Three nights ago, I once again watched The King’s Speech, with brilliant and moving performances by Geoffrey Rush, as an Australian speech therapist with an uncanny talent (but no credentials) for gifting speech to the speechless, and Colin Firth, as the reticent, stammering Prince Albert of Britain, who was to become King George VI, upon the abdication of his older brother, David, who gave up his crown in exchange for the love of a twice-divorced American commoner with a racy reputation—a love story that would resonate throughout the English-speaking world as a popular fairytale for years to come.
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| Firth and Rush in "The King's Speech" |
The following night, I
watched, in its entirety, President Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union
Address, and I couldn’t help but strike a parallel in my mind between the
award-winning film and the president’s stunning performance. Granted, Biden has
a half-century history in American politics and has learned to tackle public
speaking with vigor and aplomb. But like King George VI, Biden has struggled
all his life with a speech impediment, a stammer that has always taken great
concentration for him to overcome. Journalists and commentators who should have
done their research and, as such, should have known better, have far too often,
on hearing Biden’s sometimes halting and disjointed speech, echoed the
president’s bitterest opponents in misconstruing it as diminished mental
faculties, due entirely to the fact that he is, without a doubt, an old—but
not, for that, automatically elderly—man.
I suppose the reason I naturally
struck the comparison between The King’s Speech and President Biden’s speech
was that, at least in my mind, there were unavoidable parallels. In order to be
a constitutional monarch at the service of his people, George VI (father of
Queen Elizabeth and grandfather of King Charles) had to overcome his crippling
stammer and attendant terror of public speaking to become an effective head of
state of the British Empire through some of the darkest years in its history.
As if that weren’t enough, he also had to clear the hurdle of his unpopularity
as the also-ran replacement for the former, if short-lived, heir to the throne,
his flamboyant and popular brother David (a.k.a. King Edward VIII).
Biden’s situation is
similar. Not only does he follow four years of Donald Trump, which, for better
or for worse (worse), reshaped American politics and rendered the Republican
Party unrecognizable as the respectable Grand Old Party of yesteryear, but he
is also, as a former two-term vice president, “heir to the throne” of Barrack
Obama, the most rock-star-popular and dynamic president in living memory, and one
of the nation’s youngest and most consequential leaders. And, like George VI,
Biden continues to struggle with his life-long speech impediment and with the
prejudices of the ignorant and mal-intentioned, who seek to equate that
struggle, applying flawed Medieval logic, with unsoundness of mind.
Like George VI, but with
the comparative disadvantage of cable TV and a twenty-four-hour news cycle,
Biden is under constant observation, with supporters holding their breath that
he “doesn’t screw up”, and opponents gleefully awaiting the moment he does.
Meanwhile, his political rival, former President Donald Trump, who is only a
little more than three years Biden’s junior, screws up consistently. For
instance, confusing Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi, confusing the current
administration with the Obama administration—once even talking about running
against Obama when he meant (or perhaps didn’t) Biden—and failing to pick his
own second wife, Marla Maples, out of a photo line-up. Indeed, he even confused
Maples with his sexual assault victim, newspaper columnist E. Jean Carroll. And
those only form a small portion of his gaffs.
But as Trump himself once
said, he could “shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue” and wouldn’t lose any votes.
Over the years, if we’ve learned anything about MAGA Republicans, it is that
this is shockingly and sadly true.
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| Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, vulgar and rude as ever. |
Biden was, in short, how
every critic on both sides of the aisle posit he should be—strong, sharp, edgy, in command, but still willing to
compromise, within ethical limits, to get what the nation’s people need from a
reluctant and, in part, completely renegade Legislature. If anyone attended
that historic event either fearing or hoping, depending on their political
bent, to hear a confused and bumbling “Sleepy Joe”, they were either pleasantly
surprised or bitterly disappointed.
