Biden still has time to adjust his course
Previewing Thursday’s State of the Union address, the White House says President Joe Biden plans to claim credit for “getting more done in his first three years than most presidents have accomplished in two terms.” That’s a debatable claim, but he’s keen to talk about funding infrastructure, industrial policy, lowering drug prices and fighting junk fees. His most important legacy, however, will be defeating President Donald Trump in 2020, and if he’s going to do it again in 2024, he shouldn’t squander his biggest televised audience of the year by delivering another box-checking laundry list that drags on more than an hour.
Trump could well win if their rematch were today, but Biden has eight months to improve his fortunes. Nodding to the priorities of every Cabinet agency and the wish lists of liberal interest groups won’t shift any narratives. Alas, a preview released by the White House press shop on Friday suggests that’s what’s coming. It says the president will talk about, among other things, protecting abortion rights and in-vitro fertilization, reining in big tech, curbing fentanyl, helping veterans, ending cancer, making the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes, lowering health care premiums, uniting the country and “saving our democracy.”
These are all worthy aims, but a moment of this gravity calls for something grander. Biden needs to rethink an exhausted format, step up to the bully pulpit and make a case less for himself than for his worldview. He needs to push back on the self-defeating isolationism, nativism and protectionism of the “America First” movement, whose ideas are as dangerous now as when they were previously tried, and failed, in the 1930s.
Conventional wisdom holds that politicians should emphasize issues on which they have an advantage — such as abortion, in the president’s case — and de-emphasize those on which they’re vulnerable. But Biden will lose reelection if he doesn’t address the southern border. Immigration has become the citizenry’s No. 1 concern. A Gallup poll published Tuesday shows that 28% of Americans see this as the country’s most important problem, the highest reading ever. The same poll shows that Congress’ job approval rating has fallen to 12%. Biden’s is 38%.
It’s valid to castigate Republicans for killing the sensible bipartisan border deal, something Biden did during his visit to a Texas border town Thursday — but insufficient. He needs to convey that he understands that many see the millions of border crossings as a breakdown in one of the federal government’s core responsibilities and outline how he will use executive authorities to stop it if Congress won’t.
Biden should take a page from President Harry S Truman’s playbook. As the 1948 election season began, Truman appeared as vulnerable as Biden does now. But he won a full term by using the “Do-Nothing Congress” as a foil and rallying the country to meet the geopolitical challenges of the post-World War II era.
“Twice within our generation, world wars have taught us that we cannot isolate ourselves from the rest of the world,” Truman said in his 1948 State of the Union. “We have learned that the loss of freedom in any area of the world means a loss of freedom to ourselves — that the loss of independence by any nation adds directly to the insecurity of the United States.”
Biden can make a similar argument regarding the need for the United States to support democracies such as Ukraine as they fend off existential threats. This cries out for more than sloganeering. On Israel, what’s happening in Gaza has riven the Democratic base, but just like with his vulnerability on immigration, that makes it even more crucial for Biden to explain his thinking and what he’s doing to prevent a wider war in the Middle East while securing a peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Far from representing a silent majority, Trump’s America First ideology reflects the thinking of a noisy minority. Fresh Gallup polling shows that two-thirds of Americans want the United States to keep or expand its commitment to NATO. Only 12% want the United States to withdraw from the alliance.
Finally, and maybe most importantly, Biden needs to keep this State of the Union shorter than his previous three addresses to Congress. Truman spoke for 41 minutes in his 1948 State of the Union. Biden spoke for 73 minutes last year. Quick — can you remember anything he said? (No fair Googling.) At what he has called an “inflection point” in history, it is far less important for Biden to be comprehensive than to be compelling.