Please Stop Asking the Left for Unity

It took me a few days to figure out why widespread calls for unity were grating on me. I get it. The urge to come together as a nation singing “Kumbaya” and pretending the last four years didn’t happen. It would be nice.

But they did happen. And the structures and systems that created and supported these last four years are bred of the same evil and injustice that created and supported the last 400 years. And we can’t ignore them. That’s not unity.

I was reminded of an excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail:

First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

In our desperation for unity and peace, let us not become “more devoted to order than to justice.”

The truth is, to the right, these calls for unity are just a means to stop progressive policies from coming to fruition and to pardon themselves for their harmful allegiance to Trump.

The right wants the left to think that most people are moderate. It’s just not true. No candidate for U.S. House of Representatives who co-sponsored Medicare for All lost their election. Several center-right Democrats did. “The Squad” doubled in size. Exit poll after exit poll show that progressive ideology is winning and gaining popularity. But… unity!

Denying Americans of healthcare, housing, clean water and energy, and racial equity is not unity.

And don’t forget, we compromised. When the GOP chose the farthest-right, authoritarian candidate in Donald Trump, we compromised and chose Joe Biden. He represents very few progressive values, but the right and center-right democrats convinced us that choosing a progressive to run against Trump would be our demise. So we chose the absolute most moderate candidate possible. We were told never-Trump Republicans would vote for him. But we learned there aren’t a whole lot of never-Trump Republicans; Trump Republicans are just Republicans. They voted for Trump at a higher rate this year (93%) than in 2016 (90%).

The left doesn’t need a lesson in compassion.

It’s unfathomably ironic that the Trump gang is calling on the left to be compassionate and come together. Apart from the hypocrisy of this coming from the mouths of those who called Obama a terrorist, don ‘F*ck your feelings’ apparel, and laughed off pandemic that’s 250,000 Americans and counting, it’s also unbelievably hypocritical in the policies we each voted for. The left already chose compassion. We voted for all Americans to have healthcare and education, fundamental rights and an inhabitable earth. We voted for those things for Trump supporters. We chose compassion for them. They voted for the continued oppression of minorities, tax breaks for millionaires, and continued climate damage. When it comes to compassion, I think one team has the clear upper hand.

These calls for unity aren’t just out of touch, they’re hurtful. The real ask here is that we overlook the fact that tens of millions of Americans voted against our rights and safety. Healing requires uncovering those structures as the evil they are and denouncing them as a country. Ignoring those issues while Black and brown bodies continue to die in the streets and women and LGBTQ+ individuals lose one right after another… that’s not unity. The onus shouldn’t be on the oppressed to reconcile to the oppressor. It is the responsibility of the oppressor to recognize their wrongs and seek reconciliation.

I’m sure there are Trump voters who feel a little bit ashamed of their vote. But please hear me: asking everyone whom you hurt with your vote to forget that you voted against them won’t clear your conscience. Sustained action and accountability might. So please, stop asking for unity. Instead, seek justice. Then, unity will surely come.