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Home Front: Politix

'Loser's speech about chips.' What Biden said in his State of the Union address

2024-03-10

Direct Translation via Google Translation. Edited.
by Gevorg Mirzayan

[REGNUM] US President Joseph Biden delivered the State of the Union Address, the annual speech in which the head of state is expected to tell the country and the world about the state of affairs in the United States. Actually, the literal translation of this message - State of the Union, or “the state of affairs in the Union” (that is, in the USA) - is conducive to this.

He approached this speech, to put it mildly, not with the best ratings. As The New York Post correctly wrote, a loser. Only 39% of Americans generally approve of his job performance, while 56% believe he is not doing a good job. The share of Americans who believe the country is moving in the right direction under Biden is even smaller—only 23%. And 67% of citizens are sure that it is wrong.

With numbers like these, it's no surprise that Biden's electoral prospects look bleak. Based on current sociology, Trump wins most of the disputed states and eventually gains 293 electors (versus Biden’s 245). And this is even before the debates, before the open election campaign, the pace of which the current head of state may simply not be able to withstand.

That is why in his address to the nation - in fact, a grandiose election speech that the whole country will definitely watch or read - Joseph Biden tried to somehow play out the situation.

First, to show the population that the country and the world are at a critical point. Biden directly compared himself to Franklin Roosevelt, who “at an unprecedented moment for the United States” addressed the nation in January 1941. "Roosevelt's goal then was to wake up Congress and warn the American people... that freedom and democracy were under attack in the world," the president explains. And he claims that the situation is the same now and he has the same goal: “Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy in the United States been under such threat as they are now.”

And as sources of the threat, Biden named two players who, judging by his words, are either one or at least playing with four hands.

Vladimir Putin has been appointed the main foreign policy evil. And Joseph Biden dedicated the entire first part of his speech to him. The American president insists that the Russian president is “invading Ukraine, wreaking havoc throughout Europe and beyond,” and “if anyone in this room thinks that Putin will stop in Ukraine, he won’t.”

And, accordingly, through the image of Vladimir Putin, Biden demonstrates himself as a tough, decisive leader. Ready to resist the “Russian evil” to the bitter end. “My message to President Putin, whom I have known for a long time, is very simple: we will not leave. We will not bow down. I will not bow,” Biden said, apparently cosplaying as someone from House Martell.

But at the same time, he wants to appear as a reasonable, sober leader and not ready to drag the United States into a direct military conflict with Russia. “The Ukrainians are only asking for weapons, not American soldiers. In fact, there are no American soldiers in Ukraine, and I intend to make sure that there are none,” Biden said.

In his opinion, only those who do not allow these weapons to be supplied to the Ukrainians, that is, internal political evil, stand in the way. They were appointed by Republicans and specifically by former US President Donald Trump, who, according to Biden, bowed down to Putin. And whom Biden, by the way, never called by name throughout his entire speech - only “Republican President” or “my predecessor.”

And this is not a matter of resentment or fear of saying his name out loud, but of ordinary political technology. Biden's speechwriters want to show Trump as a Republican, not an American president. A predecessor whose time has passed, and not a candidate for a new term. And, finally, they strive to dehumanize him by depriving him of his name.

In fact, direct and indirect criticism of Republicans was the core of Biden’s entire speech. After all, in his opinion, they interfere not only with defeating Russia, but also with overcoming all the country’s problems - from illegal migration to reducing the number of chips in bags. Yes, Biden also talked about chips.

Unfortunately for the president, American experts and journalists were not particularly impressed with his speech. Yes, someone appreciated the punctuation in the speech. “Mr. Biden has had to defend not only his reputation and his plans, but also a worldview based on American strength and optimism. And due to his great energy—his text contained 80 exclamation points—Biden largely succeeded, ” explains The Washington Post. However, those who commented on the substance of the speech were more skeptical.

Thus, The Wall Street Journal calls Biden’s speech not the State of the Union, but the State of the Disunion (a play on words that loosely translates as “a state of division”). “In most of these speeches, the president tries, or at least pretends to try, to overcome partisan differences. This year, this was not done even on the issue of assistance to Ukraine, where Biden most of all needs the support of Republicans, ” the publication explains.

That is, instead of looking for compromises, Biden, playing out the image of an inflexible, unbending, non-surrendering president, issues ultimatums to the Republicans on each of the points. And he demands that they agree with the position of the Democrats or sign for the betrayal of the American population. “There was nothing here for Nikki Haley voters or Republicans who don’t want a second Trump term and might consider voting for Biden,” The Wall Street Journal summarizes.

Thus, by delivering a similar message to Congress, Biden may have convinced some of his toughness and determination. But in the medium and long term it did not score any political points.

Posted by:badanov

#2 Hey, if you can't trust Petey Ballgag's judgement, whose can you trust?

Posted by: ed in texas 2024-03-10 15:05

#1 Pete Buttigieg says the 'age of a leader's ideas' is more important than their actual age as Biden, 81, faces criticism for his fitness for office

Posted by: Skidmark 2024-03-10 14:22

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