The recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump was immediately followed by both Trump and Joe Biden calling for unity.

How long will that last?

Biden took to national TV on the evening of the assassination attempt calling for unity and for Americans to lower the temperature, but, the following day, he told NBC’s Lester Holt, “Trump is dividing the country.”

Trump also spoke of changing his campaign to feature more unity, but immediately began talking about Democratic “witch hunts,” which are dividing the electorate.

That is so typical of Washington. They know more than anyone that talk is cheap. Words come and go from the mouths of politicians in a matter of seconds, while actions, as they say, “speak louder than words.”

So, again, how long will the two parties be calling for unity?

Laura Washington, a political analyst from Chicago, said, “By next week, we will see negative ads on both sides, and the gloves will come off again.”

John Geer, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, said it the best: “They’re both calling for unity. And so they’re calling for it, but, in fact, it may well be partisanship in disguise.”

I belong to the political organization No Labels, whose main function is working for unity in our government. They initiated and successfully started the Problems Solvers Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, now with more than 60 members, nearly equally split between Democrats and Republicans. That caucus promotes unity and bipartisanship whenever possible.

No Labels also worked for the past two years to bring a “unity ticket” to this year’s presidential election. It would have consisted of a president and vice president — one a Democrat, the other a Republican — dedicated to finding common-sense solutions and insisting on more unity in Congress.

Both major parties began to attack No Labels, trying to stop them from getting ballot access, spreading lies, and threatening officers. It was clear the two parties wanted nothing to do with unity.

So don’t let those recent references to unity fool us.

Both parties use division as campaign tools and tactics, and nothing in the recent past shows us they can or are willing to change.

How is it that millions of Americans’ cries for more unity, civility, and bipartisanship from Washington fall on deaf ears?

That answer is crystal clear, too.

It’s all about party. Party over people. Party over country.

And now we are supposed to believe “unity” is their rallying cry?

Unity can be best described as the opposite of division. The majority of people want unity, while the majority of Washington thrives on division. Therein lies the problem.

It’s become classical practice in D.C. for politicians to ignore the will of the people, and the evidence of their ignorance is all around us. One has only to look at several of the major issues facing America today, issues that could be solved with unity but remain unsolved because of division.

The national debt growing by $4 million per minute, or immigration reform, or shoring up Social Security and Medicare, or unaffordable health care costs, inflation, and high energy prices, to name just a few.

Do any of us think those problems can be solved with more division? Or is there a better chance to solve them with unity and compromise?

Let the word of the week be “unity,” but beware, it most likely is coming to us as “partisanship in disguise.”

Let my question to you this week be, “How long will this unity last?”

Let me know at gregawtry@awtry.com.