James' World 2

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With Donald Trump banned from Twitter and suspended from Facebook, the political temperature on social media is noticeably cooler. The (relative) tranquility may not last long, with Facebook considering whether to reinstall the former president at some point in the future. On the latest Pivot podcast, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway discuss the implications of this decision, and the wisdom of outsourcing it to an outside entity.

Kara Swisher: Facebook’s oversight board is taking on its first major case. It’s been doing a bunch of them, but this is the big one. Last week Facebook asked the recently formed board to review the company’s decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account. Twenty people will now decide whether to let Trump back on Facebook and Instagram, after a suspension period. The board is also being asked to consider a question that goes far beyond Trump’s account, and look at their world-leader policy in general.

As a reminder, Facebook announced they’d be launching this “Supreme Court” in 2019. It is a star-studded panel of people that I’ve called the United Nations — only less effective. It should be bigger than 20, but they haven’t named everyone to it yet. It’s funded by Facebook, but Facebook has no control over it. It’s an independent body, and they’re going to take the big case because Mark can’t make the decision himself, or take responsibility for it. So they’re foisting it on them. Ben Smith did a great column on this. And Nick Clegg is doing his fantastic song and dance about how they need new solutions to these problems, which I call “running your own company,” but whatever. What do you think about this, Scott?

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Yellen, a Democrat, was confirmed by the Senate 84-15, with broad bipartisan support. All 15 no votes came from Republicans.

The Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved Yellen’s nomination last week, with Democrats and even Republicans touting her qualifications despite GOP opposition to much of President Biden’s economic agenda.

She is the third of Biden’s Cabinet nominees to be confirmed, following Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Yellen brings a wealth of policy experience to her new position. She served as chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018, making her the first woman to hold that position, and was head of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration.

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© Getty Images Senate confirms Yellen as first female Treasury secretary

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That figure translates to 334 years of the presidential salary that Trump and his supporters frequently boast he is not taking.

During Barack Obama’s presidency, Trump frequently claimed he was playing golf too much and at too great an expense to taxpayers.

“I play golf to relax. My company is in great shape. @BarackObama plays golf to escape work while America goes down the drain,” Trump tweeted in December 2011.

“Can you believe that, with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf. Worse than Carter,” he wrote three years later.

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Over the past quarter-century, from the impeachment of Bill Clinton through the two impeachments of Donald Trump, American politics has been consumed with viciousness. The most striking line in President Joe Biden’s Inaugural Address was his call to restore mutual respect to public life: “We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue.”

I don’t expect this to happen. In fact, I’d be stunned if it did. But before we simply give up on this hope as a feeble gesture or an antiquated delusion, it is worth thinking about what it would take to fulfill it.

“Unity” does not mean consensus. Democratic government is built on the premise of disagreement. Biden recognized that in his speech, telling Trump voters, “To all those who did not support us, let me say this: Hear me out as we move forward. Take a measure of me and my heart. If you still disagree, so be it. That’s democracy.”

What unity means, or ought to mean, is a politics that allows for public debate in practical and measured terms. Under Clinton and Barack Obama, Republican opposition spiraled almost immediately into an existential rage: The Clinton deficit-reduction plan would destroy the economy; Obama’s economic stimulus and health-care reform would trigger a Greece-like hyperinflationary spiral, an Ayn Rand nightmare come to life.

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Unity does not mean consensus. Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

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