Michigan Representative
(D) Debbie Dingle, who was on the floor of the chamber for the speech, said it
was “very clear” that her Republicans colleagues were “uncomfortable”, both
with Biden’s strong showing, and with loud displays of impropriety from the
MAGA sector in their own ranks. That behavior only seemed to underscore Biden’s
pointed references to the undemocratic disorder and chaos sown by Trump and his
most ardent supporters. Clearly, Republicans had set a miserably low bar for
this State of the Union speech, believing their own electioneering hype in
thinking that the perception would be that of a confused, doddering old man, who
was obviously unfit to serve.
They were about to be
disappointed. The president came out swinging from the very beginning, landing
a stunning blow to the jaw of the MAGA wing, by opening with a quote from President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who, in 1941, told Congress: “I address you at a
moment unprecedented in the history of the Union.”
Biden then embraced that idea as his own, saying that, back then: “Hitler was
on the march. War was raging in Europe. President Roosevelt’s
purpose was to wake up the Congress and alert the
American people that this was no ordinary moment. Freedom and democracy were
under assault in the world.
“Tonight I come to the same chamber to address the nation. Now
it is we who face an unprecedented moment in the history of
the Union. And yes, my purpose tonight is to both wake
up this Congress, and alert the American people that
this is no ordinary moment either. Not since President
Lincoln and the Civil
War have freedom and democracy been under assault here
at home as they are today. What makes our moment rare is
that freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home
and overseas, at the very same time.”
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| Lankford - "That's true" |
Nowhere was that clearer
than when he said: “Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the
march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe
and beyond. If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I
assure you, he will not.
“But Ukraine can stop
Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to
defend itself. That is all Ukraine is asking. They are not
asking for American soldiers. In fact, there are no American soldiers at
war in Ukraine. And I am determined to keep it that way. But
now assistance for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk
away from our leadership in the world.
“It wasn’t that long ago
when a Republican President, Ronald Reagan, thundered, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear
down this wall.’ Now, my predecessor, a former Republican President, tells
Putin, ‘Do whatever the hell you want.’ A former American President actually
said that, bowing down to a Russian leader. It’s outrageous. It’s dangerous. It’s unacceptable.”
Biden went on to
underscore the obvious link between Trumpism and authoritarianism, saying: “History
is watching… My message to President Putin is simple. We will
not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow down. History is watching, just like
history watched three years ago on January Sixth, (when) insurrectionists stormed this
very Capitol and placed a dagger at the throat of American
democracy.”
Biden continued to drive
this point home, saying that the insurrectionists, “had come to stop the
peaceful transfer of power and to overturn the will of the people.”
Recalling the
anti-democratic infamy of the chaotic end to the Trump presidency, Biden
qualified the historic significance of that incident, saying: “January Sixth and
the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the
election, posed the gravest threat to our democracy since
the Civil War. But they failed. America stood strong and
democracy prevailed.
“But we must be honest,
the threat remains and democracy must be defended. My
predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January Sixth. I
will not do that. This is a moment to speak the
truth and bury the lies. And here’s the simplest truth.
You can’t love your country only when you win. As I’ve done
ever since being elected to office, I ask you all, without regard to
party, to join together and defend our democracy!”
The president went after
Trump and the MAGA Republicans on another burning domestic issue, saying that “history
is watching another assault on freedom.” He went on to say that American women’s
reproductive rights were under continuing attack following the overturning of
Rowe v Wade during the Trump presidency. To make that point, he introduced two
women in the audience, one who had had to escape the law in her own state to
terminate a pregnancy in which the fetus had a fatal condition and carrying it
to term would put her at medical risk and would threaten her ability to have
children in the future, and another woman who had also had to leave her state
after local laws declared embryos to be people, and the IVF facility where she
and her husband were seeking relief from infertility shut down.
Biden described both
cases—like thousands of others—as being the direct outcome of the overturning
of Roe v Wade, opining, in juxtaposition to the Supreme Court ruling, that Rowe
v Wade “got it right.” Taking more precise aim, he said: “Many of you in this
Chamber and my predecessor are promising to
pass a national ban on reproductive freedom. My
God, what freedoms will you take away next?”
