"Give 'em Hell, Joe"
...he did, and it's REFRESHING
In October of 2012 I was in Concord, NH, when Joe Biden came into town for a campaign rally. My son Derek was working on the campaign and Kristin and I were there to knock on doors and make phone calls.
After his speech Joe made the rounds as is his wont, and his strength, which is grounded in his humanity and feel for people.
I said to him as I shook his hand, “Give ‘em hell, Joe.” He responded,
“Like Harry Truman, I’ll speak the truth, and they’ll think it’s hell,” flashing his trademark grin.
Well, Joe sure gave ‘em hell in his State of the Union speech last week. He:
Showed that he understood history, and the perils and import of this moment in our history. Reaching back to FDR’s 1941 State of the Union address, whose purpose he characterized as “…to wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this was no ordinary moment.” That, then as now, with “Freedom and democracy…under assault in the world…it is we who face an unprecedented moment in [our] history…”
He compared Putin’s Ukraine aggression to that of Hitler, and stressed the necessity of helping Ukrainians resist Putin’s current-day fascism. He demanded that Congress pass the Bipartisan National Security Bill that Speaker Johnson has bottled up, out of deference to Trump.
He then turned to the internal threats to democracy, citing the events of 1/6/21 when
“…[i]nsurrectionists stormed this very Capitol and placed a dagger at the throat of American democracy [in an attempt to]…stop the peaceful transfer of power and to overturn the will of the people. January 6th and the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the election, posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War.”
What he didn’t say was that many in his audience – including the current Speaker – were either leaders or complicit in that plot…and continue to lie about the election to this day.
Compared the sainted (by the old GOP, anyway) Ronald Reagan’s command: “Mister Gorbachev, tear down that wall,” with Donnie Trump’s fawning permission of Putin’s aggression: “I’d tell him (Putin) to do whatever the hell he wants” to NATO allies that Trump judged as spending less than they should on defense.
Called out the GOP’s failure to pass what can only be described as the GOP’s “dream immigration reform/border security bill” because they and their cult leader want a campaign issue, not a solution. See Senator Lankford (R-OK), who negotiated the bill nod in agreement, mouthing, “It’s true.” See it here.
Defended the right to reproductive choice, confronting the Supreme Court that put that right at risk and asking of those in the chamber who want to further limit that freedom, “My God, what freedoms will you take away next?”
Took credit for leading the nation out of the COVID crisis and passing the infrastructure and CHIPS Act that have led an economic rebound, even as he acknowledged the difficulties families face because of inflation.
Touted his support of the UAW and his place as the first President to join a picket line, praising the union movement’s role in building the middle class…and his determination to stand up for a middle class that has been under assault by right-wing Republicans for at least forty years.
There was more substance…but the most heartening takeaway for me was not just his energetic performance but his combative ATTITUDE; it appears that President Biden plans to take the fight to his political enemies in a way that Democrats have failed to do since Harry Truman assailed the “do-nothing Congress.”
That makes this blogger take heart. For too long I’ve watched as Michael Dukakis failed to respond forcefully to the G.H.W. Bush campaign’s dirty attacks…Or as John Kerry – a decorated war hero – failed to respond to the lies promulgated by the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” on behalf of G.W. Bush, who was AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard during the Viet Nam War.
My credo? Don’t be the one to initiate gutter politics, but when they come after you with such tactics, don’t be afraid to take the advice of Sean Connery’s Officer Malone to Kevin Costner’s Elliot Ness in The Untouchables: “They bring a knife, you bring a gun. They put one of yours in the hospital, put one of theirs in the morgue. That’s how you get Capone.”
You can watch that exchange here: