In his tackle to the nation, President Biden confirmed the essence of his ethical integrity, political saavy, and respect for American democracy, norms and decorum. There have been moments throughout the speech when each Republicans and Democrats stood and applauded Biden’s sturdy assist of Ukraine and his resolve to battle for democracy over autocracy. The events additionally united round Biden’s intensive sanctioning towards Putin, his oligarchs, and the Russian economic system. He correctly evaded speaking about Trump and his autocratic assault on our democracy. He averted any assault on the Republican Celebration’s enabling of the “huge lie”, voter supression, and the emboldening of white supremacist teams. As a substitute, he talked about how sturdy America is after we work collectively as United People, not divided opponents.
Regardless of the Republican Celebration’s transfer in direction of an authoritarian, one-party system of presidency, some unity was obvious throughout the Senate chamber throughout Biden’s tackle. Each events displayed blue and yellow flags and pins supporting Ukraine and Biden’s punishing response to Putin’s struggle crimes. The applause was noticed by a few of Biden’s most ardent political enemies, like Senator Ted Cruz. In an try to create much more unity between the events, Biden launched what he known as the four-point ” Unity Agenda”; beating the opioid epidemic, taking up psychological well being, supporting veterans, and ending “most cancers as we all know it” ( NPR, March 2, 2022). Opposite to Republican officers who discuss solely about points they consider will get them votes from their 2nd Modification-loving, abortion-opposing, anti-minority base, Biden spoke concerning the humanistic issues of well being and high quality of life. Though Republicans by no means run for workplace on humanistic points, it could create a nasty public picture to oppose Biden’s plea for prioritizing these matters. Biden, opposite to Trump’s lack of ability to worth unity between our political events, Biden tries to search out areas the place morality and values supersede political opportunism.
Biden touted his successes throughout the first yr of his administration such because the progress being made in controlling the pandemic, the passing of the American Rescue Plan, The Bipartisan Infrastructure Invoice, and the record-breaking creation of 6.5 million new jobs. He acknowledged the rising inflation price and defined how the availability and demand downside created by the pandemic created the drastic rise in costs. He made clear that decreasing the price of items and providers was a prime precedence for his administration.
The largest takeaway from this State of the Union speech could also be {that a} man is now main the USA and a celebration that defends and respects democracy, not authoritarianism, helps the person rights and freedoms of all People irrespective of their faith, coloration, gender or financial standing, and strives to be a united, not divided America. The takeover of the Republican celebration by a right-wing extremist ideology is a menace to American democracy. Putin is utilizing army pressure to take down democracy in Ukraine, and the MAGA rip-off motion is making an attempt to take down democracy right here in America with disinformation and fear-mongering. Much less blood is shed within the latter method to destroying democracy, nevertheless, it’s simply as merciless, harmful, and evil. Joe Biden is the alternative of Putin and Trump.