And then there was President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address. This is the annual event in our politics that gets the most viewers. Last year, 38.2 million people watched it on television and streaming services. What viewers saw tonight was a president repeatedly offering to work across the aisle as he outlined a moderate plan for the nation with a wide range of popular programs. He sounded calm, reasonable, and upbeat, while Republicans refused to clap for his successes—800,000 new manufacturing jobs, 20,000 new infrastructure projects, lower drug prices—or his call to strengthen the middle class.
The photo of that one woman, her mouth stretched open in a howl of hate; it brought to mind the faces we saw so long ago gathered behind Black schoolchildren as they headed toward newly desegregated classrooms. It was shocking then, seeing those neatly dressed but anonymous hurling pure howling hatred to innocent kids. It’s different but no less shocking seeing that very expression from elected officials directed at our President of the United States. It’s insane. And it’s forever frozen in time, that moment of unhinged lunacy. Shame, shame, shame.
This speech was perfection. McCarthy tried to droop his eyes like he was bored, listening to "Sleepy Joe." But President Biden was anything but sleepy, and he knocked it out of the park. And apparently Social Security and Medicare are safe, too!
Dispatches from the land of the youth! I talked with my little brother recently about this "disconnect" our Professor adressed yesterday between accomplishment and awareness. For background, bro is 22 and voted in 2020&22. I would like to think he would have even if we didn't live together, but *when you live with me you ARE voting.** He thinks Biden is "such a creaky old grandpa, like the rest of them, at least Kamala gives us someone nice to look at on TV," (I reminded him our Dad is basically the same age) but voted for him and the Democrats both times because "I pretty much agree", and the Republicans "are like Christian terrorists who are giving us a bad moment."
He is also much more of a people person than me, to put it mildly, with a diverse group of friends. Talking to him it became clear that his friends are split in two groups that represent this age bracket: the ones who follow what is going on, and the ones who don't.
The ones who follow track with what you would expect based on the near-record youth midterm turnout and those snazzy Harvard surveys: they're increasingly impassioned and see political participation as necessary because we are in a war over basic values and whether they get a future. They liked Bernie (oy!) and are more likely to post political stuff on TikTok than talk about it in person (eh?).
The ones who don't follow see how stressful and scary everything is, but are overwhelmed by it and find the ins-and-outs of news/politics obscure and at a remove, so they just check out. This is little bro's camp, unfortunately. He's pretty tenderhearted, doesn't like the news, and can successfully go about his day without reading the news, therefore - despite being online all the damn time - apparently he... knows... nothing. So obviously he thinks I'm a wee bit of a shill for being so gung ho about the current administration, and thinks that not much at all has been accomplished. He got defensive and asked me to name one thing - just one really big thing, not a little thing like the tinkering with Medicare stuff that makes old people happy, because they are the ones that always get catered to - but one really actually big thing that has actually gotten done that should prove he should have hope that Biden & co. didn't just string us along. If a real change is happening, you shouldn't have to be a news junkie to notice, right? It should hit you where you live and get everyone talking, right? So just name one thing!
He said this like people do when they have the expectation you won't find the one thing.
So obviously I said the first and biggest major climate bill in human history. Mood in the room changed on a dime right there. Obviously that's impressive. Bro typed it in on his phone. Bro was impressed. More importantly, bro was relieved. He wanted to be wrong. SOMEthing CAN happen! A big thing! A thing they said they were going to do and actually did!
Bro had literally not heard about this thing for almost half a year.
Anyway, I started going on about CHIPS and the 11 million jobs and how guaranteed HE wouldn't have a job right now if it wasn't for the Rescue Plan, because do you really think a recent graduate - a MUSIC major - could pick up a job in two seconds flat - in EVENTS AND CATERING, no less - if we didn't have those damn shots getting to people so fast last spring, but I got tuned out for being "too intense" and listing more than the challenged one thing.
Write him off as intellectually lazy or willfully ignorant or unpatriotic or not community minded at your peril. This is a straight-A student who was an Emerald Star State Ambassador for 4H (look it up), a guy who did color guard in middle school, volunteered unprompted for Kids Against Hunger, and was known by name at the local veterans center.
