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Opinion: Will calls for unity from two unpopular candidates be followed or fall flat as empty, cynical words?

AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar / Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump raises his fist to let the crowd know he is OK as he is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents after an assassin's bullet grazed him at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday.
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar / Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump raises his fist to let the crowd know he is OK as he is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents after an assassin's bullet grazed him at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday. AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar / Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump raises his fist to let the crowd know he is OK as he is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents after an assassin's bullet grazed him at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday.

By Clint Cooper 5 min read

Ah, unity.

It’s the theme on which President Donald Trump based his 2017 inaugural address, belying his take-no-prisoners campaign during which his insults to the powerful and insignificant were frequent and biting.

Ah, unity.

It’s the theme on which President Joe Biden based his 2021 inaugural address, saying his “whole soul is in it” after a campaign in which he accused then-President Trump of fomenting racial tension and of being one who “sows chaos” and “sees a political lifeline” in violence.

Unity.