The State of the Union event is usually a useless stale slog that turns healthy brain cells to mush. Charlie Cook, the veteran Washington pundit, got it right some years ago when he said of the SOTU, “On my deathbed, watching it will be on the long list of hours that I will wish I could retrieve and spend doing almost anything else.”
But the SOTU Feb. 7 was a rare treat that proved for the umpteenth time that Joe Biden should never be underestimated. At this point in his achievement-studded presidency, are we really supposed to be surprised that he kicked ass? In truth, It was hilarious to watch a mentally sharp 80-year-old torment the MAGA clown caucus the way a cat toys with a dead mouse.
Is he planning to run for re-election? Duh. The speech was festooned with lines like “Folks, we’re just getting started.” Ask yourself what other Democrat is better equipped, by dint of experience and political savvy, to keep the Visigoths away from the gates of power.
And what a crowd he faced Feb. 7! Behind his left shoulder sat a guy who needed 15 ballots to win the Speaker’s gavel with the last-ditch assistance of the party’s freaks and frauds. In front of Biden sat more than 100 foes of democracy, the treason-adjacent “law”makers who’d refused to certify his ’20 victory – most vocally, Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose massive white coat made her look like she was encased in Marshmallow Fluff, and whose outbursts (“Liar!”) brought to mind an old quote attributed to Abe Lincoln: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”
How delicious it was to watch Biden drive the Republicans nuts with a list of accomplishments that only delusionists can ignore: the lowest jobless rate since the summer man first walked on the moon; the largest-ever investments to combat climate change; the most sweeping investment in rebuilding roads, bridges, and rail since Dwight Eisenhower’s interstate highway initiative seven decades ago; inflation finally under control, with gas prices down by $1.50 from their peak; an historic bipartisan law to help military vets who were exposed to toxic burn pits; an historic bipartisan law to better compete with China by spurring the domestic production of computer chips; a law that finally requires the feds to negotiate lower prices for some prescription drugs covered by Medicare; massive financial aid that helped Americans survive the pandemic; a stalwart defense of democracy abroad, standing up for Ukraine and strengthening NATO; and much more …
But what mattered most was the way he delivered the info: with well-timed puckish mischief.
Like when he addressed the Republicans who voted against his infrastructure law even though they’ll reap the rewards in their red districts: “We’ll fund those projects and I’ll see you at the groundbreaking.” Like when he reminded them that nearly 25% of the entire national debt was amassed during Trump’s tenure, triggering them to predictably freak out, and he riffed: “Those are the facts! Check it out, check it out!” Like when he goaded them – in real time, on live TV – to agree not to slash Social Security and Medicare.
The latter episode was fun to watch. Biden reminded them that, in their zeal to scissor the federal safety net, some of them (Senators Rick Scott and Ron Johnson, and others) have proposed reducing the national debt by indeed slashing Social Security and Medicare. Republicans in the chamber mustered another primal scream, either because they wanted to deny what some of them have proposed, or because they didn’t want TV viewers to hear it. Biden stood his ground: “Anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I’ll give you a copy. I’ll give you a copy of the proposal.”
He turned the outraged rumbling to his advantage. If the Republicans were so upset that he’d mentioned the slashing proposals, surely it meant that they were in sync with his determination to protect those essential programs: “Folks – so folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the (negotiating table) now, right? They’re not to be – all right! We’ve got unanimity!”
Now he had the whole chamber cheering for Social Security and Medicare: “So tonight, let’s all agree – and we apparently are – let’s stand up for seniors. Stand up and show them we will not cut Social Security. We will not cut Medicare … And if anyone tries to cut Social Security” – now he was reading the room – “which apparently no one’s going to do, and if anyone tries to cut Medicare, I’ll stop them. I’ll veto it. And look, I’m not going to allow them to be taken away. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. But apparently” – now he was reading the room again – “it’s not going to be a problem.”
Granted, Biden (like all of his predecessors) has weathered some setbacks. During his first two years, many of his ambitious proposals – including paid family medical leave, more affordable housing, health coverage expansion, and a beefed-up child tax credit – died in the legislative sausage-making, and they’re certainly DOA in the new Republican House. Lest we forget, the elected MAGAts have no interest in helping average Americans live better lives.
Is that observation too hyperbolic? Suffice it to say that Kevin McCarthy wouldn’t even get off his ass to applaud Biden’s call for cutting the cost of diabetics’ insulin. Or for giving middle-class Americans a break by making corporations pay their fair share in taxes. Or for banning assault weapons. (No surprise that McCarthy sat still for the latter, in a chamber where some of his members wear assault-weapon lapel pins.) Even when Biden said, “There’s no place for political violence in America,” McCarthy’s face was stone. Basically, his job Feb. 7 was trying to shush his clown-caucus hecklers; he failed, of course, because he’s their hostage, not their leader.
And the best the GOP could offer after Biden’s speech, via an official party rebuttal, was Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose main claim to fame was serving as Trump’s designated latrine cleaner. Like when she said at the White House that Trump has “never promoted or encouraged violence.” Like when she was asked about Trump’s boast that the president of Mexico and the boss of the Boy Scouts had personally phoned Trump to praise his speeches (neither had phoned him), and when confronted with Trump’s lie, she replied, “I wouldn’t say it was a lie.” So forgive me for laughing out loud when Sanders said that “the Biden administration is doubling down on crazy.”
It’s true that Biden’s current poll numbers are tepid (Ronald Reagan’s were worse at the start of 1983, before easily winning re-election in 1984), and I attribute that to several reasons: Ours is an instant-gratification culture, and it will be a few years before Biden’s legislative achievements hit home; ours is a culture that worships youth, and the MAGA propagandists often score points by depicting Biden as a drooling demented fossil.
But that cartoon depiction didn’t square with what was evident onscreen. When the SOTU event was over, former Republican congressman David Jolly tweeted: “Whoa. It’s not often you see an 80-year-old man giving a public beatdown to 222 grown adults, but my word. What a night.”
He was charitable to call them adults. But what a night indeed. And let’s remember that Harry Truman, dismissed as politically dead in 1948, won re-election by using Republicans as a foil, campaigning against their “know-nothing do-nothing Congress.”
Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, March 15, 2023
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