Apparently, over 32 million masochists tuned in to watch President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. Unless you were paid to do so, I’m not sure why you would submit yourself to such torture. We were treated to the president struggling to speak in grammatical sentences and an insufferable cheerleader section mindlessly applauding in approval every ten seconds.
But here are a few things I took away from the speech.
It’s clear that one of the Biden administration’s objectives was to portray the president as being of sound mind.
Early on, Biden made a misleading claim about how the Alabama supreme court shut down IVF clinics across the state. This is literally true but it suggests that the court’s decision was specifically targeting IVF.
It’s natural to think that this is a relatively small detail, and it is. But subtle details can allude to more important truths. In this case, it seems clear that Biden’s intention was not to mislead – it was a slip.
Many in the media were quick to praise the coherence Biden demonstrated and dismiss the narrative that the president is in severe cognitive decline. They characterized his fast talking approach as “fiery.” It was more like, trying to get the words out as quickly as possible to avoid stumbling – and he did a lot of stumbling. Contrary to what some commentators have asserted, Biden’s mental decline was clear to see.
I don’t speak with any animosity here. It’s lamentable that so many of our elderly have to deal with their mental faculties slipping away and there should be no stigma attached to it. But it becomes a problem when it’s the president of the US.
As is the norm for presidents, Biden also attempted to take credit for circumstances that he’s not actually responsible for, stating that under his administration, America added 15 million new jobs. While this is true, it’s clear that those jobs were just part of the recovery after massive job losses during the pandemic. Biden does not deserve credit for what the economy naturally did once COVID restrictions were eased.
He also attempted to take credit for violent crime rates being the lowest they have been in 50 years. Violent crime has been on the general decline for decades now. It’s also very difficult to determine the causes of fluctuations in violent crime. There is certainly no decisive piece of evidence one can point to that would justify attributing the decline to Biden’s policies.
For obvious reasons, the public’s perception of the health of the economy or trends like violent crime have a significant impact on how people vote. We tend to evaluate a president and their party’s performance based on how well the country did while they held the reins. It can be extremely difficult to determine how exactly external forces influence massively complex systems like our $23 trillion economy so it’s comparably difficult to make any strong statements about the impact of a president’s policies.
The lesson is that you should limit how much those talking points influence your feelings towards a candidate.
There were many more examples of Biden making misleading or outright false statements during this State of the Union. He also made many promises that he’ll never fulfill. But what was most striking to me was the circus that American politics has become.
We had that simpleton Marjorie Taylor Greene in a ridiculous MAGA costume screaming at Biden to “say her name” in reference to Laken Riley who was murdered by an illegal immigrant. Biden then mispronounced her name. It’s disappointing to see someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene in such a position of power.
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Greene is like one of those friends that believe every conspiracy theory they read about after five minutes of internet “research”. I envy Greene – existence must be so much more interesting when you believe in space lasers and demonic baby-eaters. Of course she cares little for victims like Riley. She took the opportunity to make a spectacle out of the event and draw attention to herself.
The State of the Union address has been made a spectacle by both parties with one side cheering for every word and the other hissing. As is typical, instead of using the speech to make reasonable recommendations to Congress and strike a unifying tone, the president and his party used the State of the Union address for self-interested political purposes.
Rafael Perez is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Rochester. You can reach him at rafaelperezocregister@gmail.com