Biden's disastrous State of Disunion address | TheHill
By: Sandy Tolliver (TheHill)
It's an opinion. And pretty damned spot on.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The stage was set and the world was watching. Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Riyadh, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Pyongyang, and every European capital was listening to his words, assessing his gestures, noticing every slurred phrase, and making critical policy decisions. President BidenJoe BidenBiden State of the Union: A plea for unity in unusual timesWatch: Key moments from Biden's first State of the Union addressFive takeaways from Biden's State of the Union addressMORE's first State of the Union address was one of the most important speeches given by a world leader in decades. Much of the world fears that Russia's attack on Ukraine may be the beginning of World War III, and could lead to nuclear confrontation. They were looking for a strong expression of principles and a clear vision for the future of the world, and especially for freedom, democracy and the rule of international law.
The speech ended leaving much of the world discouraged. There was no sign of vision or leadership. Empty bluster replaced strength and resolve. Other, more dangerous, parts of the world probably left the speech emboldened to follow Russia's lead and strike while America is weak and confused. It was clear that America is guided by short-term political tactics, while our adversaries in Russia, China, Iran and elsewhere are driven by a different world vision and long-term strategies. Erratic increases in American defense spending and sanctions are in no way a vision, nor a strategy.
Biden devoted a little less than 15 minutes to the new Russian aggression and global threats. He seemed to be unaware that Russia appears fully committed to crushing and annexing all of Ukraine very quickly. He gave no reassurance for how the likely Russian aggression against the Baltics and Poland would be met. He appears to have given little thought to what his strategy should be against nuclear threats that clearly are on the table.
Biden referenced Russia and Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich PutinBiden State of the Union: A plea for unity in unusual timesWatch: Key moments from Biden's first State of the Union addressReynolds response hammers Biden for 'weakness on world stage'MORE 30 times, but he mentioned the far bigger threat of China three times and Chinese leader Xi Jinping only once. Iran and North Korea went unmentioned.
After the first 15 minutes, any hope for a strong, united America to respond to these global threats was crushed as Biden continued to give one of the most divisive and destructive speeches in memory. On a global stage, Biden showed himself to be a small-minded, retail politician. He devoted the rest of his speech — nearly 50 minutes — to an endless laundry list of identity politics and large spending initiatives, receiving rousing cheers from only half of the highly divided room.
In context, America may be entering an era of global war and must be strong and united. Pledging to unify us doesn't make it so.
Strength and unity starts with a strong economy. Yet Biden continued to press for expensive new domestic spending bills, which would hobble critical spending to strengthen our defense, as well as weaken the economy further with even higher inflation. He said there would be no new taxes on families earning less than $400,000 per year. Of course, that's not true. At an annual rate of 7.5 percent, inflation has taken a huge bite out of all American families' incomes. Biden implored the Senate to confirm the Federal Reserve chairman, who has stood by while inflation raged out of control.
The second pillar of strength for America, especially during war-like eras, is energy. If the Russian strategy has shown one thing, it is that America and its allies must be energy independent. The skyrocketing prices for gasoline and home heating and lighting in America are clear evidence that precipitous decarbonization is extremely dangerous to our economy and national security. But Biden refused to move to return America to energy independence and again held out his assurances that wind and solar are the answer. He seems to not grasp that it is becoming clear to most Americans that wind and solar are unreliable; that it will take decades to upgrade the American power grid; and that there may never be enough battery power to support homes and industry during solar and wind downtime.
Again, Biden is unwilling to formulate a strategy to transition to new energy by using widely available bridge energy such as natural gas and nuclear. Simply look at Germany, which impulsively shut down its nuclear power plants, only to find itself — along with much of Europe and the U.S. — held hostage by Russian fossil fuels, the one major thing Biden did not dare put serious restrictions on purchasing.
