One week after Donald Trump’s acquittal in the Senate, and not before time, attention is turning more squarely to President Joe Biden and his agenda. Unfortunately, it’s already clear that moving past the political turmoil that Trump inflicted on the U.S. will be difficult.
Biden hopes to unite the country around efforts to support the economic recovery. He restated his case again during his recent town-hall event in Wisconsin, for the most part to good effect. And yesterday, at the virtual Munich Security Conference, he ventured to speak for the whole nation in calling for restored alliances and a return to international cooperation. His message was directed as much to Americans as to the rest of the world: The U.S. is getting back to normal.
A lot of Democrats, though, question Biden’s desire for unity. They think advancing a strong progressive program matters more. Republicans aren’t giving much thought to unity — right now their party is at war with itself. And the country as a whole is divided, too. Far from bringing people together, a deadly pandemic and its enormous collateral damage have driven them farther apart.
Many Americans still hope that Trump’s departure can restore some semblance of orderly, semi-functional government. Despite everything, so it might — but only if the country’s leaders exert themselves. Effective government in a closely divided country means trying harder to bridge the divides. And this demands, against all odds, two parties capable of finding common ground.
The president has taken steps in the right direction. At his town-hall event he called for decency and respect. Invited to denounce Senate Republicans for failing to convict Trump, he declined, saying it was time to move on. It helps that, during the trial, the president stayed above the fray. He didn’t offer running commentary and didn’t call for a guilty verdict. In response to disturbing new footage of the Capitol riot, he said only that “Some minds may have been changed.” It’s to be hoped many were, but Biden was wise to let the evidence speak for itself.
A leader who doesn’t crave perpetual attention or thrive on disorder is more than welcome. Biden’s restraint could also make space for the Republican Party to get past Trump — which, for the country’s sake, it needs to do.
Rest assured, the former president will make that as hard as he can. This past week he attacked Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, blaming him (absurdly) for the party’s defeats in Georgia and calling him a “dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack.” This came as no surprise: Although McConnell voted to acquit Trump, he later told the Senate, “There’s no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events” of Jan. 6. McConnell’s forthright evisceration could almost have served as the impeachment managers’ closing argument. Seven Republicans dared to join 50 Democrats in finding Trump guilty of incitement to insurrection — and it’s certain many more, like McConnell, while reluctant to convict, regard him as poison.
McConnell’s denunciation tests the hitherto impenetrable wall of Trump’s support in the GOP’s base. That support, to be sure, remains strong. Even so, an overdue internal debate on the risks of remaining attached to Trump has begun. The former president, even now, is capable of destroying the party he was allowed to co-opt, and its leaders finally need to wake up to the fact.
Many Democrats would like nothing better than to see Republicans self-destruct, and would wish to help the process along. Yet amid an unprecedented public-health emergency, repairing the country ought to come first. With razor-thin House and Senate majorities, a willingness to compromise with post-Trump Republicans would help to speed the necessary action.
More fundamentally, good government in a closely divided country needs two functioning parties. The Republican Party’s nervous breakdown is a threat to the whole system. The GOP needs to repair itself, suppress its instinct to oppose for the sake of opposing, and accept those elements of the Democratic recovery agenda that are most urgently needed. Democrats, for their part, should stay open to deals that could accelerate the country’s response to the Covid emergency, and help Biden keep his promise to heal the nation. In the short term, moderates on both sides can make common cause on how best to recover from the pandemic — by accepting, for instance, the need for additional aid for state and local governments (which most Republicans have objected to) and the need to reopen schools as quickly as possible (which most Democrats, in the face of union opposition, have hesitated to demand).
Looking beyond the Covid emergency, the desire to leave Trump and his chaos behind can indeed help unite the country — but making it happen will demand a lot of the country’s leaders, Democrats and Republicans alike. America can’t afford for them to fail.
—Editors: Robert A. George, Clive Crook.
To contact the senior editor responsible for Bloomberg Opinion’s editorials: David Shipley at davidshipley@bloomberg.net
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OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
