Yesterday, the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman wrote a lovely piece about his recent lunch with President Joe Biden, a lunch that featured a tuna salad sandwich with tomato on whole wheat bread, a bowl of mixed fruit, a chocolate milkshake that was so good it should have been against the law … and, ultimately, a heavy heart.
But why was his heart so heavy? He got to have lunch with dear, sweet Uncle Joe!
Ah, but Uncle Joe’s own heart was apparently full of sadness, too. Full of sadness over the unity he promised and has failed to deliver on, despite all of his valiant efforts:
NYT’s Friedman: Biden worried he can’t "reunite America" https://t.co/uTRnipQjvF pic.twitter.com/LuJYz9TozT
— The Hill (@thehill) May 23, 2022
“Biden didn’t say it in so many words, but he didn’t have to. I could hear it between the lines: He’s worried that while he has reunited the West, he may not be able to reunite America,” Friedman wrote.
“It’s clearly his priority, above any Build Back Better provision. And he knows that’s why he was elected — a majority of Americans worried that the country was coming apart at the seams and that this old war horse called Biden, with his bipartisan instincts, was the best person to knit us back together,” Friedman wrote.
…
“But with every passing day, every mass shooting, every racist dog whistle, every defund-the-police initiative, every nation-sundering Supreme Court ruling, every speaker run off a campus, every bogus claim of election fraud, I wonder if he can bring us back together. I wonder if it’s too late,” Friedman commented. “I fear that we’re going to break something very valuable very soon. And once we break it, it will be gone — and we may never be able to get it back.”
How could this have happened? We had such high hopes for Joe Biden, who campaigned on his ability to be a Great Uniter! Who could’ve predicted that he wouldn’t be able to deliver on such a lofty promise?
He hasn’t tried
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) May 24, 2022
I'm worried I can't run a sub 4 minute mile. The thing we share in common is that neither of us have tried. https://t.co/zbQXdhhwQY
— Casey Mattox (@CaseyMattox_) May 24, 2022
Maybe he’s just been trying a bold new strategy: unity by division.
A few more times comparing Republicans to the president of the confederacy should do it 🤡 https://t.co/D2hkb8d0Tw
— Abigail Marone 🇺🇸 (@abigailmarone) May 24, 2022
Hey, you never know!
I guess the "Ultra MAGA" shtick didn't have the uniting effect Biden thought it would. One of these days I'm sure he'll find the right insult that'll bring America together. https://t.co/WA4cJczW0N
— Jake K. Turx (@JakeTurx) May 24, 2022
Maybe he won’t even need an insult to do it:
I don’t know… Americans are pretty united in their opinion that he’s incompetent https://t.co/XoMIJRRBQk
— Cam Harris (@camharris_us) May 24, 2022
Considering his current approval rating, the contempt for this administration sure seems to be unifying a lot of people https://t.co/tVHajA29ch
— Admiral Rufus T. Firefly (sworn enemy of Rakell) (@hoggomcswineass) May 24, 2022
He may just pull it off after all!
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