On the other major role of government and social coherence — public safety and law and order — Biden again drove a huge wedge though the country. He had to walk back the Democrats' battle cry of "defund the police," but he failed to get at "root causes" of crime, as Vice President Kamala HarrisKamala HarrisBiden State of the Union: A plea for unity in unusual timesBiden: Inflation 'robbing' benefits of strong economyBiden says Jackson will bring 'uncompromising integrity' to Supreme CourtMORE is prone to say. As if tone deaf, he called for stronger law enforcement but seemed unaware that liberal, Democratic prosecutors and city governments in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and other cities are refusing to enforce the law. He said he wanted to "hold law enforcement accountable." Most Americans would like to hold local prosecutors, city councils and school boards accountable. While he bemoaned the crisis of opioid abuse, he failed to mention that most drugs cross our open southern border and often originate in China, reflecting policy failures that weaken the country.
The bottom line is that our global rivals, drug cartels, and other enemies saw nothing but green lights from Biden's speech. Putin acted now because he sensed serious weakness in Biden and this administration. Americans should look for more to follow soon.
Grady Means is a writer (GradyMeans.com) and former corporate strategy consultant. He served in the White House as a policy assistant to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. Follow him on Twitter @gradymeans1.
TagsKamala HarrisJoe BidenVladimir Putin2022 State of the UnionRussian invasion of UkraineChinaenergy independenceInflation
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Well when you actually want to look at it, most of them are just pomp. This one has to be one of the most pie in the sky in recent history.
Trump and his supporters are off topic. Those who respond to themselves to avoid keyboard cooties by actually replying to the person they are quoting/mocking/refuting will have their comments removed.
Aside from the first 15 minutes where he talked about the Ukraine war, he did spent most of the rest of time trying to argue for working together and reaching across the isle. Problem is while those were very nice words, the actions of this administration has been so partisan that what has been done is so physically overpowering over the words that the words become meaningless.
And for all those money saving and inflation busting actions that he talked about... if they are so good why don't the Democrats pull the individual pieces out of the Build Back Better plan and try to pass them as stand-alone bills? I mean it seems to me that BBB is basically dead in the water and I don't know if the Democrats in the Senate will attempt to revive it later this year but that will definitely be their last chance. But I didn't feel like there was any solid plan on how to work on any of the tabletop issues that the majority of people care about. It seemed that all he was doing was trying to convince the remaining Democrat holdouts to go ahead and pass his BBB bill.
And this is just a personal issue for me but I didn't like the way the speech transitioned from one piece to the next. There didn't seem to be a pause, just one sentence ending and the next thought taking off.
What the fuck is wrong with Nancy Pelosi, Biden says "burn pit' and she jumps up and starts rubbing her hands together like Oh, Goodie Goodie. Maybe JR can weigh in and tell us.
That was just plain strange. Of course, she does have a copy in front of her (which she didn't rip up this time) and may have been reading ahead a bit and saw a zinger coming. Either that or perhaps she had to fart and if she had remained sitting, it may have been loud her being on the chair and all. LOL
I watched some of the speech but wasnt paying a lot of attention (these SOTU speeches have lost their command of the nations attention and that has been the case for many years) , so I didnt observe Nancy Pelosi's facial expressions with the devoted intensity that her enemies with nothing better to do evidently did.
JR, it wasn't a "facial expression" it was for the entire world to see since, she was the "ONLY" one standing up and rubbing her wrists together for God only knows what reason after Biden mentions 'burn pit'. You should watch it, it is bizarre.
Oh, ok then, carry on.
Why does Madison Cawthorn exist as a national figure in politics? It is inexplicable.
What is your rational for this statement? Is it because he spoke at the Jan 6th rally and also voted against the certification of Biden's presidential victory? Or is it something else?
Those two things are valid and more than enough
Please tell us what his point was. Does he want Congress to declare war on Russia , or does he want to give Ukraine to Putin?
Not until you answer my question.
What....you have a problem with 'Great Philosopher' Toby Keith. You know, he ain't as good as I once was, but he's as good once
as he ever was.
I do like that song.