Pres. Biden snubbed Tesla in his State of the Union speech.  He touted America's expanding development of electric vehicles, citing GM and Ford, saying, "Ford is investing $11 billion to build electric vehicles, creating 11,000 jobs across the country.  GM is making the largest investment in its history — $7 billion to build electric vehicles, creating 4,000 jobs in Michigan."

Conspicuously unmentioned was the world's top producer of electric vehicles and the U.S. company most noted for the transformational move toward electrification in the automobile industry: Tesla.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk quickly tweeted, "Tesla has created over 50,000 US jobs building electric vehicles & is investing more than double GM Ford combined."

Moreover, according to Bloomberg, "[l]ast year Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, produced an average of 8,550 cars a week."  That's more than the output from "70 competing facilities in North America."

This is not the first time Biden has slighted Tesla and Musk.  Last August, Biden held an summit on electric vehicles.  He invited Ford, GM, and the United Auto Workers union (UAW), but not Tesla.

The absurdity of that non-invitation was highlighted when Musk tweeted last month, "Biden has pointedly ignored Tesla at every turn and falsely stated to the public that GM leads the electric car industry, when in fact Tesla produced over 300,000 electric vehicles last quarter and GM produced 26."  (Musk later understatedly tweeted, "They appear to have some room for improvement.")

The obvious question: Why does Biden deliberately ignore an American startup company that in just a few years has become a world leader and globally iconic?  The answer is that Tesla is not a member of the UAW.  In fact, it's not unionized.  Biden is pro-union. 

But that shouldn't matter.  This president has made much of inclusion, diversity, and reuniting the country.  In this context, that means including and working with union as well as non-union workers and companies.  (In 2020, only 11% of U.S. workers belonged to unions.)

In the broader context, a president who would bring the country together must be able to accept diversity in beliefs and behavior and engage with those with whom he disagrees with, even dislikes.  (Musk has occasionally publicly criticized Biden.)  One cannot unify by exclusion. 

Thus far, Biden has not fulfilled his pledge to unite the nation after what he characterized as the divisive Trump presidency.  In fact, Biden's walk not matching his talk began even before he became president.  When informed that Trump wasn't going to attend the inauguration, Biden said, "It's a good thing, him not showing up."

Biden's public response should have been, "Pres. Trump, you said you're not coming to the inauguration.  I hope you'll reconsider.  There's a long tradition of the outgoing president attending the inauguration of the incoming president.  I hope you'll continue that American tradition and attend."

It would have taken courage.  But while momentarily scandalizing some of his supporters, taking that high road would have commanded national and world commendation and launched Joe Biden into the presidency as a visionary leader — committed to and capable of bringing the nation together.  Instead, Biden took the low road.  Stingy in victory, Biden sounded petty and divisive.

When it comes to national reunification, Biden continues to falter.  What started with Trump has continued with Musk.  Biden is not seen as a uniter because he hasn't been one.

All politicians mouth platitudes about "bringing the nation together" and "representing all the people," etc., etc.  Then, after the easy rhetoric, they revert to nasty partisan warfare, and the country remains fractured.  Sorely needed is a leader big enough and able enough to reach across divides and offer some chance at national reconciliation.

Avi Nelson is a Boston-based political analyst.  A libertarian/conservative (sometimes unappreciated in Boston), he has been in the media (TV, radio, print) for 48 years.

Image via Pixabay.