In assigning blame for
the diminishing of women’s rights, he laid primary responsibility at Trump’s
door, saying: “… My predecessor came to office determined to see Roe
v Wade overturned. He’s the reason it was overturned. In
fact, he brags about it. Look at the chaos that has
resulted.”
To the Supreme Court
Justices sitting in the front of the chamber, he quoted their Rowe v Wade
decision back to them, saying: “In its decision to overturn Roe v Wade the
Supreme Court majority wrote, ‘Women are not without electoral or
political power.’ No kidding! Clearly, those bragging about
overturning Roe v Wade have no clue about the power of
women in America. They found out, though, when reproductive freedom was
on the ballot and won in 2022…and they will find
out again, in 2024.”
Meticulously throughout
the evening, the president laid out issues affecting the United States both at
home and abroad and underscored how MAGA Republicans are conspiring to stymie
any and all solutions, despite Democratic efforts to reach across the aisle and
achieve suitable compromises to enact improvements in the state of the union.
But the president also
listed his administration’s achievements—all too often given short shrift by
detractors and the media in general—despite this overwhelming opposition from
the far-right. He touted, among other things, a record fifteen million new
jobs in three years, unemployment at fifty-year lows, a record sixteen
million Americans starting small business ventures, historic job growth
and small business growth for Black, Hispanic, and Asian-Americans,
eight hundred thousand new domestic manufacturing jobs, more people having
affordable health insurance than ever before, the greatest reduction
of the racial wage gap in twenty years, and a drop in inflation from a soaring
nine percent to just three percent annually, and six hundred fifty billion
dollars in private sector investment in clean-energy production that promised
to add thousands of good-paying jobs to the workforce. He praised the
bipartisan infrastructure bill passed into law on his watch and promised “buy
American” policies would apply to both manufacturing and labor that formed part
of the resulting construction projects. And he proudly discussed his
administration’s part in taking on Big Pharma to bring down exorbitant drug
prices for Americans, specifically talking about the reduction of insulin
prices that had already been slashed for seniors from four hundred to just
thirty-five dollars a month, with future plans to do the same for the rest of
the country’s insulin users.
In short, it was,
perhaps, the most political State of the Union Address in history. It was
bitterly criticized as such by the MAGA opposition. But that factor also drew certain
expressions of disapproval among some of the generally friendly mainstream media.
I disagree. If there was ever
a time for a powerfully political State of the Union Address, instead of the
usual meaningless waffling that goes with trying to please everyone, it is now.
Biden is not wrong. US democracy is facing an existential crisis, the visible
authoritarian head of which is Donald Trump, who has hijacked the former GOP
and turned it into a cult of personality at his complete service.
Biden spent the first
part of his term staying aloof of the fray, while Justice independently took
charge of enumerating Trump’s transgressions and turning them into criminal
indictments. But as the wheels of justice turn with agonizing lethargy, and it
is clear now that insurrectionist and populist autocrat Donald Trump will once again
be on the November election ticket, there is no longer any room for Marquis of
Queensbury rules.
Democrats must strictly
maintain the constitutional rules of democracy at a governmental and legal level,
and see to it that they are obeyed by others, especially in the MAGA movement,
who would burn it all down and plunge the country into anarchy. But at an
electoral level, Biden and his party need to be ready to gird for battle and,
when necessary, to get down and punch it out, to paraphrase the late Johnny
Cash, in the blood and the snot and the beer.
The most indubitable
point that President Biden made in his address last Thursday was the first one:
US democracy is under mortal attack by authoritarians both at home and abroad (and
all too often in cahoots with each other). The stakes are intolerably high. What is in play, is
democracy’s very survival. And like it or not—in the absence of a strong third
party conservative candidate willing to torpedo the GOP’s chances for the sake
of the nation—re-electing Joe Biden is the only safeguard against democracy’s otherwise
certain demise.
