Below is my column in the New York Post on the State of the Union and how it played to the politics of division. It was about disunion and the need to demonize those with whom we disagree. The speech thrilled many in the media, but it captured how much we have lost in the traditions of this event from civility to unity.
Here is the column:
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.
Divider in Chief
The actionable criminal illegal alien invaders in Dear Leader Comrade General Secretary Joke Buydone’s “Fraudulent-Asylum Trojan Horse,” who must be immediately deported with extreme prejudice, will inarguably have an immediate adverse effect on the CENSUS, which will adversely affect Congress, actual Americans, and America.
Turley is paid to come up with something, anything, to criticize President Biden’s powerfully successful SOTU speech, so he criticizes our President for allegedly driving apart our country. Because he’s paid to do so, Turley would complain about Biden’s speech no matter what he said or how he said it. First of all, Republicans hoped he would choke, but he didn’t. He disproved all the lies about being senile and weak. Secondly, he laid out his vision for correcting the damage done to America by Trump. Turley tries to create an illusion that Trump wasn’t the horrible loser he was by complaining about Biden bringing up all the bad things Trump did—but it’s still the case that Trump was the worst president in recent history.
He left Biden with the worst economy since the Great Depression, a pandemic out of control, businesses, schools and restaurants closed down and no leisure travel. Because of tax cuts mostly benefiting the wealthy, the national debt rose to record levels. Biden turned all of that around, and has a vision for a bright future. He’s gotten passed several bipartisan bills, including infrastructure, COVID Relief, CHIPS Act, Inflation Reduction Act and other legislation. And he worked with Republicans on a bipartisan border security bill that would ease issues at the border that Trump killed solely to create an issue he could attack Biden for. The fact is—THAT IS the state of our union. You can’t ignore all the damage Trump has done to our country and would inflict if he cheats his way back into office when discussing the state of our union.
NUTCHACHACHA,
What does this mean?
“We the people of the United States…secure the Blessings of Liberty to OURSELVES and OUR POSTERITY.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Preamble
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
And what do the other words of the American Founders, issued within the year of the adoption of the Constitution establishing the nature and character of the United States, mean, and what do they not mean?
___________________________
Naturalization Acts of 1790, 1795, 1798, and 1802
United States Congress, “An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” March 26, 1790
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof…
Did you listen to this speech?? Biden has been in office for 3 YEARS! What has been decide and enacted has nothing to do with Trump; Biden has gotten us in this mess all on his own!!!
The Left’s counter, in response to Laken Riley’s murder: “Undocumented immigrants have substantially lower crime rates than native-born citizens.”
That is a corrupt attempt to deflect from the fact that an *illegal* immigrant murdered a young woman. Ibarra entered the country *illegally*. He was caught and released. He had been arrested numerous times by state and federal law enforcement — and released. He felt protected by sanctuary policies. And he was. Laken Riley — not so much.
It is those bankrupt immigration policies that unleashed a monster.
To deflect, via statistics, is sleazy — even for the Left.
It’s been reported that the police have recovered gloves the illegal alien used in the murder. That indicates it was possibly premeditated. I’ve also seen reports that he lived nearby Miss Riley and watched her leave her residence for her running route on several occasions. The man should not have even been in our country but rather than deport him when he was previously arrested, they returned him to the streets to target and murder a young American woman. Women need to get firearm training and carry an equalizer on their person at all times when out and about. Miss Riley called 911. The police didn’t arrive until time to locate her body.
More illegal aliens of the same ilk are arriving daily. I suspect some from the Haiti prison escape will eventually arrive on our soil. Americans need to start preparing themselves for what the Biden administration has brought to our nation. We will be on our own when it comes to our protection.
cfromthewoods – More importantly than firearm training, women need to vote for Republicans, not Democrats. A “woman’s right to choose” should include the right to walk or run alone in public. Cities run by Democrats have become hell-holes and white women face the greatest risks. Our cities will not get safer until Democrats become fewer.
