Bad news first: this State of the Union wasn’t the boon that Republicans might have hoped for. Like it or not, the Biden that showed up at the House last night represented a glimmer, if just a glimmer, of the shrewd and cunning politician he once was.
While he stumbled over his words plenty, his delivery was decidedly more energetic than it’s been in the past. His ability to handle heckling and maintain a modicum of composure will likely play well to left-leaning audiences. Tactically, it’s safe to call this a mild win, particularly to the Democratic voter base that the president desperately needs to win over as he mulls a presidential run in 2024.
Yet, what actually makes a successful State of the Union for Biden? From the looks of things, the task seemed simple: list off the achievements of the administration laundry-list style, keep the tone relatively positive, talk to Americans who aren’t knee-deep in the 24-hour political news cycle, and don’t gaffe so much as to sink beneath the waves. It may strike astute readers that this is the lowest bar that’s ever been set for human conduct, similar to Google’s “do the right thing.” However, Biden did manage to step over this bar, and the low standard that’s been set for the State of The Union remains. We’ve truly come a long way from the prose of Lincoln. Even though such low standards probably make the Bingo cards easier, there are a few lessons that conservatives should be taking away from this.
Conservatives need to embrace shrewd rhetorical tactics in the face of falsehood. Yelling during the State of the Union, while amusing (and let’s be real, an indispensable part of any SOTU bingo card) accomplishes nothing beyond sheer attention-grabbing of the most useless sort. Understanding how Biden manipulated the presentation of the facts in last night’s address isn’t hard with the simple addition of crucial context—adding 12.1 million jobs to the economy doesn’t sound nearly impressive when one realizes that job growth still lags percentage-wise and only appears large in contrast to the hole left in the American economy by COVID-19.
We have to be honest about the current administration’s twisting of data and weaponization of buzzwords. Food prices are still astronomically high. Biden’s promise that “food prices are coming down” isn’t actually that comforting when viewed against prices from a year ago—prices are still 10.4 percent higher. “Inflation has fallen” does not mean that prices are actually lower. Medicare doesn’t have the power to negotiate healthcare for another three years. There’s not much evidence to suggest that any of Biden’s policies have actually made the world safer for democracy as China and Russia remain major players on the world stage.
It’s no secret that the State of the Union is a common platform for twisting facts to create a sense of false accomplishment. Biden is desperate for the Democratic base to rally around him, and Republicans yelling during the State of the Union has accomplished exactly nothing. So what’s to be done? It’s a relatively simple fix to articulate, if not monumentally difficult to implement: reach the swayable fringe portions of Democrats and convince them that the Biden administration’s policies and mission don’t align with their interests. How do we do that? Not by pushing spectacle-style antics at the State of the Union, already a spectacle-style anticfest by virtue of its existence.
Unsurprisingly, the best thing we can do with the State of the Union is treat it like a metric of where Democrats are at, devote zero time to worrying about the made-for-TV parts, and push even harder at the difficult but timeless business of convincing and persuading. This is professional dog-barking, and it’s up to us to make sure that the conservative train keeps rolling.
Isaac Willour
Isaac Willour is a journalist currently reporting on American politics and higher education. His work has been published in a plethora of outlets, including the Christian Post, The Dispatch, the Wall Street Journal, and National Review, as well as interviews for New York Times Opinion and the American Enterprise Institute. He studies political science at Grove City College. He can be found on Twitter @IsaacWillour.
The views expressed in this article are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Lone Conservative staff.
