Commentary The week after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, people are still wondering whether he was sincere in his call for unity. Why would anybody wonder? Of course he was sincere. As it happens, however, “unity” is not an American virtue. We’re not a unitary society but a pluralistic one. Almost everywhere in history, the unitary leader has told his or her people: Obey me, or else. That was the precise meaning of Biden’s talk. In defining the crisis of American society, our president named a trio of elements that he portrayed as threats to the republic: the pandemic, the riot at the Capitol, and the rise of extremism. He suggested that those elements have put the United States in as perilous a place as it has ever been. Do you really think, Mr. President, that your difficulties measure up to JFK’s in 1961? Or to FDR’s in 1941? Not to …