U.S. President Joe Biden delivers his third State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, March 7, 2024.SHAWN THEW/Reuters
James Monroe used his 1823 State of the Union message to unveil his landmark Monroe Doctrine, barring European nations from further colonization in the Western Hemisphere. Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the occasion in 1941 to set out the “Four Freedoms,” a declaration of enduring American values that became the theme of four beloved Norman Rockwell paintings that for generations have hung in homes across the country. Lyndon B. Johnson used the forum in 1964 to declare “unconditional war on poverty in America.” Bill Clinton used his 1996 moment to call for the “end of big government.”
Joe Biden used Thursday’s State of the Union Address to campaign for re-election.
In 89 minutes of remarks delivered almost precisely 48 hours after Donald Trump’s Super Tuesday triumphs moved the former president inexorably to his third Republican nomination, Mr. Biden delivered a rousing partisan speech that attacked his general-election rival as a threat to democratic values and assailed the Supreme Court for its ruling overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing abortion rights.
In a country where the breaks between rich and poor, between Republicans and Democrats, between rural and urban Americans, between those with college educations and those who do not possess university degrees are becoming ever more extreme, Mr. Biden broke precedence in delivering an overtly, almost entirely, partisan message.
In so doing – in delivering a nationally televised speech that was far more politics than policy, reversing the customary ratio – he may have broken the State of the Union address for all time.
“Given the rancorous politics of the 21st century, it isn’t especially surprising,” said Thomas Whalen, a Boston University historian. “Policy was given only cursory attention. It’s a far cry from when Bill Clinton would give really long policy lectures. It’s another precedent gone, and another sign of a decline in our politics.”
What President Joe Biden said during his State of the Union address
Americans may look back on Thursday night as the functional equivalent of the change in the nature of another nationally televised American moment: when Marlon Brando refused to accept an Oscar award in 1973 and instead asked activist Sacheen Littlefeather to protest “the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry.” There surely will be fresh political statements at Sunday’s Academy Award ceremony, joining previous protests of the Vietnam War, efforts to bring attention to an internment camp holding AIDS-stricken Haitians, and statements supporting abortion rights.
Similarly, the annual State of the Union messages, prescribed by the Constitution but delivered in print rather than in person until Woodrow Wilson travelled to the Capitol in 1913 for his speech, have gone from sober occasions to spectacles in recent years.
Democrats booed George W. Bush for his remarks in 2005 about possible adjustments in social security, the income supplement for senior citizens. In 2013, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words “not true” after Barack Obama criticized the court’s Citizens United decision giving corporations broad freedom to make political donations. Seven years later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dramatically tore up the text of Mr. Trump’s remarks.
This year, Mr. Biden wasn’t the only one tossing partisan brickbats. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia defied the House dress code by wearing a bright red Make America Great Again baseball cap. Catcalls were heard throughout the chamber. Mr. Trump played the role of colour commentator, issuing play-by-play analysis on his Truth Social platform that included speculation that his predecessor was on drugs (which the former president thought might be “wearing off”) and “is so angry and crazy!”
Mr. Biden’s speech received huzzahs from Democrats, who welcomed signs that the 81-year-old incumbent, assailed by critics and even some of his party colleagues for being too infirm and frail for the presidency, was energetic, engaged and at some points even electric. But Republicans scolded him severely for transforming a moment of state into a campaign rally.
Biden’s State of the Union address is the most important speech in his political career
Another difference this year: Canada rated only a glancing three-syllable reference (“Toronto”).
Lincoln used his 1864 address to warn Canada that the United States was willing to send naval forces to arm the Great Lakes because of “recent assaults and depredations committed by inimical and desperate persons who are harbored there.” Grover Cleveland used his 1885 address to warn that the “ancient boundary” between British Columbia and Alaska was “impracticable as a geographical fact.” Four years later, he told Canada it was imperative to revise and mark “the water boundary between the United States and Canada in the narrow channels that join the Great Lakes.” And Mr. Clinton emphasized the importance of “a North American Free Trade Agreement with appropriate safeguards for workers and the environment” in his 1993 message.
So Canada has been a prominent part of State of the Union messages for much of American history. But apparently there is no room in the United States today for peace, order and good government.
But there may well be an audience for Lincoln’s 1862 message, delivered in the second year of the Civil War, when the 16th president warned his countrymen, “We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth.”
He continued: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”