Biden's SOTU 2022

Biden's State of the Union speech had a rising opening with the invasion of Ukraine as its theme.

The opening was well-delivered and effective, and something that Democrats will be at least as enthusiastic about as Republicans. It was also a replay of the greatest hits from the Cold War days, and the Iraq War days, and the Gulf War days, and the Afghanistan War days, and the Libyan intervention days, and I'm surely leaving out several other occasions worthy of mention.

Biden seems to have handled the confrontation with Russia over Ukraine well so far. We haven't had a nuclear war yet, for instance. He hasn't declared a no-fly zone as some war zealots are demanding. No-fly zones: that means shooting down Russian plans and entering into explicit acts of war against Russia.

Otherwise, it was actually pretty conventional and most of it virtually no one will remember by the end of the week.

There were the now-obligatory solutes to gests in the gallery.

There were various ritual standing-applause lines

There was the ritual Democratic version of anti-immigrant rhetoric.

He gave what as basically a standard Democratic laundry-list of popular items that the Democrats always seem to talk about but don't seem to most people to get much of them enacted. Even when they control the Presidency, the House, and the Senate.

Yes, the "bipartisan" (ie.e., Republican) infrastructure bill is essentially another highway bill. It is big, and it will do some good things. It will also privatize a lot of public roadway, which is bad. And how many voters will election canvassers in 2022 encounter who say, "I normally vote Republican, but boy-hidee that new highway bill is so great I'm voting for Democrats this year!"

The speech was good. But the Democrats need to elaborate some consistent, popular themes. Democratic policies are far more popular than Republican positions.

Nobody believes that a Democratic Senate dependent on the votes of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema will raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy, or the $15 minimum wage, or the pro-labor PRO Act, or most any of the other checklist items he mentioned.

Nobody actually cares about the deficit.

This line was a spit in the face of activists trying to reduce police murders: “We should all agree: The answer is not to Defund the police. The answer is to FUND the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.”

But later he got around to mentioning voting rights, ritually calling again for the passage of the voting rights legislation that Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema together with the Republicans blocked in January.

Did I miss the part about accountability for the January 6 insurrection? Or the part about getting a new nuclear arms agreement with Iran in place? Or the part about cancelling student loan debt? The part about the need for a code of ethics for the Supreme Court, so that Clarence Thomas whose wife raises tons of money for rightwing groups would be required to recuse himself on cases in which those groups may be participating?

But, to be fair,at some point these Democratic laundry lists becoming a sad reminder of all the things a Democratic Party controlling the White House, the House, and the Senate aren't even going to try to do.