Biden’s call for unity rings hollow as his party seeks to silence all opposition. We will not be silenced. Instead, we must become stronger by uniting as a party in our just cause of liberty and freedom.
In his inaugural address, President Joe Biden used the word “unity” eight times but failed to denounce the growing cancel culture coming from the Left that is tearing our country apart. He did not even acknowledge the censorship by Big Tech. He did not acknowledge the nasty campaign to blacklist former Trump appointees and deny them future employment. There can be no unity in a country where those in the majority seek to purge all dissenting views. Rather than seek to unite with people attempting to silence us, we must seek unity within our own ranks.
I have been a registered Republican since I voted for George H.W. Bush in 1988. I was a college student living in Boston at the time. My father, a career Air Force officer, and the rest of my family were stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Somehow my legal address was still with my parents because I had to request an absentee ballot to vote. It required a little extra effort, but I was determined to vote.
My father inspired my lifelong desire to be politically engaged. Growing up I learned that the first vote he cast for president was for John F. Kennedy in 1960. That was the first and only time he ever voted for a Democrat and as far as I know, he never regretted it. Kennedy espoused the views most Republicans hold today – the idea that we are to serve our country, not the other way around.
Today’s GOP is not pefect. But it is a place that welcomes all who embrace freedom and liberty. GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was on Fox News this week and invited all to unite.
“We are only going to win back the majority if we unite,” McDaniel said. “The Democrats are the cancel culture party. We’re the party for everyone. So let’s just make sure we extend a hand to every American and talking about cutting taxes, deregulation and the promise of this country, and freedom of speech and religion. And that’s how we’ll draw people with positivity.”
The Republican Party was born out of our nation’s struggle to end slavery. We are the party that ended that terrible scourge that so divided our nation 160 years ago. We have always been the party that fights for the forgotten man and woman. We are the party of the hard-working Americans who aren’t looking to the government to solve their problems.
We are the party that stood up to the labor unions when they became the bullies of the free markets. My grandfather was a loyal union member in the 1950s and 60s, back when unions represented the little guy. He was a native Hispanic from a tiny farming village in Northern New Mexico, who thanks to union wages and hard work was able to elevate his family to the middle-class.
We are the party of peace through strength. That’s how we won the Cold War and achieved the lasting peace we enjoy today. I was a high school student when Democrats denounced President Reagan’s hard-line approach with the former Soviet Union. They claimed we were on the brink of nuclear annihilation. They were wrong. Republicans were right.
We are the party that fights for a strong economy that creates jobs. We are the party that protects paychecks from high government taxes. We fight for lower taxes. We eliminate government regulations that hamper job growth. We unleash our nation’s vast energy resources.
That is not to say our party has always been right, because we haven’t been. The party has disappointed me many times over the years. It disappointed me when it incrementally grew the size and scope of the federal government over the last half-century. It disappointed me when it created the massive government surveillance state after the 9-11 attacks.
But, at a time when Democrats control all the levers of power in Washington, D.C., our best chance of saving our country and fighting government tyranny will come from a strong, united loyal opposition. History will show that we were in the right. We are the big tent party that welcomes all voices who share our love of freedom.
While we are in the minority in the Senate, Republicans still have legislative tools and options for stopping the Biden agenda. For example, in the Senate, we can use the filibuster to stop Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer from packing the Supreme Court and adding the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico at states. We can use it to stop Democrats from implementing the public option for socialized medicine and passing the Green New Deal.
Biden’s call for unity rings hollow as Big Tech and institutional elites on the Left seek to silence all opposition. We will not be silenced. Instead, we must become stronger by uniting as a party in our just cause of liberty and freedom.
Catherine Mortensen is Vice President of Communications at Americans for Limited Government.
