I’ll jump in with my own reflections on the SOTU speech last night. Everyone else is, so why not?
Democrats were giddy and delighted with Biden’s speech and performance. They feel energized and revived going into an election cycle which up until now, they were bedwetting over. Biden’s approval ratings have been dim.
But, my attention gravitated mostly to the Republicans in the room. I’m not sure if they were expecting a teetering old man to enter with someone helping him along on both arms or what, but I have a feeling they weren’t totally prepared for what hit them.
It is like the story of the person waiting for a train, standing on the tracks looking south, and the train runs them over coming in from the north. Bam!
That is what happens when you start to believe your own cartoonish narratives.
It was a good night for Joe. He did well for himself and the Democratic Party, but if you have been paying attention, this has been the case for the past three years. Biden has been a competent, and some would say, great leader. He showed cognitive acumen and the ability to engage off-script taking on GOP hecklers.
Joe talked about the “greatest recovery never told” (media slam). Then, I later heard Rep. Katie Britt from Alabama, in the Republican “response”, say to the audience as if anyone was listening, “Ask yourself, are you better off now than you were three years ago?” It was an obvious but failed attempt at a Reaganism.
This was another cartoon moment because the answer was clearly….
“hell yes we are better off.”
Does young Britt not remember what was going on three years ago?
Unemployment had reached nearly 15%…it is now under 4%
The United States economy contracted 3.5% in 2020, the worst contraction since World War II…the economy is now growing at a healthy 4 or 5% annually.
Hundreds of thousands of people died from COVID-19, many needlessly….today, COVID is a routine health hazard that we handle in stride.
We were using refrigerator trucks as morgues… Hospitals were overrun with COVID patients…
We were still isolating and suffering the impact of a President who did little to nothing to combat the greatest health crisis since the Spanish flu….
Over 20 million jobs were lost while Trump suggested drinking Clorox to combat the virus…
Were it not for COVID relief packages passed by Congress, the US would have slid into a major economic depression…
Yeah, we are WAY better off today. But why would Rep. Britt lean into such an obvious right hook such as that? Anyone paying attention knows we are far better off than three years ago.
Then Britt makes another cartoonish statement: "Right now, the American dream has turned into a nightmare for so many," just as the Stock Market has hit new highs again and incomes have risen faster than inflation. These types of statements can only come out of a cartoon strip because they are so far removed from reality and the facts.
Even other Republicans were appalled by Britt’s so-called “response.” “What the hell am I watching right now?” an unnamed Trump adviser told Rolling Stone. “It’s one of our biggest disasters ever,” another unnamed Republican strategist told the Daily Beast. Clearly, Britt had a “Bobby Jindal Moment” delivering her cartoonish speech.
The Republican Party is nothing more than a cast of cartoon characters with little understanding of reality, truth, and facts. And, they have no policies, platform, or agenda to define their “vision” for the nation. Consider last night.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene dons a bright red MAGA hat along with numerous other buttons and decals to show her love and support for Trump (trying really hard for that VP spot). Did she not realize how cartoonish and clownish she looked, and how ridiculous it appeared on television?
Then she shouts at the President during his portion of the speech on immigration, which Biden then turns on its head and puts the responsibility for problems at the border directly on Republicans who torpedoed the immigration bill. The quick video cut-away to Senator Lankford (R - Oklahoma) said it all as he nodded in agreement with Biden’s assessment. The GOP in their clownish and slavish devotion to Trump have now lost the high ground on that issue.
Then there was Speaker Johnson, trying his best to maintain decorum sitting behind the podium where Biden was speaking. Every twitch, smirk, head nod, and grimace caught live on television for the nation to enjoy. It is not lost on most Americans that Johnson is only in that seat because his party, with its shrinking majority, couldn’t decide on a Speaker and went to the bench to find a 3rd, 4th or 5th stringer that had no real record on which anyone could sink his ship.
Speaking of shrinking majorities…there was the expelled representative from New York, none other than George Santos, sitting in the audience to provide more fodder for late-night television. Santos, who was expelled from Congress after a dizzying array of lies about his biography led to his indictment on fraud charges, nonetheless appeared at the speech in what looked like a rhinestone-studded collar, a black blazer, and white trousers. The man who epitomizes lying, cheating, and stealing…came to watch the SOTU speech with no shame and no remorse. He is running for the seat again. He is another character right out of a cartoon clip.
As if we hadn’t seen enough characters from the GOP sit-com, there was Rep. Trey Nehls (R-Texas) arriving for the State of the Union address wearing a shirt with Trump’s mugshot face on it along with the words “Never surrender.” Imagine wearing on your shirt the mugshot of a man with 91 criminal indictments and a conviction for rape. This can only come out of a bad SNL skit and that is probably where it will end up.
Finally, when Biden began to talk about women’s health care issues and abortion rights, the camera flashed briefly to a row of white-male GOP cartoon characters, all of whom were looking down at their phones or in some way trying to avoid eye contact with, well, anyone. They know that they own this issue like an albatross around their necks, and there is nothing they can do about it.
What was clear last night was the stark difference between the two parties. One is a serious group of people, with many different beliefs and ideas, but share a common commitment to American Democracy. They offer serious policy proposals with you can argue with and criticize, but they seem to want to solve problems.
The other is no longer a political party in the traditional sense, but an amorphous collection of cartoon caricatures who have no backbone in standing up to Trump, but have become nothing but Trump boot-lickers and self-demoting politicians in the worst sense. They don’t know how to govern, nor do they seem interested in learning how.
The only thing they seem able to do is make a spectacle of themselves, shoot themselves in the foot, put their wounded foot in their mouth, and carry on as if the American public likes this display of incompetence and laughable behavior.
The public will have their say in November…in the meantime, keep on reading the “funny pages.” Here is one for you: