They declare that “the state of the union is strong” in their State of the Union speeches or use words very similar to it.
However, President Joe Biden’s American colleagues have different ideas about the current state of affairs and there is little chance that Tuesday’s State of the Union Address will change anything.
America’s strength is being tested internally and externally. Biden was made a wartime President in another conflict by fate overnight. This led to the West’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It makes all other problems even worse.
The state of the Union is division and disunity. It is a state of exhaustion after the pandemic. It’s feeling like you are being ripped off at the gas station and grocery store. It’s so low, that prominent Americans are exalting Russian President Vladimir Putin as a threat to democracy.
The 2021 General Social Survey has shown that happiness measures have reached a low point. In five decades of asking Americans, fewer Americans said they were very happy.
This is what a grand Funk looks like.
Biden will address a nation that is in conflict with itself from the House speaker’s podium. The country is arguing about how to keep children safe and what they should learn, weary from orders to wear masks and worried about Russian expansionism. A speech will be given to discuss the commonwealth to a nation having more difficulty finding anything in common.
A large portion of the country believes that the last election was stolen, even now.
THAT’S THE ‘M’ WORD
In a speech that described a national malaise, President Jimmy Carter faced a “crisis” of confidence four decades ago. However, Vice President Kamala Harris said last month that there is a “level of malaise” within the country when she spoke to an interviewer.
The national psyche of today is filled with frustration and fatigue — akin to the 1970s malaise. The divides are deeper than that and the solutions may be harder to find than the energy crisis and inflation, or the sense of drift.
Consider today’s climate for discourse. It’s “so frigid,” said Rachel Hoopes (a Des Moines, Iowa charity executive who voted for Biden). It’s difficult to imagine how he talking to us can break down when so many people are unable to talk to one another.
It’s almost as if Americans need group therapy far more than they do a speech to Congress in a single piece.
“We must feel good about ourselves before moving forward,” Doris Kearns Goodwin, historian, told Stephen Colbert during “The Late Show”
In the immediate aftermath, Russia’s attack on last week brought back a long-absent reflex as members of Congress showed unity behind the president, at the least for the moment. “We’re all united at this point,” said Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Minority Leader. “And we need to be together over what should be done.”
The water’s edge was not the end of politics, but it did pause. But not at Mar-a-Lago’s ocean edge in Florida. Donald Trump celebrated Putin’s “savvy” and “genius” move against the country which entangled the defeated American President in his first impeachment trials.
PICK YOUR POISON
Officials at the White House acknowledge that the mood in the country is “sour,” however they say that data shows that people are living better lives than they did a year ago. They claim that the national psyche can be a “trailing indicator,” and will improve over time.
Biden will speak about the progress made in the past year, especially in COVID and economics. However, he will also acknowledge the fact that it is still not done. This recognition comes in light of the fact many Americans don’t believe it.
One year into Biden’s presidency, polling shows that the public is skeptical and pessimistic. According to a February poll by The Associated Press -NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, only 29% of Americans believe the nation is on the right path.
According to a December AP-NORC poll most people said that economic conditions are difficult and that inflation has affected their ability to buy food and fuel. Two years ago, the U.S. was hit by a pandemic that claimed more than 920,000 lives. Majorities have put on their masks and avoided crowds and travel in January as a result of the sweep of the Omicron variant. Finally, there appears to have been a steady decline in the number of infections.
While most Americans have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in their entirety, debates about mandates and masks have caused havoc within families and communities.
Biden is so tightly bound by his hardened politics that it’s difficult for him to make a speech that would change the perception of the public, according to Julia Helm, 52. She is a Republican county auditor who lives in the suburbs west Des Moines.
She said, “He has a lot on his plate.” “You don’t know what could change people’s feelings? It happens very quickly. They pay the pump. It is a horrible thing to say. Gas prices are really the barometer.
Biden suggested that high inflation was only temporary last summer. It has become a major challenge for his presidency in recent months, along with the threat of geopolitical instability resulting from Russia’s attack against its neighbor.
The past twelve months saw a 7.5% increase in consumer prices as many of the pay increases were taken up and the dream of owning a home or purchasing a used vehicle became impossible.
Inflation was an aftereffect of an economy that ran hot following the economically devastating first chapters. Biden achieved the kind and level of growth that Presidents Barack Obama, Trump, and others could not achieve.
Biden’s $1.9 Trillion coronavirus relief package is the main engine of both inflation and gains. It pushed down unemployment to a healthy 4.4%, while driving economic growth to 5.7% last fiscal year. This was the best performance since 1984.
SINKING POLLS
Yet, the gains in inflation have been largely ignored by voters. According to the February AP-NORC poll, 55% of respondents disapproved more than 44% of Biden’s handling of his presidency job.
This was a complete reverse from his early years as president. In AP-NORC polls, 60% of respondents said that they favored Biden as recently as July.
Hoopes, 38-year-old Des Moines charity executive finds Trump’s provocations to have been a constant four years. Hoopes considers Biden a “nonthreatening” leader and a “decent individual, someone you can talk to.”
She said, “He seems to have quiet decision-making abilities.” “But I’m not sure if this is good or bad for him right now.”
Biden’s State of the Union speech was the best she could describe.
This is about all historians have to say about it.
THE SPEECH
It’s not unusual for State of the Union addresses to be remembered because of their feathers being ruffled on nights of tradition and forced comity. Obama called out the Supreme Court justices for ruling on campaign finance laws. Justice Samuel Alito responded by saying “not true”. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ripped up Trump’s speech with disgust in 2020.
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) was reprimanded in 2009 by fellow Republicans and lashed out at Democrats for saying “you lie!” at Obama when he talked to Congress regarding his health care plan.
Cal Jillson, a Southern Methodist University political scientist, said that sometimes inaugural addresses can have an impact due to their big picture, far-horizon speeches. “State of the Unions seldom do because they are more thematic than listy.”
Presidents over the past half century have repeatedly stated that “the state is strong” . Bush’s father, however, took a pass, and Gerald Ford admitted: “I must tell you that the condition of the union has not been good.”
Trump being Trump, Clinton being Clinton, both claimed that the state-of-the-union had never been more strong than the nights they spoke it.
Jillson stated that whatever Biden’s diagnosis, his job is to promote an agenda and claim credit for positive developments in the past year “without any mission accomplished moment”. “That’s delicate. It is delicate to take credit for the economic recovery… but still acknowledge peoples’ pains and fears.”
Biden arrives at Congress with some real missions, such as his historic infrastructure package and big dreams deferred.
He wants to “Build Back Better.” Despite the current funk, Americans seem to just want someone to get them out of their funk.
