Does the Center-Left Have Some Responsibility for Building National Unity?

I'd say yes, though it also fair to say that the center-right has the most responsibility for disciplining their own ranks and rooting out the crazy. But that does not absolve the center-left of significant responsibility to help move the country in the direction advocated by President Biden.

My colleague Peter Juul makes a strong case for this at The Liberal Patriot (subscribe--unlike most Substacks, all the content is free!)

"In his inaugural address, President Joe Biden made a strong plea for national unity after more than four years of division deliberately fostered by his predecessor. It’s easy – and sorely tempting – for Democrats and progressives to point their fingers solely and exclusively at conservatives and Republicans, especially when the right bears the lion’s share of responsibility and then some for the deterioration of our national politics. There’s no denying the reality that true national unity won’t be possible until the center-right cleans up its own act.

All the same, those of us on the broad center-left ought to be willing if not eager to do our part to lower the nation’s political temperature. It’s up to conservatives to regulate their own side of the political aisle, but that does not absolve liberal patriots from their own responsibilities to do the same. Leaving the matter wholly up to conservatives gives them a veto on the subject of national unity, one many on the right are already trying to use. If we’re serious about national unity along the lines put forward by President Biden, it’s incumbent upon us to act like it. To paraphrase the ancient Roman philosopher Epictetus, liberal patriots need to remember what’s under our own control and acknowledge what’s not. In the process, we may find that the center-left can expand the ranks of the “enough of us” and build the political coalitions necessary to make real progress."

Read the whole article, with some do's and don'ts for the center-left, at The Liberal Patriot!

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