In a political environment seemingly rife with toxicity and trouble, we seem to be on the brink, with two sides with opposite understandings of each event. To help gain a nuanced understanding of the upcoming election, we should look at the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Biden’s State of the Union address earlier this month.
The Good
Arguably the best thing for President Biden during his delivery of the State of the Union Address on March 7 was his ability to silence many questions among Democrats regarding his age. He did this by delivering an uncharacteristically loud and fiery speech that even came across as yelling at many moments.
The president also appealed to many of his Democratic supporters on the issue of abortion, an issue Republicans have lost significant ground on in recent years like in Ohio when this past November voters chose to ingrain abortion in the state’s constitution with the passage of Issue 1.
Another win for the president during his address was talking about his administration’s battle on pharmaceutical companies to lower drug costs for millions of Americans. One drug specifically is insulin which is used to help treat people with diabetes, was capped at a cost of $35 a month. According to a recent CNN article, over 8 million Americans rely on insulin to survive and nearly 1 in 4 have trouble affording the medicine.
Biden also made it clear that the United States has no intention of stopping funding to Ukraine as he believes that Putin will not stop at this initial invasion, claiming that Europe and the rest of the free world is at risk. This is good in the sense that it protects American allies in Europe and NATO, but supplying foreign powers with funding leaves the U.S. government with less money to spend on domestic improvements. Something else this indicates is that the war is nowhere near a conclusion and that peace talks have not even taken place so the death toll will continue to rise. According to an August 2023 New York Times article, casualties were already approaching half a million.
On the Jan. 6, insurrection, the president said, “You can’t only love your country when you win.” This quote certainly goes beyond just the Jan. 6 protesters at the U.S. capitol and holds for all Americans regardless of political affiliation come election time. Biden also made it clear that political violence is never tolerable in the United States.
Regarding education, Biden stated that his administration is attempting to make it possible for all children ages 3-4 to go to preschool, giving them an educational head start in life and “increasing their chances of high school graduation by over 50%.” Biden also addressed raising salaries for teachers, one of the few things the president mentioned that was backed with bipartisan support. A raise in teacher salaries would likely improve the quality of teaching and limit the number of teachers leaving the education system to make a better living.
The Bad
While the speech was one of Biden’s better ones in terms of energy level and limiting the number of gaffes, it was certainly not very unifying for an election year and was very politically divisive throughout. Early on in the speech, Biden took shots at his “predecessor” former President Trump and presumptive election competitor although not referring to him by name. He referenced Trump over a dozen times in the speech instead of focusing on his vision for the country and his own achievements. Biden also came across rather aggressively towards the Supreme Court justices on several occasions in his speech, especially on their decision to overturn Roe V. Wade in 2022.
Biden received a negative reaction from Republicans in the chamber when he stated “I inherited an economy that was on the brink. Now, our economy is the envy of the world.” During the last quarter of Trump’s presidency, the economy came roaring back as businesses were able to reopen after the pandemic. While the U.S. has had significant GDP growth and the stock market has been strong throughout Biden’s presidency, inflation has been an issue hurting the common consumer for the last three years.
When Trump left office in January of 2021 inflation was at 1.4% according to the BLS and has not been at that low of a level in the past 37 months that Biden took office. Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June of 2022, the highest it has been this century.
It took Biden 41 minutes into his speech to address the issue of illegal immigration, presently one of the biggest concerns in the country. Upon addressing the border, he blamed GOP lawmakers for not passing the proposed legislation in November of last year to enforce the border. However, it should be noted that Biden reversed several of Trump’s executive orders early on in his presidency such as the Remain in Mexico bill. As a result of these reversals, illegal immigration has surged under Biden as shown by statistics from the Washington Post.
Another point Biden emphasized was his student debt forgiveness program, while this may be appealing to many college-age students. The government deficit is incurring $138 billion in loan forgiveness. Of course, ultimately, this will affect American taxpayers in some way, shape, or form down the line.
The Ugly
It did not take long for the president to have a typical Biden moment, although they were limited throughout. One of the first things the president said upon reaching the podium after his nearly 20-minute walk down the aisle on top of being late was “If I were smart I would go home now.” While Biden likely threw this in to ease some tensions in the room and add some humor, it is not a statement you should be making when people on both sides are questioning your cognitive abilities.
Another significant gaffe occurred when the president was talking about cracking down on big pharmaceutical companies’ high prices. President Biden said, “If you want to get into Air Force One and fly to Toronto, Berlin, Moscow, I mean … even Moscow.” While he was comparing our higher drug costs to others around the world, he accidentally said to travel to Moscow instead of another city in another country that was on the teleprompter. Moscow must have been on his mind after talking about the Russia-Ukraine conflict earlier in the speech.
Without question the biggest and most hurtful blunder of the night was when President Biden went off script, largely prompted by Majorie Taylor Greene, and finally said the name of the 22-year-old Georgia college student Laken Riley who was murdered at the hands of an illegal immigrant on Feb. 22. Even though the president brought her up to the surprise of many Republicans he “fumbled” the pronunciation of her name and managed to call her “Lincoln Riley,” who happens to be the head football coach for the University of Southern California.
On March 9, two days after the speech, Biden said that he regrets using the term “illegal,” rather he should have used the word “undocumented” to describe her killer. He also never mentioned that he felt any remorse for badly botching Laken’s name. House Speaker Mike Johnson called Biden’s apology an “embarrassment” in an attempt to appeal to his base.
Republicans have heavily criticized this gaffe; the Trump campaign in particular has gone after it heavily, claiming that the blood of Laken Riley is in the hands of the Biden administration as her suspected killer entered the country illegally in 2022.
So, as our nation gets closer and closer to the 2024 election, it seems like these issues, and the narratives for better or worse we are utilizing around them will dictate the path forward – Whether Good, Bad, or Ugly.