Last night Biden delivered a solid State of the Union Address. Not great. Nothing to write home about. But solid. It was the speech the country needed this week. I give credit to Joe Biden for his effort to find common ground with Republicans. Even the GOP members of Congress bit their tongues and applauded his condemnation of Russia and support of Ukraine.
After the Ukraine section of the speech, the partisanship started. The GOP refused to applaud or stand for infrastructure, job creation, and clean water. Nancy Pelosi seemed to visibly shake with enthusiasm at certain points in the speech.
Here were some of the moments that caught my attention:
The behavior of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert brought me back to junior high:
On Thursday I am teaching Clifford Geertz’s essay on the Balinese cockfight in my historical methods course. Geertz is an anthropologist known for “thick descriptions” of culture. He would view last night’s State of the Union as a text– full of symbols (and symbolic actions) that need to be studied and unpacked. For example:
When Biden walked into the chamber I thought he looked stiff and old. But he seemed to gain strength and vitality as the speech went on. By the middle of speech he looked ten years younger:
Here were some tweets that caught my eye during the speech:
As T.J. Stiles notes, the Build Back Better section of the speech seemed directed to West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin:
Another moment of unity:
Breyer’s display of humility: