Counterpoint: Anyone who argues that the president is engaged in the unification of the American people is engaging in the glorification of the president.
The presidency is a political office, and politics is about building coalition, not consensus.
And yes, as some have responded, the president has ceremonial, head-of-state responsibilities as well. But that’s not the heart of the job. Politics and policy are the heart of the job.
Imagine a Donald Trump who was pursuing the same policies with the same effectiveness, but whose speeches and public appearances projected warmth, compassion, and a compellingly-articulated desire for national unity. Would he be a good president? No.
He would be a worse president, because he would be a far more dangerous one.
The job of the next president isn’t to bring the country together. It’s to fix what’s been broken and replace what has been discredited. The task is huge and resistance will be fierce.
Barack Obama tried to do what Biden and Buttigieg propose to do, and he failed, despite being far more talented, far more capable, far more suited to the task than either of them.
Whatever you think of Obama as a president, his presidency was a test of certain propositions. I don’t see Biden or Buttigieg reckoning in any serious way with the data those tests produced.
