All of your points are well-taken, Joe.
I can only speak for me, but I feel like if we were to give in like you want then what's to prevent the "the left" from continuing their attacks in the future? I think what we need to see, at least from MY side, is the left behave with dignity and civility when they AREN'T in power or when things don't go their way. We haven't seen any of that, which is why calls for unity now sound hollow.
How about we start acting civil with the next GOP President instead of Biden? It's the only way were going to know if "the left" is sincere in their calls for unity.
In a word? I think the answer is "trust". And that's in short supply right now.
I just started reading
Pete Buttigieg's book. (I know. Democrat). Interestingly, called "Trust". But it opens with a fascinating story. He was in Iraq driving a military vehicle in public in a crowded area of town infamous for suicide bombers attacking vehicles. An Iraqi man approached Buttigieg's vehicle in traffic with a nervous look on his face. Traffic was so tight, cars were rubbing up against each other. As he got to the vehicle, Buttigieg had to decide whether to draw his weapon or risk being attacked. Turned out, there was a small piece of the man's bumper that had become lodged in the bumper of Buttigieg's vehicle and the man was just retrieving the piece. Crisis averted.
He then tells the story of being a boy and collecting baseball cards. He had his entire collection in a shoe box and decided to cash them in at the local card shop. The man behind the counter looked at the cards and said they were great but just wasn't in a position to buy them now. He did however have a brand new set of another card series that was so new and valuable, Becketts didn't even have it listed yet. But the value was way more than Buttigieg's cards. He offered to trade even and Buttigieg leapt at the deal and his good fortune.
And of course, the set he traded for was nearly worthless. The man cheated him.
I'm not sure where the book is going to go from there but my sense will be it's something I've long believed in. At some point, trust holds everything together. It's not just the legal contracts. It's the social contract we have with our fellow humans.
So back to your question, I think the way we move forward is to trust each other. Even when it may not seem warranted. It's easy to trust the guy who's never let you down. Big deal. Trusting the other who may have hurt you in the past is more difficult. But I think it's needed.
And let's be real, we're not talking "trust" in the sense of letting someone watch your children. Or to repay you money. The "stakes" are pretty low in we're trusting the person to be cool. And to de-escalate the rancor. If they betray that trust, the worst we are off is back to where we are already. There's not a lot at risk.
But I think it takes trust.
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