The perpetrator of Miss Riley’s demise must be Drawn and Quartered in full view of the public by volunteers and for the least possible amount of money; his maximally disarticulated remains must be redistributed from an airplane over his s—hole country of origin.
Recidivism by deportees must be precluded by the death penalty.
I suspect some from the Haiti prison escape will eventually arrive on our soil.
It is quite a swim from Haiti to Florida, ~ 700 miles. Back stroke might help. However, they may be thwarted by deep sea creatures
Democrat leadership began ‘re-defining’ commonly-understood terminology early on in Biden’s administration, when it informed the public that we were not in a Recession, even though for six consecutive months, the leading economic indicators had declined.
Who gave them the right to change definitions?
(Question was asked of SCotus nominee Jackson ‘what is a woman’ — she wouldn’t provide her answer.)
If 80 million plus US citizens figure out their votes in 2024 were cancelled by 40 million illegal immigrants, fraudulent ballots, etc. perhaps that will trip the switch to finally rid ourselves of these totalitarian idiots. It’s hard to believe the number of people that have no idea what is going on.
It’s hard to believe the number of people that have no idea what is going on. — Traveler
Nah, that’s not so hard to understand… Just watch government approved, corporate mainstream news and all your doubts and problems will disappear. Simplistic us vs. them rhetoric is easy to digest, even for six year olds — no thought is necessary (because thinking can be subversive).
Desperate to justify the regime’s decision not to charge Joe Biden for willfully mishandling classified information, Robert Hur called Biden a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Let’s look at each of those elements in the context of Biden’s SOTU address:
1. Sympathetic. Ummm, not so much.
2. Well-meaning. Hardly. Especially if Biden thinks you are his political enemy.
3. Elderly. Yep. Score that one for Robert Hur.
4. Poor memory. Robert, you’re on a roll.
Way to go Robert! You’re batting .500. Our sources say Jen Psaki nominated you for a spot in Cooperstown!!!!
O T
I suggest watching a very recent Jordan Peterson podcast entitled “The Psychology of Social Status and Class | Rob Henderson | EP 429”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgnIb04y3WM
The guest is Rob Henderson, who coined the phrase “luxury beliefs” to describe the attitudes of elites that simultaneously increase their self-esteem, and self-interest, while harming everybody else in society. Incidentally, Peterson mentions that research shows Woke beliefs negatively correspond to IQ. Not surprisingly, Schools of Education are the most extreme example of this high-low combination.
[Off Topic] A Post for Chi-Town Turley / FYI
𝐔𝐒 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐋𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐰: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝’𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦?
The lakes hit their lowest ice cover in over 50 years last month, with experts warning that toxic algal blooms and lower fish stocks could follow.
By: Euronews Green with AP ~ March/09/2024
https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/03/09/us-great-lakes-ice-hits-record-low-what-does-that-mean-for-the-worlds-largest-freshwater-s
Given that he appeared to be hiked up on Adderall, his handlers probably concluded that a angry speech was the best way to cover the hyperactivity the drug produces.
Trump’s the one who snorts Adderall.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-snorted-adderall-apprentice-tom-arnold-noel-casler-1257787
Aw, isn’t that cute, we have a Biden troll tonight. I guess even demonically motivated corpses have their own trolls.
it’s a popular meme but Adderall does not remove cognitive impairment. Adderall won’t make someone with cognitive impairment appear fully engaged cognitively in conversations, nor crisp in their presentation / speaking / interactions. Cognitive impairment can not be masked by drugs. If anything cocaine / crack / crystal meth might be of more value for someone with cognitive impairment because it would make them appear “wound up”, but they would still be cognitively impaired and look dangerously unpredictable.
Biden’s presentation is more consistent with moderate cognitive impairment.
Cognitive impairment has 3 levels: mild, moderate, severe. With Mild impairment, few notice it except loved ones. They can function in their job without assistance, do not need assistance in every day tasks, but would struggle in paying bills online, leading a group conversation or privately reading deep intellectual content like Fyodor Dostoevsky, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, CS Lewis, etc
Someone with moderate cognitive impairment often needs outside intervention in work tasks, in every day common tasks like cooking, riding a bike, making a presentation on a stage, interacting with strangers, or lead a discussion or tell a story.
