Sens. Warnock and Lankford call for unity in polarized America

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Axios

6 hours ago


Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) compared U.S. political polarization and fatigue to family dynamics in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press."

The big picture: The comments from the only two ordained ministers in the Senate come as the nation grapples with a divisive post-election ideological divide.

Case in point: Lawmakers grappled this week with gaining bipartisan support for a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.

The full interview with NBC's Kristen Welker will air on a special edition of "Meet the Press" on Sunday morning.

Zoom in: Warnock said bipartisan work "is as basic as the American covenant," according to a transcript provided to Axios.

He added that while there are differences of opinion, "the issue is our humanity and trying to build and strengthen the American family."

Asked how lawmakers can reach across the aisle, Lankford said he believes most people don't identify first with their parties but rather as human beings and neighbors. The question, he said, is how to get "people who disagree [to] sit down and figure it out? That's where we are."

He added, "Unfortunately, Washington, D.C. is a mirror to the country that the country doesn't really like."

Rather than trying to figure out how to be bipartisan, "we're supposed to figure out how to solve problems," Lankford said. "I think that's the emotion of the country, is they want it to be fixed, but they can't figure out how it's going to actually happen.

Between the lines: The percentage of Americans who say they have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the mass media has fallen to a record low.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/2024/12/22/warnock-lankford-nbc-meet-the-press

[Polybius]

10. Fetterman just said more today

A nice sentiment. Both are brave stewards.

I hope greed isn't overpowering. I'm afraid too many are running for cover. Sen F for one. I'm not even going to say his name.
Who will we recognize in the gulags of the noem Dakotas?

Here's the link.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143360631

[Paladin]

2. Unity with the trump regime? Fuck off, Senators. (nt)

[bucolic_frolic]

3. He believes MAGA self-identify as human.

'nuff said.

[William Seger]

4. "post-election ideological divide?"

Ideology, huh? I thought the problem was that the Burger King is an obnoxiously self-obsessed fascist demagogue, racist bigot, misogynist, traitor, convicted felon, unregister sex offender, and the biggest liar American politics has ever seen. Seems more like a character divide.

[NotHardly]

11. He can F*ck right off ...not unifying with MAGA traitors

[Solly Mack]

5. People who support policies and politicians that harm other people aren't exactly interested in anyone's humanity.

Not even their own.

[nowforever]

6. No unity when

An ignorant arrogant narcissist is wielding the sword.

[in2herbs]

7. Another example of how/why religion injected into politics should be ignored. nt

[usonian]

8. I'll tell you what REAL UNITY means.

It means that people wise up to the divisions deliberately created in a culture war, and figure out the real enemy: THE RICH WHO ARE FUCKING EVERYONE OVER. Put simply:



and how do they do it?



You saw some of this coming with the killing of a murdering CEO (I am against violence and killing)
The visibility this gives to the REAL division will help unite ALL people being plundered, slaughtered, lied to and brutalized by the rich in their quest for insane and ultimately meaningless amounts of money.

At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history.

Heller responds,“Yes, but I have something he will never have – ENOUGH.”

[Baitball Blogger]

9. Unity doesn't live here anymore.

Last edited Sun Dec 22, 2024, 03:56 PM - Edit history (1)

Reminds me of a clueless parent telling twins that they should get along, and one of them is a bad seed and the other one knows it.

[LatteLady]

12. A lack of "discernment"

Anyone who thinks this is a political divide, including these two “Christians”, is far off the mark.

Should members of the resistance unify with the Nazis?

This is a difference in moral values so great there is insufficient common ground on which to rebuild our nation, if that is even possible at this point.

Those about to be in the White House and majorities in the House and Senate are either authoritarians or capitulating to authoritarians. We should not unify with them.

It’s going to get bad. Trump voters are going to have to “hit bottom” before they give up their addiction to this cult. However, given their inability or unwillingness to see reality and their own hypocrisy, I’m not optimistic that even terrible outcomes will make any difference. Any group that denies that their choices resulted in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary COVID deaths has a bottom too low to be fathomed.

[RainCaster]

13. US mass media can't be trusted IMO

Eight years of false equivalency bullshit has left me with no trust for any news organization in the US. I get all my news from news outlets in other countries.

[Quanto Magnus]

14. Now a Republican calls for unity....

.....now that a Republican is going to take office in a month.

[Dem4life1970]

17. ***Exactly***

This would carry WAY MORE CREDIBILITY if Lankford had spoken up along these lines starting in 2020.

I am tired of Republicans saying "Let's all get along" now that we are getting our way.

I am laser focused on sending all of them packing in 2026. Period. No unity whatsoever.

They MUST be defeated, plain and simple.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. The irony of Lankford

was that HE was literally speaking in the Senate on January 6, giving his remarks for the objection to certifying the Electoral vote from AZ, right when his OWN party's hoodlum insurrectionists burst into the Capitol building, and headed for the Congressional chambers.

They did eventually break into the Senate chamber that Lankford fled, took over the dais, and were rifling through the Senators' desks.

[Marthe48]

15. Essay in 2017 or so

About moving from a position that embraces diversity, difference, toward people who don't. The author said that it isn't possible for people to move away from their position of empathy toward what traitor offers without giving up important human elements. The author said the right needs to move toward our position. I took that to heart and I will not seek unity with people on the right, not unless they change their position on just about every point in their anti-social agenda.

I'm going to try to find the essay. It is probably as topical right now in response to this asinine request to unify as it was when traitor was destroying the country before. God.

[NotHardly]

16. They can both get stuffed.

[Woodycall]

18. You mean the kind of dynamics...

that can occur when half the family are normal human beings an the other half are GODDAMN FUCKING NAZIS? Fuck. That. Bullshit...

[Martin Eden]

19. I'm pondering WHAT could possibly unify a large majority of American voters

Maybe, just maybe, the incoming administration will cause so much harm to so many people that low information voters will finally realize they've been conned into voting against their own interests.

Not the diehard magats who are irredeemable, but common folk who were sucked in by the gish gallop of disinformation.

The next few years may prove to be:
Darkest before the Dawn
**or**
Darkness

[BumRushDaShow]

21. One would think the pandemic would have been such an event

with over 1 million Americans having succumbed to the virus. Yet you STILL have MAGat zombies yelling about it and the vaccines being a "hoax" while the GOP the past 4 years held hearings to "blame Democrats" for the whole thing. It was enough to get Biden elected in 2020 but the GOP and their lacky media made sure to brainwash their "base" to ignore reality and instead believe the fictional world that was presented to them 24/7/365.