President Biden’s State of the Union sends an array of mixed signals and messages
President Biden’s State of the Union sends an array of mixed signals and messages
(Mar. 1, 2022)
It is almost hard to believe that United States President Joe Biden has been in office for only a year. In some ways, the myriad of issues, conflicts, and ordeals President Biden has had to deal with, are what some presidents’ deal with during their entire 4-year term. Biden has had to navigate through a senate and congress that almost seems to never get anything done, let alone agree on much of anything these days. However, President Biden knew what he was getting himself into long before the final votes were tallied during the previous presidential election and made a lot of promises. It appears that unfortunately, after making his first State of the Union speech, President Biden is already signaling a shift away from some of his core campaign promises and ideologies.
During his State of the Union address Tuesday night, the President embraced Republican calls to strengthen the nation’s southern border. He hardly uttered anything about climate change/global warming. He seemed to gloss over the concerns about voting rights and spent a miniscule amount of time celebrating and highlighting his historic decision to nominate the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court (Kentanji Jackson). When it came to domestic issues, he did not hesitate to renounce the calls from many within his own party such as Rep. Cori Bush to “defund the police”; instead Biden opted for a call to “fund the police”, a slogan used by many republicans on the complete opposite end of the issue.
As surprising as Pres. Biden’s statements were in one of the most important speeches of his presidency, his messages were calculated. He was trying to make a clear effort to reset and restore the political climate for Democrats. Most polls suggest the Democratic Party is losing support from almost every demographic at the outset of the 2022 campaign, which is also a year for midterm elections. Unfortunately, Biden’s effort to stabilize the party and regain support could alienate the coalition of Black people, young people, progressives and, independents who were so instrumental in electing him the presidency in 2020.
Biden’s short-sighted thinking, controversial remarks, and, inability to deliver on most of his 2020 campaign promises may end up putting the nail in the coffin for his presidency.