A person with severe cognitive impairment can not function independently at all including toilet tasks, bathing, dressing, feeding themselves, etc
Biden is a man with moderate cognitive impairment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGwJKhae1M8&t=13s
It has nothing to do with his age. Pope Francis is 86 years old and shows none of the impairment Biden does
Professor Turley Writes:
“I can remember as a young page standing in awe of this chamber and its occupants.”
…………………………………..
Here’s the passage from Turley’s Wikipedia bio describing his stint as a House page:
“Turley served as a House leadership page in 1977 and 1978 under the sponsorship of Illinois Democrat Sidney Yates.”
***
Turley was a house page in the late 1970’s during Jimmy Carter’s first 2 years as president. Turley’s sponsor was Chicago Congressman Sidney Yates, a Jewish liberal on good terms with Cook County’s Democratic Machine.
In the late 1970’s, the Watergate scandal was still a recent memory. Nixon’s disgrace was such that Republicans suffered major setbacks in the midterm elections of 1974. Yet Gerald Ford, a Republican moderate, lost only narrowly to Carter in 1976.
Though America had been shaken by the Vietnam War and Watergate, both political parties still included enough moderates that bipartisan legislation was not the least bit unusual. The WWII generation still held a great deal of power and they tended to put country before party with regards to priorities.
In that era, the late 1970’s, neither party would have considered nominating a candidate facing 91 felonies. In fact Republican leaders told Nixon to step down ‘before’ he was impeached. 10 years later, Democratic candidate Gary Hart had to give up his presidential bid when an extramarital affair came to light.
So Professor Turley surely knows that Donald Trump’s presumed nomination is an absolute freak in U.S. history. January 6th was an absolute freak in U.S. history. No defeated president had ever refused to leave office before!
Yet Trump has also been the subject of complaints by at least 2 dozen women regarding unwanted sexual advances. This was known even before the 2016 election. And just this week Trump was forced to post an $80 million bond regarding the civil suit he lost for attempted rape.
The idea that a major political party would field a candidate who just lost a rape case while facing 91 unrelated felonies would have been absolutely unthinkable when Turley started as a House page in 1977. Yet Turley notes none of this in today’s column.
Instead we’re left with the impression that Joe Biden was unusually rude in his State Of The Union remarks. As though Biden is the reason American politics has lost its civility. Turley, one gathers, has either suffered a major memory lapse or is incapable of seeing the present as it really is.
In any event, the WWII generation that was still running the country in 1977 would have never allowed Donald Trump anywhere near the White House.
The institution of LL aware did not exist in our history until Trump challenged the Uniparty. Nothing in the past can be considered relevant to our current situation.
“Lawfare”
You’re deluded if you think there’s a Uniparty.
You’re deluded if you think there isn’t one.
Yeah, the pro-choice party and the anti-choice party are clearly a single party. /s
In fact that’s true. Think about why they might want to use an issue like that to hide behind, to put forth the illusion of actual differences so that both remain in power and continue to extract money from the productive people of the US.
Your comment is fundamentally dishonest. What’s unprecedented is for one party to make corrupt use of (weaponize) the legal system to persecute the political opposition and interfere in a free and fair election. The Democrats have crossed that rubicon so that they can claim it’s wrong for their victims to nominate a person who has been indicted, just as you have dutifully done. It is a classic blame-the-victim ploy. The nefarious dealings are all being done by the Dems and it is important for the survival of this nation that Trump be elected by a large margin to discredit that kind of fascist tactic.
Trump’s been indicted because there’s evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed crimes.
