President Biden's 2024 State of the Union Address.

 

President Joe Biden gave his 2024 State of the Union Address in a historic speech. It is his last State of the Union address in the first term of his Presidency. Whether you agree with him or not, it was certainly one of his greatest speeches during his Presidency. He touched on many domestic and foreign policy issues. Vice President Kamala Harris stood up and clapped for him, and the GOP House leader Mike Johnson shook his head when he disagreed with Biden, and he clapped when he agreed with him. President Biden's speech was divided into 2 parts. The first part talked about his accomplishments during his Presidency, and the second part dealt with the problems in America plus his future vision for America. President Biden didn't shy away from controversial issues and called President Trump his predecessor 13 times. Many Republicans yelled at him in outbursts, but Biden responded to them in the sense of being prepared for them. President Biden wanted the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to be passed to restore full voting rights for all Americans. He desired to lower prices for consumers, he desired to increase the federal minimum wage (as no American can live on $7.25 an hour as an income), and a minimum tax for billionaires of 25 percent (as he said that no billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher, a sanitation worker, or a nurse). President Biden started the speech with words about the Civil War and WWII to make his argument about a battle for democracy in America is very serious. President Biden talked about his age as not being a liability for his political career. It felt like a campaign speech, not a typical State of the Union speech. 

President Biden gave his views on education like more investments in preschool education (citing a study that children with preschool education have more vocabulary and greater chance to achieve higher education), praising his term for cutting poverty in half, and criticizing Trump as not doing enough to address the pandemic. President Biden gave an aggressive speech to defend Ukraine. Ukraine has every right to defend its lands from Russian imperialists. President Biden condemned Hamas attacking Israel on October 7th, 2023, and he wants to open a corridor to help Palestinians with food and supplies amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. President Biden spoke as wanting a six-week ceasefire and desiring Israel to do more to open up corridors so humanitarian aid can be reached to the Palestinian people in Gaza. Biden talked about his border security proposal, his promoting the Equality Act, and his promotion of restoring Roe. President Biden criticized the Supreme Court for many of their decisions. President Biden wants to address housing unaffordability, and hedge funds buying up the housing supply drives up home prices and rents. President Biden rejects trickle-down economics. The Republican response is given by Alabama Senator Katie Britt. Katie Britt said the old myth that the left tolerates criminals. That isn't the case as Trump is a convicted criminal, but Britt supports that convicted criminal. President Biden closed the speech with optimism for the future. The truth is that we are in a turning point in American history. We have a lower crime rate than in 2020, we have higher wages, and we have lower unemployment. Also, we have a long way to go with income inequality and other problems that must be solved. The question is whether we should choose an extremist, who is Trump, or democracy. I choose democracy.

There is new information coming out constantly in this world. President Biden desires to build a temporary port and pier on Gaza's coastline to provide a new route for humanitarian aid. President Biden faces huge challenges today. There is certainly a necessity to improve our society. Housing prices are too high in many parts of America, we have growing economic inequality, and grocery prices are high as the product of corporate consolidation. The economy being stronger is a good thing, but the problem is that much of the gains are found in the super-wealthy. The working class and the poor do deserve to have true economic benefits. There is greed and political corruption that should be condemned. There are always bigots and racists who hate black people, woke advocates, and other human beings, but we have to reject their hate speech and live our lives in the right direction. We have seen in the first term of President Joe Biden growing infrastructure projects being developed, negotiated drug prices, some student loan debt being forgiven, some monopolies being attacked, and record workers' strikes causing growth of union organizations. President Biden is the first President to walk a picket line. It is Biden's responsibility to go further if he has another second term. In other words, President Biden has to be bold and uncompromising as the MAGA cults are certainly unyielding in their extremism.

The House panel unanimously approved a bill that could ban TikTok in America. The bill wants ByteDance 165 days to sell TikTok. If they are not divested by that date, it would be illegal for app store operations like Apple and Google to make it available for Download. The bill desires similar prohibitions for other apps "controlled by foreign adversary companies." The company CEO Shou Chew testified to lawmakers last year that TikTok poses no threat to Americans. It is a bipartisan censorship agenda that is in violation of the First Amendment in my view. It is one thing if TikTok is regulated. As the American Civil Liberties Union's Jenna Leventoff (senior policy counsel at the ACLU) has mentioned trading the First Amendment for cheap political points during an election year is not the way to go. The censorship agenda is forever rejected by me.

The common lie by Trump supporters and Hoteps is that we must support Republicans now because of Lincoln. The reality is that the Republican Party back then was different than the Republican Party today. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, but he was a progressive on economic issues by funding Greenbacks, the transcontinental railroad, and the telegraph system, and endorsing progressive policies for economic growth. Many Republicans from Thaddeus Stevens to others were progressive in favor of freedom for black people. Many Democrats back in the 19th century were far right. That changed by the 20th century when things flipped after the 1960's when Republicans became more conservative, and the Democrats became more progressive (especially after the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed). MAGA cultists and Hoteps are similar in that they hate progressive views, but clean water, clean air, living wages, health care for all, reasonable gun regulations, voting rights, rights of women, and Social Security were progressive blessings created by progressive people who desired an end to authoritarian and anti-democratic extremists. There was far-right wing coup that almost ended the FDR Presidency back in the 1930's. There was a far-right coup in 2020 and 2021 that almost ended American democracy as we know it. So, we have to stand up and speak up for our God-given rights. Therefore, when we fight for justice, we mean it. I do not apologize for my core convictions. I have absolutely no regrets. We care for America, and caring for America means that we want fairness and justice available for all people.

By Timothy