February 8, 2023
by Matthew Rothschild, Executive Director
My favorite part of President Biden’s State of the Union speech was his full-throated defense of our democracy.
“For the last few years our democracy has been threatened, attacked, and put at risk. Put to the test here, in this very room, on January 6 th,” he noted.
“There is no place for political violence in America,” he went on, after saluting Paul Pelosi. “In America, we must protect the right to vote, not suppress that fundamental right. We honor the results of our elections, not subvert the will of the people. We must uphold the rule of the law and restore trust in our institutions of democracy. And we must give hate and extremism in any form no safe harbor.”
The haters and the extremists in Congress were on full display during his speech, with their rude and repeated heckling. They proved what Biden also said: “ Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere.”
I also admired Biden for inviting the parents of Tyre Nichols to be there as his guests, and for the way Biden addressed the problem of lethal police brutality.
“There’s no words to describe the heartache or grief of losing a child. But imagine, imagine if you lost that child at the hands of the law,” he said.
“Imagine having to worry whether your son or daughter came home from walking down the street, playing in the park or just driving a car.”
Speaking directly to white America, he went on: “Most of us in here have never had to have the talk, the talk, that Brown and Black parents have had to have with their children. Beau, Hunter, Ashley, my children — I never had to have the talk with them. I never had to tell them if a police officer pulls you over, turn your interior lights on right away. Don’t reach for your license. Keep your hands on the steering wheel. Imagine having to worry like that every single time your kid got in a car.”
Driving home the point, Biden said: “Just as every cop when they pin on that badge in the morning has a right to be able to go home at night, so does everybody else out there. Our children have a right to come home safely. Equal protection under the law is a covenant we have with each other in America.”
By defending democracy itself, and the values that undergird it, like equal protection under the law, Biden did the country a real service in his State of the Union address.