The State of the Union is "Strong"

Exposing a Classic American Lie

My fellow Bugbearians,

The state of the union is, to put it in my eminently polite and understated yet passive-aggressive native Midwestern idiom, not great. For those of you who don’t speak middle-American, that translates roughly to “shitty.” See also: not my favorite.

Tonight, President Joe Biden will deliver the annual State of the Union address, an annoyingly dishonest piece of American political theater and a cornerstone of this country’s “civil religion.” To be sure, Biden has some accomplishments to tout—infrastructure improvements and an economic recovery that has admittedly benefited more than just the wealthy, plus student loan forgiveness to the extent he could provide it through executive action, all in the face of Republican obstruction. Still, conditions remain rough for many Americans: food prices remain too high (and are still increasing), relatively high interest rates are locking many out of the chance to buy a house, and the unhoused rate remains high, with the latest data available from HUD showing a 12% increase from 2022 to 2023.

The rent, it should go without saying, is too damn high, and as red states persecute scapegoated communities like transgender Americans and our families, the choice is often between living in a place where your healthcare is banned or you could be hit with a spurious child abuse investigation for supporting your trans child, but housing is more affordable, or trying to move into a prohibitively expensive housing market in a blue state.

Now let me ask pointedly: can our “union” truly be described as “strong” when the raging (and mostly white) Right is engaged in the brazen scapegoating of marginalized communities, and anti-trans threats and violence are stoked by the stochastic terrorism of the likes of Chaya Raichik of Libs of Tiktok infamy? When a state senator from Oklahoma—where the Republican school superintendent appointed Raichik to an advisory committee to help “make Oklahoma schools safer”—calls LGBTQ Americans “filth” after a nonbinary student, Nex Benedict, was beaten in a public school bathroom and died the next day? When American women and transmasculine folks must live in fear of a possible national abortion ban, even if they live in blue states? When a manufactured border crisis is dominating this year’s election discussion, and Democrats, including Biden, have gone along with the racist Republican framing of the issue?

For four decades now, it has been customary for presidents to begin each State of the Union Address with the phrase “the state of the union is strong.” Of course, it makes perfect sense that Ronald Reagan, who used the asinine campaign slogan “Let’s make America great again,” which should sound familiar, would start such an equally asinine trend. But what does it mean for the “union” to be “strong,” anyway? The phrase rings particularly hollow in an era when our institutions are failing to hold former president and insurrectionist Donald Trump accountable for January 6 in real time.

Here, too, Democrats have disappointingly bought into right-wing framing, just as Hillary Clinton did in 2016 when she responded to the MAGA slogan with “America is great because America is good.” You can call the rhetoric aspirational, but justice delayed is justice denied. And as a Christian school alum who grew up with school talent show audience sing-alongs of Lee Greenwood’s godawful song “God Bless the USA,” let me also add that the rhetoric of national “greatness” is harmful. It accomplishes nothing good but stirs up plenty of jingoism. Of course, I voted for Clinton, and I will vote for Biden. Democrats are better than the alternative, but they should be much better than they are.

So, what would it mean for America to be good? And when, if ever, has the union been “strong”? That is a concept that needs unpacking. You know what else needs unpacking? The Supreme Court.

Justice may be blind, but the Supreme Court sure isn’t. Photo via Unsplash.