Tonight Biden delivered his first State of the Union address. The world watched as the unpopular president denounced the Russian invasion of Ukraine, lauded his alleged accomplishments, and touched on a number of issues salient to Americans.
As to be expected, Biden was condemnatory in his tone toward Russia and Putin. He stated that America stands with Ukraine, even though our troops will not get involved. Amusingly, Biden characterized the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “premeditated and unprovoked.” In reality, this description better characterizes American foreign policy toward Russia – particularly in Ukraine – for the last two decades. Say what you want about Putin’s actions: America provoked this conflict by facilitating the Maidan color revolution in 2014 and continuing to support and fund Ukraine’s military. By refusing to assure Putin that Ukraine would not join NATO, the United States – and indeed Western elites overall – guaranteed the invasion.
One striking aspect of Biden’s speech was his focus on economic populism. He talked about growing the economy, bringing back jobs and manufacturing, and other issues most Americans, regardless of political affiliation, care deeply about. It’s more than a little ironic for him to applaud his efforts given the abysmal state of the economy, a situation for which his administration deserves the brunt of the blame.
Biden also reaffirmed his support for the police. “We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to fund the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.” This, it should be noted, was within the context of passing the American Rescue Plan. The Biden administration likely understands that the radical anti-police sentiment coming from the far-left isn’t conducive to winning elections. We shouldn’t interpret this as sincere support for law and order, however, but instead a political calculation designed to get Republicans on board with his budget plan and help Democrats in the coming election cycles.
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