Joe Biden, The Anti-Mob President, Delivers
Joe Biden, The Anti-Mob President, Delivers
Thoughts on a masterly State of the Union from our oldest president
There is so much to say about President Joe Biden’s speech that it may well require another post.
Let me just say that the speech made clear to me what is right in front of us. Here is a deeply empathetic president who was in command. In some measure his was a national security speech and it had a lack of poetry that the moment required.
For now let us lay out the arguments against him. They tell us he doesn’t speak right. That he’s old. That he’s infirm. That he’s senile. That he can’t get it done. That he’s in decline.
Well tonight those critiques all melted away. Biden was in top form in a speech that focused on middle class America. It was, in its emphasis on the dignity that comes with work, a surprisingly Catholic speech. Biden is at his very best when he is appealing to American pride -- pride not as a sin but as a virtue, as intrinsically linked to dignity. This is a Catholic teaching. “Reward work not wealth.” Amen Joe.
Crucially for our purposes and mine as the CEO of Traitwell, Biden understands that while Republicans talk about being anti-big Pharma Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act makes them bend the knee.
"Not anymore!" Biden said when discussing how the pharma industry cheats Americans and he was right to highlight how Americans pay way too much and get way too little from Big Pharma.
This, too, is a national security issue. When you understand how foreign intelligence recruits assets by offering them live saving drugs you understand how the world really works. Joe knows.
Among the better lines:
A declaration of war against organized crime, especially on CARES Act fraud. Is Biden setting up the case against Jared Kushner? We shall see.
Biden understands that the tech figures should rightly be understood as mobsters exacting a toll over the whole of the Internet: “Capitalism without competition…it’s extortion, it’s exploitation.”
And in one of my favorite lines of the night. “Americans are tired of being played for suckers,” he said when calling for an end to junk fees in credit card, entertainment, and travel.
There’s also this gem: "I'll see you at the groundbreaking," Biden said to the Republicans who voted against the infrastructure law but are all too happy to take the money and build the projects. Yes, Joe Biden is old enough to have invented grinfucking.
I found the speech surprisingly touching at times, especially when he panned the camera to praise Brandon Tsay, the twenty-six year old hero who disarmed a gunman in San Gabriel Valley, a place where I once lived. Thanks Brandon.
Among the other notes that most didn't pick up on is that Biden spoke both about cancer and addiction, both illnesses which have claimed his sons. He’s not quite there yet about how we need a nation wide genetics program that can really solve this issue in a serious way but I’m confident we can and will get there.
But for now our government is in safe hands and that’s all that really matters.
"Democracy is not a partisan issue, it's an American issue,” he said. “Every generation of Americans has faced a moment where they have been called to protect our democracy...and this is our moment."
President Joe Biden is the man for this moment. Long may the moment last and may he.