This is not a Dem Comms problem. The other side has a vicious propaganda network assisted by a centrist mainstream media intent on elevating hot "perspectives" over unsexy substance. We have US. WE are the communications network. Voting and political participation are habits. Everyone begins a habit at a different time and with a different motivation. I undetstand the frustration with not-yet-voters or unreliable voters among WE, THE CURRENTLY INFORMED. If you have not noticed the stakes by now, how will you ever? But voting is a habit, and the final key push a person gets to start a healthy habit comes differently for everyone. A lot of people can feel the stakes, but don't know if participating is worth it, or always worth it, and you will not keep them with you at this stage with further yelling about apocalypse avoidance. You win them over by giving them what we all WANT to see: positive results.
For the next 21 months, I beg of you: make yourself a propaganda machine spreading positive accomplishments for our big- and small-D democrats. The people we need to stay in our camp at this inflection point for democracy did not watch tonight. The person they will listen to, if they know you, is you.
I said this earlier on TCinLA’s Substack but it’s what struck me during his speech. He hit it out of the park! I don’t think the Republicans even saw the ball flying until it was over the fence. Nice job Mr. President!
Biden’s address was as good as it gets. He was controlled yet forceful. He handled the heckling without letting it get in the way of his presentation. The GQP has nothing to fact-check when Biden touted his successes, which have been plenty. The economy speaks for itself but what he said about supporting people who do not have college degrees had to hit home for many people. America suffered greatly when we sent product plans overseas so the corporations could hire cheap labor, while they made millions. These CEOs knew that they would never get their items made by Americans for the wages they wanted to pay. We have a president who is passionate and compassionate about getting the engines restarted in our country and paying people decent wages. Level the playing field, that’s what we all want. Biden made Qevin look like the fool he is and boy, was that a pleasure to watch! Loved watching Mitt Romney give Santos hell!
It was pure pleasure to watch President Biden turn the tables on this ship of fools, with the help of loudmouth Marge, whereby they were standing up and applauding their approval to preserve the very programs they keep promising to cut. Kevin McCarthy looked like a young, inexperienced teacher trying to control a class full of juvenile delinquents on the first day of school. This could never have been choreographed, and it was a beautiful thing. To paraphrase Lawrence O’Donnell tonight, it’s over for McCarthy, but we knew that.
Thank you Heather, for your incredible analysis and presentation of the most important points. Rousing oratory, I loved every moment. I did not listen to Hucksterbee. She is a windbag if ever there was one. I found Murderess Treasonous Gangrene really beyond the pale. Like a disgusting high school senior on a trip before graduation. (I shepherded many during my long career. And she would have been sent home for such vile behavior...) Unhinged she appeared. And, that white coat....! We are all waiting for Garland and Smith to kick in.
The president seemed to relish the back-and-forth with the hecklers. Not wanting to be snarky, but I did laugh with pleasure at his deft responses and the way the Medicare/Social Security exchange went. We’ll see how the next couple of years go…
"The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left,” she said. “The choice is between normal or crazy."
For once, a right-wing Republican speaks the truth.
Imagine if in schools, the bullies and the ill-behaved students were allowed to run rampant and treat their teachers in the same way as these so-called adults in Congress treat their President. Why isn't there a procedure to sanction outrageous behavior in the chambers?
His address was so much better than last year’s, uplifting even. I’m glad I watched. I loved his back and forth with the Republicans on Social Security and how they ended having to stand up and applaud for leaving it intact, even expanding it. 😂
The best retort of the night that I read was courtesy of a very nice and witty lady by the name of Lynn Geri over at the Steady Substack of Dan Rather. She wrote -
Lynn Geri
"It was a good speech delivered well, by a good man. I think he managed the right tone, played all the songs I care about. I didn't even mind the fish he threw to the seals who are learning to perform... didn't smell up the room too much. A fish now and then may train most of the animals." (lol ! )
I was so pleased with Biden this evening, he was brilliant! Thank you, Heather, for reporting on that important hour so eloquently. I could hardly bear to look at the sleepy, eye-rolling Speaker. Was he ashamed of his cohorts' behavior? I was. I am sure the world was watching and is ever-increasingly wondering "what has happened to America"?
I couldn't watch Sarah H-S either. Perhaps I should have but I knew her words would not be relevant, so why bother?
