President Biden gave what could be his final State of the Union address Thursday.
While many presidents have used such moments to focus on the “union” of all Americans in our shared values and interests, Biden spoke to our disunion and seemed, again, to push the nation further apart.
Much of the rhetoric was familiar, if delivered as in a higher volume.
Biden raised the same demons he’s raised before, as he painted his opponents as threatening democracy itself.
As with the speech in Philadelphia and Valley Forge, Biden selected a backdrop of unity to highlight and play on our divisions. And many in the media were thrilled by the display.
The president attacked Trump and the Supreme Court, and compared political opponents to those presenting the same threat as Hitler in World War II.
After the speech, MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace gushed that it “was like a punch in the face to every Republican in the room.”
After repeating again that it “was a punch in the nose,” she added, “everybody knows this is a great speech.”
I beg to differ.
It was certainly a powerful delivery for Biden, but it was a rather poor State of the Union speech because there was little unifying in it.
Biden attacked his political opponents over a dozen times and even seemed to lash out at the Supreme Court justices sitting before him.
He returned to the themes of his infamous Philadelphia speech with the portrayal of his opponents (including millions of Americans) as representing an existential threat to the nation, like the Nazis or the Confederacy.
The hellish red backdrop was gone but in some ways it was more chilling precisely because this was a different setting.
This was supposed to be the State of the Union, where a president lays out what he views as the national interest, not just his political interests.
There is a difference.
Some Republicans showed the same lack of appreciation for this moment in heckling and shouting at the president.
I have written that such conduct should not be tolerated at the SOTU.
We’ve forgotten civility
While a guest was removed from the chamber and arrested for yelling at the president, some members continued to treat the SOTU like a cathartic primal-scream session.
The media also showed the ecstatic response to the rage and recriminations.
They praised Biden’s speech while largely ignoring the over-the-top partisanship and dubious factual claims.
What was lost is what we once had in these moments.
I can remember as a young page standing in awe of this chamber and its occupants.
Presidents and the members were every bit as partisan and bitterly divided.
However, at the SOTU they could still transcend the politics.
It was a moment that reminded the nation that we are still capable of reaching these moments of civility and decorum.
In some ways, the SOTU may have died when former Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up the address of former President Donald Trump.
Her drop-the-mic moment will have a lasting impact on the House.
While many in the media celebrated her lack of decorum and respect, she tore up something far more important than a speech.
She shredded decades of tradition of civility and any remaining residue of restraint in our politics.
Now media figures like Wallace are praising a president for giving a speech that is “a punch in the face to every Republican in the room . . . a punch in the nose . . . Everybody knows this is the message going into the next eight months, but the polls will soon reflect that, in this will be a real fight.”
It does not matter that Wallace has spent the last three years joining figures like Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) in condemning “Donald Trump’s speech inciting the crowd to go ‘fight like hell, or you won’t have a country anymore.’ ”
I condemned that speech on Jan. 6 when it was still being given.
However, for some, the rhetoric of division appears thrilling rather than threatening when delivered by the right party.
Now it is a matter of pride to see a president use the same rhetoric to “punch Republicans in the nose” and call on citizens to fight against tens of millions supporting his opponent.
I find no sense of joy or comfort in Biden’s State of the Union.
It remains the same politics of division.
It is not that Biden did not hear the call of history to unify a nation.
He just chose to ignore it.
Instead, the public was given scripted rage and choreographed demonstrations.
The question is what the public will now demand.
We can seek candidates who reach for something greater than we are at this moment . . . Or we can all just punch each other in the nose until the whole country is left bloody and broken.
Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
