Opinion: Campaign trail's Joe Biden was a Trojan horse, delivering us an authoritarian divider

During his inaugural address, President Joe Biden harped on a familiar theme from his campaign: unity.

“We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature,” Biden said. “For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness, and fury.”

It was in line with Biden’s persona in the run-up to Election Day. “There will be no blue states and red states with me,” Biden said in October 2020.

Now, a year into his presidency, it’s clear that Biden has failed to deliver on either unity or moderation. Where Biden has failed to deliver results, he has sowed a bitter partisan divide.

No issue better exemplifies Biden’s broken promises and division than COVID-19, which he had repeatedly promised to “shut down” during the campaign.

Biden entered office with three vaccines created in record time thanks to President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed and nearly a year of data points on the efficacy — and pitfalls — of COVID policies such as shutting schools down.

One year later, COVID is still ravaging America harder than ever before. More Americans died from COVID in 2021 than in 2020.

Instead of confronting and admitting his failures — such as dismissing the vaccine distribution intentions of the Trump administration — Biden has sought to divide Americans and distract from his failures.

Biden promised, for instance, to never make the COVID vaccination mandatory. Then, in September, he did just that, with an unconstitutional executive order to mandate vaccines. He cursed those who didn’t fall in line, saying the unvaccinated are “looking at a winter of severe illness and death.”

He’s since cheered on his Democratic cronies in New York, California, Chicago, D.C., and elsewhere as they instituted draconian vaccine mandates and passport requirements.

For all the talk about “bitterness and fury” prevailing without unity, Biden doesn’t seem to be bothered by the fallout of his party’s cruel crusade against the unvaccinated: Recent Rasmussen polling shows that nearly half of all Democrats support detention facilities and surveillance against the unvaccinated.

It’s all pretty rich for a guy who cunningly dismissed the safety and efficacy of COVID vaccines during the presidential campaign.

When Biden isn’t skipping the White House’s weekly COVID coordinating call with governors, his administration is locked in battles with red-state governors who’ve opted to handle COVID and vaccination differently, and with some success.

Here in Iowa, we’ve been fortunate to have strong leaders like Gov. Kim Reynolds who aren’t afraid of a fight against Biden’s overreach. Our neighbors in Democratic-run states like Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois aren’t as lucky. What’s worse is that, day by day, Biden’s divisions are making them seem less like neighbors across a state boundary and more like foreigners living in another country.

It’s clear as day that Biden was a Trojan horse delivered to the American people — an ineffective, ruthless, and authoritarian divider packaged as working-class Joe from Scranton.

Michael Bousselot is a Republican who represents portions of Ankeny and rural Polk County and Alleman in the Iowa House.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Opinion: Campaign trail's Joe Biden was a Trojan horse