Well done, HCR! You managed to convey the substance and style of the speech, and the lack of substance and style by the MAGA maniacs. BTW, I include Sarah Huckabee Sanders in that group.
The photo of that one woman, her mouth stretched open in a howl of hate; it brought to mind the faces we saw so long ago gathered behind Black schoolchildren as they headed toward newly desegregated classrooms. It was shocking then, seeing those neatly dressed but anonymous hurling pure howling hatred to innocent kids. It’s different but no less shocking seeing that very expression from elected officials directed at our President of the United States. It’s insane. And it’s forever frozen in time, that moment of unhinged lunacy. Shame, shame, shame.
This speech was perfection. McCarthy tried to droop his eyes like he was bored, listening to "Sleepy Joe." But President Biden was anything but sleepy, and he knocked it out of the park. And apparently Social Security and Medicare are safe, too!
Dispatches from the land of the youth! I talked with my little brother recently about this "disconnect" our Professor adressed yesterday between accomplishment and awareness. For background, bro is 22 and voted in 2020&22. I would like to think he would have even if we didn't live together, but *when you live with me you ARE voting.** He thinks Biden is "such a creaky old grandpa, like the rest of them, at least Kamala gives us someone nice to look at on TV," (I reminded him our Dad is basically the same age) but voted for him and the Democrats both times because "I pretty much agree", and the Republicans "are like Christian terrorists who are giving us a bad moment."
He is also much more of a people person than me, to put it mildly, with a diverse group of friends. Talking to him it became clear that his friends are split in two groups that represent this age bracket: the ones who follow what is going on, and the ones who don't.
The ones who follow track with what you would expect based on the near-record youth midterm turnout and those snazzy Harvard surveys: they're increasingly impassioned and see political participation as necessary because we are in a war over basic values and whether they get a future. They liked Bernie (oy!) and are more likely to post political stuff on TikTok than talk about it in person (eh?).
The ones who don't follow see how stressful and scary everything is, but are overwhelmed by it and find the ins-and-outs of news/politics obscure and at a remove, so they just check out. This is little bro's camp, unfortunately. He's pretty tenderhearted, doesn't like the news, and can successfully go about his day without reading the news, therefore - despite being online all the damn time - apparently he... knows... nothing. So obviously he thinks I'm a wee bit of a shill for being so gung ho about the current administration, and thinks that not much at all has been accomplished. He got defensive and asked me to name one thing - just one really big thing, not a little thing like the tinkering with Medicare stuff that makes old people happy, because they are the ones that always get catered to - but one really actually big thing that has actually gotten done that should prove he should have hope that Biden & co. didn't just string us along. If a real change is happening, you shouldn't have to be a news junkie to notice, right? It should hit you where you live and get everyone talking, right? So just name one thing!
He said this like people do when they have the expectation you won't find the one thing.
So obviously I said the first and biggest major climate bill in human history. Mood in the room changed on a dime right there. Obviously that's impressive. Bro typed it in on his phone. Bro was impressed. More importantly, bro was relieved. He wanted to be wrong. SOMEthing CAN happen! A big thing! A thing they said they were going to do and actually did!
Bro had literally not heard about this thing for almost half a year.
Anyway, I started going on about CHIPS and the 11 million jobs and how guaranteed HE wouldn't have a job right now if it wasn't for the Rescue Plan, because do you really think a recent graduate - a MUSIC major - could pick up a job in two seconds flat - in EVENTS AND CATERING, no less - if we didn't have those damn shots getting to people so fast last spring, but I got tuned out for being "too intense" and listing more than the challenged one thing.
Write him off as intellectually lazy or willfully ignorant or unpatriotic or not community minded at your peril. This is a straight-A student who was an Emerald Star State Ambassador for 4H (look it up), a guy who did color guard in middle school, volunteered unprompted for Kids Against Hunger, and was known by name at the local veterans center.
This is not a Dem Comms problem. The other side has a vicious propaganda network assisted by a centrist mainstream media intent on elevating hot "perspectives" over unsexy substance. We have US. WE are the communications network. Voting and political participation are habits. Everyone begins a habit at a different time and with a different motivation. I undetstand the frustration with not-yet-voters or unreliable voters among WE, THE CURRENTLY INFORMED. If you have not noticed the stakes by now, how will you ever? But voting is a habit, and the final key push a person gets to start a healthy habit comes differently for everyone. A lot of people can feel the stakes, but don't know if participating is worth it, or always worth it, and you will not keep them with you at this stage with further yelling about apocalypse avoidance. You win them over by giving them what we all WANT to see: positive results.
