No matter where you are on the American political spectrum, it would be hard to not notice the shocking difference in the presentation from each political party on Thursday’s State of the Union address. President Biden –whose fitness for the presidency has been questioned frequently as of late due to his old age– gave a surprisingly strong performance that seemed to rebut any doubts about his cognitive abilities. On the other hand, Republican members of Congress engaged in chaotic and sometimes odd behavior that surely did not represent the party’s interests well, especially in an election year.
When discussing the state of the union, President Biden spoke powerfully, maintaining a strong tone and bold demeanor throughout his hour long speech. He spoke forcefully about protecting social security against Republican threats, restoring Roe v. Wade, requiring billionaires to pay their fair share, and protecting unions among other topics. Of course, Americans are already aware of these policies of Biden’s, but what most importantly came from this night was a display of Biden’s stamina and his ability to act on the fly.
In fact, there were multiple occasions where President Biden went back and forth with Republicans in the House Chamber. When Republicans groaned over Biden mentioning the bipartisan border security bill that he advocated for, Biden responded with an “Oh, you don’t think so? You don’t like that bill, huh?” and then went on to describe all the ways that the bill would help the nation. He made it look like Republicans were hindering progress and then blaming him for the lack of progress, effectively showing the weakness in their arguments. When talking about his infrastructure bill that Republicans didn’t support, he openly spoke to Republican members of Congress, saying that “if any of you don’t want that money in your district, just let me know.” Biden’s fiery nature and ability to go back and forth with a rowdy chamber is significant as it contrasts with the image that his opponents assign him. How can they call him “sleepy Joe” or claim he isn’t sharp enough to be the President when he performed so strongly?
Biden had a successful night and represented Democratic interests well. The same cannot be said of the Republican party. One of the most striking examples of this comes (yet again) from Marjorie Taylor Greene. She decided to wear a bright red jacket and a Make America Great Again hat that made her stick out like a sore thumb. In fact, when President Biden made his way down to the front of the House Chamber, he seemed visibly surprised by Marjorie Taylor Green’s outlandish outfit. The moment was quite humorous and went viral on social media platforms as users of X and TikTok compared the moment to an episode of the HBO show Veep and claimed that “Joe Biden’s reaction is all of us.” Marjorie Taylor Greene continued to yell at Biden all throughout the State of the Union address as those around her seemed to look uncomfortable with the Congresswoman’s erratic behavior.
Representative Greene wasn’t the only Republican whose fashion statement made headlines. Troy Nehls, a Republican representative from Texas, wore a t-shirt with Donald Trump’s mugshot on it (from when he surrendered to the state of New York) with a caption that read “Never Surrender!” He, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the masses of Congresspeople who wore clothing that was actually formal and appropriate. Representative Nehls also decided to wear an American flag bowtie that looked like something he bought from Shein. Since he was wearing a t-shirt and not a collared shirt, the bowtie sat around his neck looking more like a dog collar than the attire of a Congressman.
Now, you may claim that it’s unfair to compare these Representatives’ behavior to that of President Biden’s; Biden is the head of the Democratic Party while Greene and Nehls are just two obscure members of the Republican party. It’s important to note, however, that the odd behavior of the Republican party wasn’t just confined to these two House representatives; Senator Katie Britt did represent the entirety of the Republican party when she gave the Republican response to Biden’s State of the Union. And her speech was… interesting.
If you closed your eyes and listened to Senator Britt’s speech, then maybe it wouldn’t have been that bad; at least it wouldn’t have been as bad if you had your eyes open. Britt spoke in a manner that seemed sad; her voice reflected sadness at Biden’s supposed failure to fix our nation’s economy and protect Americans from the border crisis. Her face, however, reflected no sadness. She smiled throughout a majority of the speech. Hearing a sad voice while looking at a rather wide grin was just jarring, some would even say it was creepy. She sounded distraught (almost forcefully so), but visually looked quite pleased. Altogether, her speech was just uncomfortable to watch and many found her tone, that ranged from “impassioned” declarations to “sad” whispering, to to be cringeworthy. An advisor to former President Trump even went as far as telling the Rolling Stone that watching Britt’s speech made him question “What the hell am I watching right now?”
If you were able to take your eyes away from Britt’s uncomfortable-to-watch grin, you might have noticed that she gave her speech from her kitchen. It seemed as if this was an attempt to make the senator look like an average American watching the State of the Union from her home, but that’s not exactly the message that came across. Instead, many fled to social media claiming how ironic it was that the Republican party’s female speaker gave an address from her kitchen, making her appear domestic and as if she abided by patriarchal gender roles that confined women to the home. This didn’t seem to work well for the party that has been attempting to restrict women’s access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care. Ana Navarro, a Republican host of “The View,” took to social media to say that Britt’s speech “looked, sounded and felt like a Real Housewives confessional” and that it gave “Handmaid’s Tale vibes.” Britt’s speech attempted to make President Biden look bad, but she seemed to receive more criticism about her speech than Biden did.
Whether you support Democratic or Republican policies, it’s apparent that the Democratic party had a successful night on Thursday, while the Republican party did nothing but confuse the American people at best and put a sour taste in their mouths at worst.
