In the last week of this campaign there has been so much attacking, that we have lost sight of where we need to go. Biden has a phrase, not unique, of Build Back Better. It sure sounds positive, but what does it mean? Here I am trying to find ways that, regardless of who is in the Oval Office at the end of January, that person will have to find a way for us all to do the building. I believe we need to build back better :
A shared wish to seek unity, to find common cause, common ground, shared values for our nation. The trust that our leaders will both recognize our differences and distinctions, and also try to bridge the divides, not widen them. That the policies and politics, both the real actions and the rhetoric will make it possible to work together and not against each other. A house divided against itself cannot long stand. Lincoln said that in the run up to the Civil War, it was true then and it is true now.
Trust that we can believe what our national leadership says about the matters that affect us and are important to us. We may recognize that there are times when even the most honest of leaders will bend the truth on one occasion or another to achieve a specific goal, but we to build back better a shared sense that our leaders can be trusted to be straight with the American people.
We need to build back better a common acceptance and belief in certain norms with regard to the way our government is run, that it will be consistent and reliable, fair and predictable. That if one set of rules is applied to one administration, those set of rules should apply to another. We need to build back better a respect for our core institutions. Our courts, our congress, our national intelligence systems, our military, our police, our schools. That they are governed by rules which are fair, equal and transparent. Build back better an international sense of the reliability of our commitments.
Although this is not completely up to the government, we need to build back better a trust that there are common reliable sources of news and knowledge about the things that are affect us and important to us. Just facts. Not slanted, spun, biased and filtered. It used to be that people accepted the facts they heard from sources such as the networks, the great papers. We might have argued about whether or not we should be fighting in Vietnam, but we didn’t wonder whether the deaths in Vietnam were a hoax.
Build back a sense of accommodation and consensus. That does not mean compromise and abandonment of core principles, but it does mean finding ways to advance our goals in ways which recognize that there are multiple stack-holders and interests.
We need to build back better a recognition that economic opportunity and bounty has to be available across the spectrum of our people. Maybe not exactly even, but with some sense that changes in the system which vastly improve the lot of some while not keeping an eye out for others are not going to be sustainable.
Finally, we have to build back better our common identity as Americans. We are not blue states and red states, white Americans and black Americans, fascist Americans and Anarchist Americans, we are commonly Americans who in those challenging and divisive time need to come together to realize that we are all in this together and must move forward together. We share a history and a destiny, and the future is ours, together.