Takes On Biden's First Speech Before Congress
It was plainspoken and it was strategically bold - but, will it end up protecting us from white nationalists and keep struggling Americans in their homes?
Publisher’s Riff
The only aspect of Biden's first speech before Congress that was different from other Biden first-term president stump speeches was the unveiling of his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan. Overall, it was an ambitious presentation: $6 trillion worth of investments, a bold stroke which telegraphs that a country gets more return on investments made in people than tax cuts for corporations. He struck on themes we've heard before, using this night as an opportunity to achieve four primary objectives ...
1) Continue to paint his administration as get-things-done. It's all about highlighting competence.
2) To show contrast with Republicans, gently (but firmly) pushing back against them, while avoiding outright confrontation with them by suggesting “hey, but, my door is always open if you want to get something done.” The key here is to not only highlight competence, but to also showcase the comfort of reason.
3) Attempt to further transform his centrist image into something much more progressive - perhaps this is Biden weaving together a pragmatic progressivism. We don't know, and we don't want to blunt the attempt with labels.
4) Try - or struggle - to resurrect a mythology of A More Perfect Union. Is “don’t bet against America?” designed more so to reassure the global community or is it to convince us, Americans, that we should believe in this? Biden tried hard to sell us on what makes us uniquely American, and we're just not sure that's resonating these days, bless him for trying (and looking believable while doing it).
Some will say it was a long speech. But, what continues to stand out is Biden's plainspoken and keep-it-simple style where he's able to clearly connect dots. This was on full display in the way he talked about climate crisis and other environmental issues, framing them as an economic growth opportunity. While the climate crisis is an existential threat against the planet and can, potentially, create future extinction level events, the majority of average voters still don't care: Biden understands that all they care about is jobs and paying bills. This is something the environmental activism space has failed to correlate. Also refreshing was a push for federal support for childcare and the push against gun violence and voter suppression. Still, this is all setting-the-tone stuff. We didn't expect, and we didn't get, details.
Biden stayed firm on his policy goals, and didn’t really make strong overtures or peace offerings to Republicans; he still kept it collegial (even, awkwardly, throwing a signal that he's willing to compromise on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act by saying the "Republicans are engaged in productive discussions" when we all know they aren't). Still: while mentioning police reform as an agenda priority for Congress is something unprecedented from a president, there are concerns that such legislation isn’t strong enough anyway and will end up diluted from not addressing qualified immunity.
We did see a president endeavoring to turn the temperature down and stressing that the nation's most powerful resource is its people, especially when they're looked out for.