By Rob Meyne
- March 15, 2024
- 5-min read
For those keeping score at home… The “success” in Biden’s SOTU speech was that… wait for it… he didn’t fall down, soil himself (maybe he only does that when he is with the Pope), or stand for a half hour frozen without speaking. Those were the highlights.
It was not a presidential speech so much as a campaign event that revealed more than they probably intended. There may never have been a more hate-filled speech given in the well of the House. The loathing of huge swaths of Americans was palpable and hard to miss given that he yelled most of it.
If you want to give the most important and powerful job in the world to the crazy old man who lives down the street and keeps yelling at you to keep your dog off his lawn, you will have your chance this November.
Let’s add this caveat: if certain terms like “hate” offend you, or seem excessive, think of your own term. Whatever is the right word – and hate doesn’t seem too strong to me – it is clear Biden no longer even bothers to pretend he likes many of us. If he doesn’t use the word “hate,” find your own. What do you prefer? Loathes, despises, vilifies? Get out you thesaurus and have at it.
He brags about it. If you are Republican, Independent, Conservative Democrat, corporate leader, or advocate for peace or financial responsibility – just a partial list – he despises you and considers you the enemy.
The field is stripped. It could not be clearer.
It is odd to me, as a lifelong political hack and campaign communications trainer, to see the Dems rejecting a clear component of any effective speech: you want to be likable. This isn’t as sacrosanct, I suppose, as it was at one time. Most people don’t find Trump warm and cuddly. Maybe we are beyond all that. But at least Trump is clearly fond of average, run of the mill Americans. Biden makes it clear he is not.
The Republican nominee is an unlikely hero for those who love freedom. Like the Kennedys or the Roosevelts, he is a wealthy man who somehow still has a link to the common person. Sometimes a lifeline is thrown to us from an unexpected source. President Trump is spectacularly right: they are coming for you and me. They aren’t even subtle about it. Please, please be cognizant enough to realize it before it is too late.
Unless you’re a Democratic Socialist (which is like being a free slave; it isn’t possible) or just a brainless sycophant, you can’t name a major human cohort he didn’t attack. He slammed businesses and their owners, the Supreme Court, and anyone who doesn’t buy into open borders and his brand of bigotry.
Basically, if you like free speech, a secure America, or a society where we know what a woman is, Biden hates you. If you are not willing to support the racist policies they promote in the name of DEI, he hates you. If you aren’t in love with the idea of another long war, he hates you.
He did nothing to build bridges. A man who has claimed he wants to be president of all the people gave most of us a middle finger. Typically, even the most partisan presidents spend quite a bit of their speech claiming they want unity. Several years ago, it was even a key part of Biden’s address. But no more.
Today, he doesn’t even bother to make a pitch for unity. He did claim the border bill, which is dying a well-deserved death, is bipartisan, except that…. Well, it really isn’t. Mitch McConnell, who is thankfully stepping down as leader this year, and his hand-picked stooge agreed to the latest draft. It wasn’t bipartisan in any significant way, and even if it were, so what? It is a bad bill. The border bill doesn’t restrict illegal immigration, it enshrines it into law. The legislation would allow nearly two million illegals to enter the nation each year, without triggering any enforcement at all. If that is your idea of sealing the border, you belong in the open borders party. Maybe you can be the first person in America to put up a Biden sign.
This just in: having one or two GOP senators support a bill does not make it bipartisan in any meaningful sense. Bipartisanship is not a useful adjective unless it represents a sample from both parties that is sufficient to affect the process.
