Biden thinks there's only one American way

"I voted for Obama twice and Hillary once. But I'll tell you, I'm going to vote for that knucklehead Donald Trump again."

My Uber driver made that declaration without much of an invitation. We were passing some protesters in midtown Manhattan. As best I could tell, they were protesting inhumane work hours and conditions, but my driver didn't really care what they were protesting -- he only saw "woke." He felt powerless and fed up.

The outburst took me down memory lane. The first time Donald Trump ran for president, I made it a point to talk with everyone I could. The Muslims, Mexican Americans, Black people and immigrants I spoke to were all saying some version of the same: They were fed up. They felt like the American dream they so loved -- the chance for a better life -- had vanished. Over and over I heard, "Donald Trump doesn't care. He will take on the media and everyone else."

That's one of the reasons I recoiled when President Joe Biden, in his recent speech, kept attacking not only Donald Trump, but MAGA Republicans. I agree with Biden that the Republican Party continues to be dominated and intimidated by Trump. I agree with him that Trump's behavior since the election he lost is reprehensible. I stand chastened, having thought early on in the 2016 primary that Republicans would surely get their act together and reject Trump. I just thought Americans were too decent to elect him.

But there are many decent Americans who voted for Trump, and who will likely do so again if he gets the nomination. And Biden is responsible for some of that.

In a speech where he claimed to be seeking to unite America, he had to talk about abortion and contraception. Yes, I am a Catholic who believes church teaching has done a lot to help women and men across the board. In fact, there are people on the left, feminists, who are increasingly finding that the sexual revolution lied to women and hurt them. (See Louise Perry's "The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century.") But no one is seriously trying to take away anyone's contraception in politics.

Biden insists that abortion rights are necessary to move forward. Well, if you want to unite our country, you might acknowledge that there are Americans who believe that abortion is the human rights issue of our lifetimes. Instead, Biden insists America is at an inflection point, comparing it to abolition, women's suffrage and the civil rights movement. How about acknowledging that there are some fundamental disagreements in the United States today? The only way to unite is to find places to meet -- common ground for people of good will.

Biden is insisting that there is only one American way. You can't undo people's anger by insisting our country has to embrace abortion -- making us an outlier in the world, in the company of China and North Korea.

And that contraception canard is an underhanded way to pledge to trample on the conscience rights of people who disagree with him -- on contraception and marriage and confusing children about their identities and even doing them harm, pressuring parents to make medical decisions no one is ready for.

I want a United States of America, too. But we're not going to have one until we have leaders who actually believe in pluralism.

Just the day after I met that Uber driver, I talked to a man who explained how his pious, prayerful mother was also ready to vote for Donald Trump again. The more Joe Biden insists on being the most extreme version of himself on issues that divide, the more he is setting the stage for Trump's comeback.

Wouldn't it be something to have a president -- Democrat or Republican -- who clearly respected people who disagreed with him, recognizing that he is their president, too? That's the kind of president we should pray for, "for the soul of America." Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump is that person.

klopez@nationalreview.com