for Biden’s spending package. It’s a long way from the bipartisanship the president promised.

What a shame.

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One of Joe Biden’s first acts as president was revealing. He disbanded the 1776 Commission, which was convened by President Trump to design an evenhanded approach to the teaching of American history. It was created to counter the New York Times’ 1619 Project—which claimed the American Revolution was actually fought to defend the institution of slavery. The central premise of the 1619 Project is that our country is inherently racist, and therefore irredeemably flawed.

In his famous novel “1984,” George Orwell wrote, “Who controls the past controls the future.” Those who want to fundamentally transform our country understand it’s easier to do if people believe America and its institutions are so flawed they aren’t worth defending.

We know better. And it’s our job to make sure our children learn the truth about our exceptional country and its founding principles.

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In his first three days in office, President Biden handed down 19 executive orders. To date there have been more than 40.

President Trump, his predecessor, in his first three days, signed just one. That’s one as compared to 19 for Biden.

It’s a very clear way of saying, “there is a new team in town.” But there’s more.

Some of these were just raw political payoffs.

Some reflect the growing power of the executive and expansion of the federal government.

And some reflect the dramatic worldview and policy differences of the Trump and Biden administrations.

President Biden signed an executive order reversing the Mexico City Policy—the Reagan-era policy that had prevented foreign aid from funding organizations that provide abortion.

Elections matter.

Executive orders matter.

And sometimes—when we look at an issue like abortion—it really does comes down to an issue of life and death.

Think about it.

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Focus on the Family’s Daily Citizen was blocked from Twitter last week and accused of hate speech. We had tweeted out a story about Dr. Rachel Levine, President Biden’s nominee for Assistant Secretary at Health and Human Services. The doctor removed his mother from a nursing home before ordering COVID patients into similar facilities. 

The tweet mentioned what the Biden administration had been touting, that Dr. Levine identifies as a transgender woman, a person who was born a man, but now believes they’re a woman. Stating biological reality isn’t hateful, it’s factual. But stating it got us banned. As Christians, we need to be a voice of both love and truth in the culture. Sadly, Twitter appears less interested in truth, and more interested in silencing those who share facts. 

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Of all the accomplishments of the Trump administration, the one that seemed least likely to fall under President Biden and a Democrat-majority Congress were the Abraham Accords.

No longer.

With the announcement that the new administration will review a sale of a batch of fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates, one of the most important diplomatic achievements in the Middle East could be in question.

These breakthrough agreements could mean security for Israel and a broader stability that has eluded the Middle East since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. They also represent a fundamental alignment of our interests in the region.

Perhaps Team Biden has done a wise thing in simply clarifying that they will, indeed, review and approve these contracts. Now they must do a wiser thing by quickly completing the review and accelerating the sale and the production lines in Dallas-Fort Worth and celebrating publicly the Abraham Accords as the game-changer they are.

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The first moves of President Biden’s unity administration show he is taking a page from his former boss’ playbook. Biden’s demands on immigration and COVID-19 relief provide an eerie echo to President Barack Obama’s pretensions of bipartisanship. Twelve years ago almost to the day, Obama told Republicans “I won” rather than allow the GOP meaningful input on his $900 billion stimulus plan for the 2009 economic crisis. He later did the same on Obamacare, using parliamentary tricks rather than working with Republicans on the massive overhaul.

The national media allowed Obama to define himself as the center and therefore cast all of his critics as driven purely by partisanship rather than legitimate policy concerns.

Both President Biden and the media should recall how that worked out for Democrats in the midterms. Their overreach produced a massive rebuke in 2010 from which they have yet to recover. Engagement is the wiser course not just for Democrats but also for the health of the nation.

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On his last day as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo labelled China’s actions against their Uighur population “genocidal.” He correctly accused them of committing crimes against humanity, by enslaving, torturing, and murdering their mostly Muslim religious minorities.

This is an important reminder of who our chief adversary is today—the ominous threat it poses. China, despite the pandemic that they bear responsibility for, is still getting economically stronger. China’s economy is the only major economy which grew last year, while almost everyone else’s tanked on a virus that its government refused to warn the world about.

Whatever disagreements we may have with our domestic political opponents, they pale in comparison to the threat from China. Just like in the Cold War against the Soviets, the struggle against the genocidal Maoists will require a bi-partisan consensus. We need to set aside our petty domestic duels and focus on our real adversary.

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Investors from the forum Reddit sent panic through the financial world when they bought stock in GameStop en masse.

The goal was to capitalize on hedge funds that were short the stock. They appear to have started a populist, anti-establishment movement in the process.

This is a complicated and evolving situation—and some of the basic facts are still in dispute.

Whether or not any crimes were committed by either the Reddit raiders or the institution, there’s a problem here: The financial establishment is already deeply distrusted. The trading platforms added to that distrust by suddenly preventing normal investors from buying more shares of GameStop. This looked to many like another example of favoring the institutions over the little guy.

Leaders need to take extra care to treat everyone equally. Any move that appears to put the interests of the elites above the grassroots erodes confidence in those institutions even more.

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For the last several months, Americans have watched as angry activists across the political spectrum have increasingly turned to violence and mob intimidation to short-circuit our representative institutions and democratic processes. From Antifa violence in the Pacific Northwest to the storming of our nation’s capital, mobs have eroded our standing as a nation whose identity is founded on the rule of law protected by the institutions of a republic in which all take part.

In these early days of a new administration, both major political parties have a unique opportunity to speak out against mob actions and violence. Elected officials from Pennsylvania Avenue to our local main streets have an obligation today to rebuild trust in the institutions of a healthy and free republic.

Only when those entrusted with public service act with renewed seriousness and dedication to their offices will voters have trust restored in these institutions, rather than form mobs in desperation.

As we have seen in stark terms, the way of the mob is madness.

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