The State of Things

​A State of the Union Address is what it is.  The reaction within the room will be mixed between cheers and ovations by one side and seated stone silence by the other.  (More on this later.)  If you support the president, you’ll like most of what he says, if you oppose him, you’ll be critical.  Its main point is for a president to hold his support, while hopefully shifting some in the middle back to his side and winning back those initial supporters who might be unhappy for any number of reasons – that they don’t like how things are in the country (regardless of whose fault it is) or that he didn’t do enough of what they want.

With all that in mind, I thought the speech was fine.  Some I loved, some was what it was.  I thought it was strong in the first part on Ukraine, but that’s a pretty easy “win.”  If you can’t get cheers on democracy fighting our longtime adversary in an unprovoked invasion – even with today’s GOP in the room – you aren’t trying.

I didn’t find the speech especially well-structured in its writing, making its bullet points but generally not taking a moment to emphasize why these are good and important.  And I didn’t think it was President Biden’s best-presented speech.  He was fine, and very good in parts, though there was no “soaring,” and I also think that soaring is core to a great State of the Union Speech.  To be clear, most don’t soar.  But I also listen for it.

However, I think that most of the points he said he wanted to pass were things that most people not affected by a tax increase when making over $400,000 would think are good and could support.

What I did he did a fair job at was point out all the notable achievements in his first year.  There were many, and he addressed them all.  What I think the speech didn’t do a good job was again that “not well-structured” part.  They were presented sort of randomly in the midst of other points, rather than highlighted in a unified way and built to a peak of emphasis.  In other words, he said all the right things – but (to me) just didn’t say them in all the right ways. 

My one quibble is that while the speech addressed inflation and the supply chain issues, I don’t think it did so as well as it could have.  And I think they’re not terribly difficult to deal with.  There are very understandable causes for both:  things like ignoring the supply chain during the Trump years, spending two trillion dollars to provide needed income to desperate Americans and another two trillion dollars (in a bipartisan vote) on needed infrastructure improvements which also create jobs, as well as costs going up around the entire world, and the Russian invasion impacting oil prices.  And though he did talk about jobs and ways to bring down costs and made strong points – it was poorly structured.  For instance, what he talked about (like the Intel factory being built in the U.S. and building other facilities here) was excellent – and are critical for fixing the supply chain, but they were talked about them in terms of inflation.  This again goes back to the writing, which made good points, but didn’t focus them well.

And its important in another way.  President Biden did talk about some of the economic achievements of his Administration, which have been many and significant.  But these achievements were presented as random facts sprinkled throughout the speech (or some not even addressed), rather than building a cohesive presentation of what’s actually strong with the economy – and why it’s strong – and therefore how this foundation of success will be built on to help address inflation.  For instance, saying that while inflation and the supply chain are problems, they aren’t problems of this Administration’s making, but the pandemic, ignoring the supply chain, creating a massive deficit, while on the other hand, over 6 million jobs have been created – the most ever created in one year in U.S. history, unemployment has plummeted to 4%, the GDP increased a remarkable 6.9% in the fourth quarter of 2021, the most successful growth in the world, and more

For all those on the far right who will, no doubt, be faux-“outraged” the speech – less because of what was said, and more because it was President Biden saying it, saying anything – they should be grateful that he’s as gracious as we know he is.  That he chose to be more nurturing and uniting by not talking about Republican support of Vladimir Putin and not talking about the insurrection to try to overthrow the government, causing the divide in the country should be a blessing to all Republicans.  He talked about the divided nation – he didn’t talk about that the divide exists because the far right has become fascist.

Which brings one last matter about the speech.

I expect the opposing party at a State of a Union Address to be unhappy about most everything.  And to sit silently throughout the speech and look glum, or even angry.  That’s the way it goes.  So be it.  But I found it reprehensible how many Republicans didn’t show up, and how many Republicans (once again) petulantly shouted back at the President as if it was a nightclub.  Or a drunken frat kegger. Something the GOP has seem to have patented now.  (Yes, among other outbursts, that was Lauren Boebert yelling at President Biden while he was talking about cancer from military burn pits and his Iraq-vet son dying of brain cancer.)  The State of the Union Address brings all branches of the government together and is intended to show the foundation of the American Government.  To not show up and to heckle doesn’t just show disrespect, it shows who you are and that you support dividing the country.  That only your own personal interests count, not the country's.  But then, that's what today's Republican Party has become.

Finally, no, I didn’t have it in me to watch Kim Reynolds’ GOP “response.”  I figured it would ignore the State of the Union Address in its entirety, and instead just read a random speech to criticize criticize criticize everything, with relying on such niceties as justification.  And from all I’ve read, that’s what it was – with the added bonus of her mobile phone’s timer alarm going off at the beginning.  (This sort of faux pas has sort of became a Republican “catch phrase.”)  That, and her odd comment that the country is so different from how it was a year ago – ignoring the pesky reality that a year ago, Republicans were storming the U.S. Capital to try and overthrow the government.  And as an added bonus, she had no mention of uniting in support of Ukraine.

Which, given today’s GOP and their sense of divisiveness, heckling, not showing up, supporting Vladimir Putin and more, it was a perfect fit.