Riiiiiiiiiight 🙄
Replying to ButAnon at 6:17 pm:
Let’s see:
1) a bookeeping argument about non-disclosure of a blackmail payment that has no legal precedent and is ridiculous on its face;
2) a claim of “fraud” where there is no loss, no victim, no complainant (except the Demo Party), no misstatement of FACT, no reliance by anyone on valuation opinions, and where there was compliance with standard accounting principles;
3) a rape claim that is 30 years old, with no corroborating physical evidence, where the complainant can’t identify the year in which the assault took place and talks about wearing clothing was not even manufactured yet (also, her allegations match the plot of a TV series she admits watching);
4) a massive conspiracy to overturn the election in Georgia by asking the Governor to “find” votes, something Al Gore tried to do in Florida 2000 without any charge being laid;
5) another massive conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election through Trump’s refusal to admit that he had lost the election, another commonality with Al Gore;
6) retention of classified documents, which has been done by every President since 1948, including Obama, with the difference that Trump’s documents were kept under lock-and-key and guarded (in contrast, Joe Biden carelessly handled classified documents and shared their contents with a ghost writer).
You can’t even keep track of the civil cases vs. the criminal cases. BTW, there are many more civil cases than the two you mentioned.
You lost, you got smoked to pieces for your stupid lies.
Sure there is wink wink
Bernie Sanders usually looks so angry that he is going to explode (he would play a good volcano). If the millionaire communist Bernie was enthusiastically clapping and looking as pleased as a doodle bug in diarrhea, then one has to assume the hard left has something up their sleeve. Slash and burn? Revolution? A new and improved “bigger better” pandemic? Psychological Operation?
Bernie Sanders is an anti-American, anti-Constitution communist, and a direct and mortal enemy of the American thesis of freedom and self-reliance, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, actual Americans, and America.
You forgot, He’s a multi millionaire Communist that has never had a job.
Please don’t misunderstand, Communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) In America (CIA) just LOVE money.
Other People’s Money (OPM).
From the desks of Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln:
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
You have to imagine America without Communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) In America (CIA).
When you do, you’ll understand what the American Founders and Framers established to stand in perpetuity.
Fresh off gorging himself on Ben & Jerry’s peace pops, Bernie sat in the chamber for Trump’s SOTU address in which Trump said America is all about freedom and will never be socialist. At that point Bernie started crying and called out for his mommy. Trump had to pause until the volume of the violins was turned down. One of the best moments in American political history. 😂
I cannot believe the hypocrisy of the Democrats. They arrest an ex-President for made up crimes, they also try and take him of the ballot in states. Biden operatives have also worked OT to keep RFK off ballots in states. Yet Biden has the nerve to claim Trump is a “threat to democracy”, so he has his DOJ raid Trump’s home. Biden schemed to get rid of Iowa and NH as the opening primaries – not enough black voters to Biden’s liking (blacks vote 90% for Democrats), yet Biden is calling a Trump a threat to Democracy. I guess there are some people out there dumb enough to fall for this gaslighting, but many voters can see through the lies and the false rhetoric of Biden. Joe Biden and the Democrats are the biggest threat to Democracy, their efforts to take Trump off the ballot – by any means that they can, tell you that. I voted Democratic most of my life, I cannot do that anymore – party taken over by left wing types – people that I believe are the real threat to Democracy.
They just redefine “democracy” to mean their own personal power and, voila, Trump is a threat to democracy. Just like “misinformation” means anything that departs from the government narrative. Welcome to the brave new world in which words no longer mean what you thought they meant. They have all been redefined and you have to guess the new meanings from the way the state is using them.
One-man, one-vote democracy IS the “dictatorship of the proletariat (hired help).” America was established as, and to be, a severely restricted-vote republic. America was established in freedom not in central planning, controlled means of production (unconstitutional regulation), redistribution of wealth, and social engineering. Qualifications to vote result in a quality and qualified government while the proletariat is comprised of legions of avaricious and covetous parasites who ultimately kill their host.
Merriam-Webster
republic
noun
re·pub·lic ri-ˈpə-blik
Synonyms of republic
1 b (1) : a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens ENTITLED TO VOTE and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law
_______________________________
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
– Alexander Fraser Tytler/Anonymous
“President Biden gave what could be his final State of the Union address Thursday.”
Oh God, but I do hope so.