Barely a mention
In President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union since Roe was overturned and half of the country lost their right to be seen as full human beings, abortion barely merited a mention. In a speech where ‘junk fees’ got nineteen sentences, reproductive rights got just four:
“Congress must restore the right the Supreme Court took away last year and codify Roe v. Wade to protect every woman’s constitutional right to choose. The Vice President and I are doing everything we can to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient privacy. But already, more than a dozen states are enforcing extreme abortion bans. Make no mistake; if Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it.”
Oh, gee, thanks – IF the situation gets even worse, he’ll say no. Big woop. The situation is bad NOW.
In all, Biden spoke on abortion for about thirty seconds. And while the president found emotion and energy when talking about other issues facing the nation, he seemed to almost shrug out the perfunctory few sentences on abortion.
Well, he’s Joe Biden. He’s never been a feminist. He’s a “devout” Catholic. He threw Anita Hill to the wolves. He’s never been a feminist.
We didn’t even get a full minute of his time.
If President Biden gave American women any message tonight, it’s this: We’re on our own.
It’s only women. He’s not much interested.
I’m amazed that he even said “women”, rather than “people”.
GW, at his age, he probably doesn’t remember all the special instructions.
This whole fiasco has revealed the depth of Democrats’ commitment to ensuring women’s rights. What’s it called when you sell a service without any intent of delivery? … Maude? Freud? Faust?
I don’t see this as having anything to do with Biden’s Catholicism or apathy about women. I think he’s making a political calculation that using the SOTU to say “I’m on the job, here are the things I’ve done, and here’s what I’m going to do” is better than using it to reiterate all the ways Republicans suck. (I mean, there was a bit of both of course.)
I get the frustration, but generally the State of the Union is an opportunity to rally support for specific measures the federal government intends to enact. I read the linked blog post and didn’t really see anything about what Biden can do — it may be that there are some things that can be done via executive order, or the FDA and DOJ, but federal legislation is a non-starter with the GOP in control of the House, and there’s nothing that can be done about the Supreme Court right now, either.
Oh that’s what it’s for. I’ve been wondering. I’ve been thinking it’s an odd ceremonial arbitrary Event that serves no purpose except to draw press coverage.
Ha, well it’s both. But I think the Biden team wants the press coverage to be “Biden is getting shit done” rather than “Biden really roasted those Republicans.”
Biden campaigned on a message of “back to normal, I can make Washington work again.” That’s not unique to him, of course — presidential candidates usually try to convey an above-the-fray image and promise the voters that they’re going to rise above partisan bickering and gridlock. Hell, Trump worked that message hard in 2016 — “I’m a dealmaker, I know how to get things done” – and a lot of suckers fell for it even though he ended up barely trying to make deals with Democrats. And I think Trump’s failure to do so, and his four years as essentially a partisan (well, the Party of Trump rather than the GOP) warrior hurt him with the voters who supplied the crucial margin for Biden in 2020.
I guess this is really just the umpteenth iteration of the “appeal to swing voters/moderates/casual followers of politics vs. motivate the base.” My take is generally that both are important, but things like the SOTU, precisely because they generate a lot of media attention that gets through to non-political junkies, are when you emphasize the former. The fact that Biden’s team seemingly agrees with me doesn’t mean that we’re right, I’m just saying that there’s an explanation beyond “Biden just doesn’t care about this issue.”
That all makes sense.
I suspect – though I have little evidence to back this up – that Biden would love this issue to go away. I think some Republicans are also beginning to wish that.
If that’s the case, we’re in a tough spot, because if they want it to go away, they’re going to do their best to ignore it and to get the media to ignore it in turn. Make it yesterday’s news. Make it oh, so, 1973. Speak about it only briefly and with no passion in the SOTU.
So our job is to make sure it doesn’t go away. We need to keep it out there, especially stories of suffering women, women who die because they couldn’t get an abortion, or women who have their lives ruined because of an unwanted pregnancy they couldn’t terminate.
I guess that’s why I am willing to support the idea that Biden needs to have his feet held to the fire. Congress also. Women need to keep squawking. They may call us shrill, but we can survive that. They may call us bitches and harpies and ball busters, but we can deal with that.
We need to shout loudly enough to be heard over the apathy and over the attempts to shout over us with some other issue they don’t want to go away.
Oh, I think activists should absolutely make a fuss and keep the pressure on. That’s their job. It’s perfectly legit to tell the party that supposedly supports your position “stop taking us for granted.” That’s what the anti-choice movement did for decades — they screamed bloody murder when they felt GOP politicians were being soft on their issue.
This is why I didn’t vote for him in the primary. I heard an interview with Dr. Hill in which she was asked if she forgave him for what he did to her, and she quietly, politely, but firmly said “No”. He called her during the presidential race and she told him that directly, too.
I was lucky that my state printed their primary ballots early, before Warren dropped out, even though we have a late primary. By the time the primary reached our state, Bernie and Biden were the only choices, but our ballot still had Warren and Klobuchar, so I was able to vote for someone other than either of the two white men I had difficulty voting for.