I gave my first campaign donation to Joe Biden in 1987 as he was seeking the presidential nomination. Thursday night as I sat, and at times bounded off the sofa in our Madison home due to the power and punch of the President’s words in the State of Union Address (at times making James wonder if I ate too much ice cream at dinner) I thought a wise investment many decades ago had certainly been started. No other politician so captured my attention or held it as long. His values over the decades remain the American ones I knew growing up in rural Wisconsin and what I anchor myself to in these trying years for the nation.
It comes as no surprise that having our President start off the address about international alliances and the high purpose of democracy at home and aboard, charting his message from the Civil War to WWII struck a chord with this blogger. The threats to democracy which were central to the 2022 mid-terms are very much at the core of the general election coming our way this November. Biden was speaking to the themes that resonate among my friends in long-distance phone calls to the ones who sit around our dining table as guests.
Hitler was on the march. War was raging in Europe.
President Roosevelt’s purpose was to wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this was no ordinary moment.
Freedom and democracy were under assault in the world.
Tonight I come to the same chamber to address the nation.
Now it is we who face an unprecedented moment in the history of the Union.
And yes, my purpose tonight is to both wake up this Congress, and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either.
Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today.
What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home and overseas, at the very same time.
I can most accurately describe the address as a highly caffeinated offering. Biden not only threaded the issues that confront our nation today but wove in the successes during the past term and in the final third of the speech pushed hard on the hopes and needs of our future. Biden was masterful. As he mingled with members of Congress after the speech Georgia Senator Warnock said, “You were preaching tonight!’ As a preacher himself, that was high praise, indeed.
Biden all but handed the GOP the white flag they will need after the balloting is counted this fall. But here is the part that shows Biden at his political best. He did it with humor and in a conversational folksy style. As I watched the tortured and strained look of House Speaker Mike Johnson who looked so uncomfortable I thought that many of the GOP in the chamber either forgot or perhaps were never aware that this was the 51st SOTU that Biden had attended since he came to Washington as a senator. They may deeply disagree with Biden or just play along with their tribal partisan games for the sake of the base back home, but they would be foolish to dismiss the fact that he is a highly polished professional pol who knows how to not only play the game, but win over, and over, and over again.
As the end of the speech neared Biden took hold of his values and pressed them home once again. While there are issues that Republicans will try to use to buttress their claims to the White House nothing will resonate more with the voters than the threat to democracy which Biden feels so deeply and speaks to so effectively. From the actions of insurrection on January 6th along with the cozy relationship Congressional conservatives share with Russian President Putin, as demonstrated by the lack of passage of an aid fill to Ukraine, voters know where our country has stood throughout history and wishes that we continue to stand on the world stage. Biden interjecting Ronald Reagan’s name into the SOTU is due to polling that shows where our nation wishes to be.
I know the American story.
Again and again I’ve seen the contest between competing forces in the battle for the soul of our nation.
Between those who want to pull America back to the past and those who want to move America into the future.
My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy.
A future based on the core values that have defined America.
Honesty. Decency. Dignity. Equality.
To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor.
Now some other people my age see a different story.
An American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution.
That’s not me.
I was born amid World War II when America stood for freedom in the world.
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