By Charles Dervarics
In political parlance, it’s called a reset or pivot — a chance to start anew. For a nation weary of COVID and worried about Russia, President Biden last night offered a vigorous pep talk and a detailed agenda that he hopes will improve his political fortunes and those of fellow Democrats.
“Last year, COVID kept us apart. This year, we are finally together again,” he said at the start of a State of the Union speech designed to turn the page on the pandemic and emphasize unity. He spoke early and forcefully against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, telling a supportive audience that Vladimir Putin will pay “a high price” for this military action and announcing further steps such as closing off U.S. airspace to Russian flights.
But he turned from there to his domestic agenda, touting first-year achievements such as the infrastructure bill and American Rescue Plan plus an ambitious second-year agenda. Whether Congress will approve Build Back Better is a big question, given the failure of the plan last year.
[Asked whether Biden’s effort to revive the $1.5-2.0 trillion package with claims it would “lower costs” for most Americans, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) laughed it off. “They just can’t help themselves,” Manchin responded, The Hillreports Wednesday.]
But the president offered a sales pitch not only to woo lawmakers but also persuade skeptical voters in this fall’s midterm elections.
His agenda items included a $15/hour minimum wage, lower prescription drug prices, more funds for education and clean energy tax credits. To address inflation, he called for companies to “lower costs, not your wages.” One way to do this is through a renaissance in U.S. manufacturing of everything from cars to semiconductors.
“Rather than rely on foreign supply chains, let’s make it in America,” he said.
Clearly aiming at moderate voters in the upcoming midterms, he broke with progressives by praising both law enforcement and border security. “The answer is not to defund the police. It’s to fund the police,” he said, calling for more resources and training for law enforcement.
He touched briefly on the fight against COVID, noting that the nation now has the tools to fight the disease and citing a need to open schools and bring workers back into the office.
But another topic high on the White House agenda got barely a mention Tuesday night—climate change. That is perhaps testament to the way inflation and foreign policy now dominate the short-term outlook for 2022.
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Meanwhile in the U.S. — Three Bits of Data that are Massively Telling:
1. “Biden didn’t spend much time explaining why Americans should care about the deadly war in Eastern Europe, although he did warn that the country faces risks both economically and militarily.” —Punchbowl News
2. According to polling by Morning Consult, after the invasion, 66% of Americans have an unfavorable view of Russia. While that figure comes from polling between February 21 and 27, a poll taken February 14 to 20 had that number at 58%. It is worth noting the U.S. has the lowest unfavourability view of Russia among any of the countries polled: France, 68%; Germany, 74%; UK, 77%; Italy, 69%; Spain, 67%; Australia, 68%; Japan, 76%; South Korea, 75%.
3. In a survey conducted February 1-17 by Gallup World Affairs, 51% of Americans think the U.S. has the number-one military in the world. Gallup noted that it was conducted prior to the Russian invasion and that it isn’t clear whether a post-invasion poll would have had an effect on the results, given that the U.S. military is not on the ground there.
So what does this mean? It means that the consequences of the Trump administration still resonate, particularly (a) his “American first” rhetoric and (b) his bombast about the military.
Why would it have been necessary for Biden to explain to us the reason Americans should care about a democracy being invaded by a leader who is a foe of the American way of life? Despite what people have been led to believe by Trump’s undoubtedly one-sided chumminess with Putin, that guy is attacking Ukraine because it is becoming too Westernized, a.k.a., becoming more like America. That needs to be explained to us? Citizens of other Western or Westernized countries don’t have that issue to the extent that American citizens seem to.
Remember Trump talking about supporting the military (and his diminution of the leaders of the military because he, of course, claimed to be smarter than they are)? While 51% is better than 49%, it isn’t all that impressive. While Biden has been in office for more than a year, odds are that had Trump done as much for the military as he often claimed, those effects wouldn’t have disappeared in the last year.
Strange how we no longer know who our enemy is and that we consider our military to be #1 — but by a small edge. (Here’s something to consider: the U.S. FY ’21 military budget: $705 billion. The Russian spending? -- $65 billion.)
--Gary S. Vasilash