For the next 21 months, I beg of you: make yourself a propaganda machine spreading positive accomplishments for our big- and small-D democrats. The people we need to stay in our camp at this inflection point for democracy did not watch tonight. The person they will listen to, if they know you, is you.
I said this earlier on TCinLA’s Substack but it’s what struck me during his speech. He hit it out of the park! I don’t think the Republicans even saw the ball flying until it was over the fence. Nice job Mr. President!
Biden’s address was as good as it gets. He was controlled yet forceful. He handled the heckling without letting it get in the way of his presentation. The GQP has nothing to fact-check when Biden touted his successes, which have been plenty. The economy speaks for itself but what he said about supporting people who do not have college degrees had to hit home for many people. America suffered greatly when we sent product plans overseas so the corporations could hire cheap labor, while they made millions. These CEOs knew that they would never get their items made by Americans for the wages they wanted to pay. We have a president who is passionate and compassionate about getting the engines restarted in our country and paying people decent wages. Level the playing field, that’s what we all want. Biden made Qevin look like the fool he is and boy, was that a pleasure to watch! Loved watching Mitt Romney give Santos hell!
As the song goes, “Let’s get this party started”!
It was pure pleasure to watch President Biden turn the tables on this ship of fools, with the help of loudmouth Marge, whereby they were standing up and applauding their approval to preserve the very programs they keep promising to cut. Kevin McCarthy looked like a young, inexperienced teacher trying to control a class full of juvenile delinquents on the first day of school. This could never have been choreographed, and it was a beautiful thing. To paraphrase Lawrence O’Donnell tonight, it’s over for McCarthy, but we knew that.
Thank you Heather, for your incredible analysis and presentation of the most important points. Rousing oratory, I loved every moment. I did not listen to Hucksterbee. She is a windbag if ever there was one. I found Murderess Treasonous Gangrene really beyond the pale. Like a disgusting high school senior on a trip before graduation. (I shepherded many during my long career. And she would have been sent home for such vile behavior...) Unhinged she appeared. And, that white coat....! We are all waiting for Garland and Smith to kick in.
The president seemed to relish the back-and-forth with the hecklers. Not wanting to be snarky, but I did laugh with pleasure at his deft responses and the way the Medicare/Social Security exchange went. We’ll see how the next couple of years go…
"And then, when he began to talk about future areas of potential cooperation, Republicans went feral."
You captured the sentiment of those MAGAs purr-fectly, Heather!
Dark Brandon nailed it!
"The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left,” she said. “The choice is between normal or crazy."
For once, a right-wing Republican speaks the truth.
Imagine if in schools, the bullies and the ill-behaved students were allowed to run rampant and treat their teachers in the same way as these so-called adults in Congress treat their President. Why isn't there a procedure to sanction outrageous behavior in the chambers?
His address was so much better than last year’s, uplifting even. I’m glad I watched. I loved his back and forth with the Republicans on Social Security and how they ended having to stand up and applaud for leaving it intact, even expanding it. 😂
The best retort of the night that I read was courtesy of a very nice and witty lady by the name of Lynn Geri over at the Steady Substack of Dan Rather. She wrote -
Lynn Geri
"It was a good speech delivered well, by a good man. I think he managed the right tone, played all the songs I care about. I didn't even mind the fish he threw to the seals who are learning to perform... didn't smell up the room too much. A fish now and then may train most of the animals." (lol ! )
I was so pleased with Biden this evening, he was brilliant! Thank you, Heather, for reporting on that important hour so eloquently. I could hardly bear to look at the sleepy, eye-rolling Speaker. Was he ashamed of his cohorts' behavior? I was. I am sure the world was watching and is ever-increasingly wondering "what has happened to America"?
I couldn't watch Sarah H-S either. Perhaps I should have but I knew her words would not be relevant, so why bother?
"...drawing a different conclusion than she intended." ...by something like 180°
Well done, HCR! You managed to convey the substance and style of the speech, and the lack of substance and style by the MAGA maniacs. BTW, I include Sarah Huckabee Sanders in that group.