For now, civil society in the US looks divided, and that is a problem.
Has the incoming Biden administration or the Democratic party expressed any specific policies or plans for the purpose of addressing this issue?
asked Dec 22, 2020 at 10:40
-
2I can't see how this is answerable, at least until Biden announces something that he is going to do in this area.– DJClayworthDec 22, 2020 at 14:49
-
1Odd to close a question about the biggest challenge the US is facing. Maybe rephrasing it to something like Has Biden communicated a plan... would improve it. As to actual steps in that direction, besides wowing with competence, as per John Bode's answer, conciliatory gestures are possible, such as: appoint moderate Reps where appropriate, not appointing too-far-left Dems and above all, expressly disavowing Supreme Court packing.– Italian Philosophers 4 MonicaDec 23, 2020 at 19:22
-
1I don't see it as inherently problematic. Its no problem that people disagree with each other. In fact that's rather normal. More problematic would be if everybody agreed, there was one party that everybody supported (at least everybody who mattered)– James KDec 24, 2020 at 9:20
-
It's not a problem government can solve. As a people, we have to choose to be less sensitive, more forgiving, less hostile, and more gentle. The media is in a much better position to help than the government is. Unfortunately, these days, the media is more antagonistic that anything.– mikemDec 30, 2020 at 7:24
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
Yes, the Democratic Party Platform for the 2020 elections contains a section entitled "Healing the Soul of America", which begins:
Democrats believe in bringing the American people together, not stoking division and distrust. President Trump has denigrated virtually every segment of American society—and in so doing, he has insulted the very idea of America itself. Healing the soul of America means facing up to the deepest inequities in our society, from structural racism to misogyny to discrimination against people with disabilities, and enacting ambitious measures to fix them.
The full section is far too long to reproduce here, but it includes commitments to "use federal law enforcement tools and resources to address domestic terrorism", as well as a promise to "ensure federal data collection and analysis is adequately funded and designed to allow for disaggregation by race and ethnicity, among other important factors, to better design policies to address the needs of the most vulnerable communities and make informed policy choices".
This section seems to cover the majority of the Democratic Party position on the race and gender points from the link in the question, but on the issue of the economy, the section entitled "Building a Stronger, Fairer Economy" seems more relevant, focusing on the issues of intergenerational mobility as well as the "persistent, pernicious racial wealth gap". This section contains promises such as a raise in the federal minimum wage, as well as tax-credits for first-time homebuyers as part of their goal to "address long-standing economic and racial inequities in our housing markets".
-
2A fair answer from Biden/Democratic perspective, but I suspect many Republicans will see many if not all those measures working against their ideals. Mkay maybe I'm too pessimistic, but e.g. half of Republicans didn't dig affirmative action npr.org/2018/11/01/658960740/…– FizzDec 24, 2020 at 8:48
-
1
-
Yes, that's why I upvoted. Btw, the Republicans seems about just as split on whether the US has too much or "just the right amount" of economic inequality pewsocialtrends.org/2020/01/09/views-of-economic-inequality– FizzDec 24, 2020 at 8:56
-
-
2@Fizz well, yes, because the entire Republican strategy has been to provoke division and benefit from it. It's a "prisoner's dilemma" situation where "defect" is working for them.– pjc50Dec 24, 2020 at 10:10
There’s nothing the Biden administration or the Democratic Party can do except govern as effectively as possible, which is going to be difficult at best because of bad actors in Congress and the news media.
We’re seeing the end result of decades’ worth of grievance and misinformation pushed by talk radio, certain cable news networks, and other alternate news sources. With the democratization of media made possible by the Internet, there’s no effective gatekeeping to stop disinformation and propaganda from being disseminated.
The downside of a free press is that we have no good way of stopping anyone from just making stuff up and publishing it as news, at least not without running afoul of the 1st Amendment and a couple of centuries of case law.
The other problem is that we citizens treat politics as a reality show and elect performative jackasses who have no ability or desire to actually govern.
This isn’t a top-down problem with a top-down solution. In a democracy, you get the government you deserve.
-
3This is just opinion. Plenty of people have plans that could help reunite the country. Dec 22, 2020 at 14:49
-
3@DJClayworth: You can’t make people like each other or like you. You can try to appeal to their better nature, but if they don’t have one it’s kind of a waste of time, Dec 22, 2020 at 14:56
-
3No, you can't. But you can do things that make it easier for people to accept each other, or work together cooperatively despite their differences, or focus on the things that unite them, or make it unacceptable to openly promote hatred against each other, or many other things that help overcome division. And sometimes people do actually change their minds and like each other. Do you consider Japanese people your enemy? Your grandfather probably did. Dec 22, 2020 at 15:01
-
8I don't think this really answers the question. OP isn't asking whether Biden's plan to heal the nation's divide will actually work, he's just asking whether such a plan exists.– F1KrazyDec 22, 2020 at 17:26