George W. Bush has claimed to be a uniter, not a divider, trying to follow the “big tent” concept that the Republican party has tried to engender for so long. Inclusiveness, bipartisanship, and unity. The problem is, as with so much that Bush has promised, he says one thing but does another.

But Bush has managed to split the nation more deeply than before. He made withering claims of bipartisanship, but soon after taking office with control of both houses of Congress, he dismissed not only the Democrats, but even the moderate wing of his own party. His policies and practices were so divisive that he even repelled one of his own Senators, Jim Jeffords, into leaving the party and temporarily placing the Democrats in control. After the contested 2000 election, the Democrats called for, and practiced, bipartisan unity; after 9/11, the Democrats again called for, and again practiced bipartisan unity. And both times Bush took advantage of that Democratic spirit of unity, ramrodded his highly partisan and often extreme agenda through Congress, and just as he squandered the sympathy and unity of the world, he drove most of half the nation far against him in anger and disgust.

Bush claimed that the Democrats have practiced “class warfare,” but under Democrats everyone prospered–the rich got richer, and so did the poor. All boats rose with the Democratic tide. But under Bush and the Republicans, the rich are given the deepest tax cuts while the middle class has their modest cut negated by poorer wages, higher fuel costs, slashed services and benefits, higher local taxes, and a plethora of other hidden costs that cost them more than Bush bribed them with. Bush has been against a decent minimum wage and social welfare, yet for corporate welfare and letting the wealthy avoid paying their fair share. And to counter the outrage, he accuses anyone who points these truths out to be waging “class warfare.”

Bush and the GOP have been trying to appeal to minorities to vote for their party, and put on a good show at their convention–but when you look carefully, you’ll see the color on the stage, but almost no color at all in the audience. Bush went before the National Urban League (after shunning the NAACP), and lectured, “I know plenty of politicians assume they have your vote. But did they earn it, and, do they deserve it? … Have the traditional solutions of the Democratic Party truly served the African-American people?” As if he has done anything for African Americans, as if he has even come close to earning their vote. The fact is, under Clinton, minorities did far better, with rising pay, falling crime, and better opportunities, while under Bush, the exact reverse has been true.

Even under Clinton, when the country divided, it was not because Clinton drove them there but because the Republicans knew they could gain power through divisiveness and so sought to turn as many in the nation against him. And even then, Clinton remained more popular than even Reagan had been, gaining more bipartisan support from the people, if not the Republican core.

We need to bring the country back together, and it has been made incredibly clear over the past four and twelve years that the GOP is not interested, whatever their claim might be. There is still the peril that, if John Kerry wins, even if the Democrats gain control of one or both houses in Congress, even with no more independent prosecutor law, the Republicans will fall back on their most effective way to gain power: to do everything within their abilities to divide, falsely accuse, and smear.

The Democrats gave Bush not one, but two major chances to embrace bipartisanship, offering cooperation and unity to the point where they angered their base, and remained cooperative until Bush threw it back in their face and abused their trust, later even using it as a weapon against them. When Kerry takes office, let’s see if the Republicans can offer true bipartisanship and unity, even once, even for a small while. I doubt that will happen to the point of utter disbelief, but I can only hope it will happen nevertheless.