Adorned as if it were a professional wrestling match and repeatedly yelling ‘Liar!’ at the top of her lungs, Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene perversely stole the show and any thoughtful Republican response to last week’s State of the Union Address.
Surreally dressed in all-white complemented by faux fur—to symbolize, she said, the Chinese balloon that had captured headlines as it drifted across the country— Greene’s choice of clothing and raucous behavior seemed almost overlooked by colleagues, many of whom were pictured staring straight ahead or scrolling through their phones all through Greene’s choreographed performative rage. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden sailed through his speech stopping periodically to sometimes subtly, other times teasingly, joust with the other side.
The two parties seemed almost to be watching the President’s address to the nation through opposite ends of a telescope, Democrats applauding Biden for his promise not to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits as Republicans sat either silently or alternately jeering at the same lines.
As these annual addresses go, the 2023 version may have set a new standard in decorum or absence thereof. Once thought extreme and outrageous when at 2009’s State of the Union Address South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson yelled out, ‘You lie!’ as President Obama spoke about immigration, this year’s version lowered the bar to subterranean levels with mainly Greene nearly drowning out any vision of the nation’s state, political though it may be.
Seemingly oblivious to what the country watched, Colorado Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn focused instead on party talking points, overlooking the country’s steady resistance against challenging economic headwinds conceived by COVID and the subsequent supply chain snarls that ensued and continue to impact world economies.
“Domestically, American families are struggling,” said Lamborn, punctuating his words with specific responsibility he laid at the doorstep of the President and his party, especially on “social and climate justice policies.” The Colorado Springs Republican pointed directly at the President for rising prices and an ever-growing national debt, overlooking that same debt’s growth over the previous administration.
Colorado Democratic Senator Michael Bennet touted President Biden’s message and accomplishments over the course of the last two years, calling it “historic progress.” Bennet praised the Biden effort of “keeping millions of kids out of poverty” with the Child Tax Credit legislation and jump starting work on rebuilding the nation’s aging infrastructure thanks to the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The nationally televised speech was viewed by the second smallest audience to view a State of the Union. The latest version drew only 27.3 million viewers compared to 38.2 million who tuned in last year. While it was a decline of 28 percent, last year’s numbers may have been a reflection of an audience tuning in to hear what the President had to say after the pandemic’s toll had eased.
The cacophony from Greene, especially when Biden stood fast against any cuts to Social Security, seemed odd considering it was actually the platform put forth by Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott in his 2022 ‘12 Point Plan to Rescue America.’
Scott’s plan specifically states, “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.” When it was released, the plan was enthusiastically endorsed by former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
“Like the Contract with America it will help win the election,” said the former Speaker. “More importantly,” Gingrich said just months ago, it would “serve as a blueprint for the new Republican majority to focus on solving problems and creating a dramatically better American future.” The entire plan can be read at rescueamerica.com.
Colorado Democrats watching the President saw a man who answered the tempest of criticism from Republicans who have sharpened their spears on the grindstone of immigration, climate and social parity. “The thing that really made my heart glad,” said former Thornton Democratic Representative Joe Salazar, was the president’s message that “progressivism is very much alive.”
Salazar, who was term limited and ran unsuccessfully for Colorado Attorney General, also said he cringed at the comportment of Greene and a handful of her colleagues. “I know you can never count out Republicans for exhibiting the worst of behavior and that is exactly what happened.” What the country witnessed, Salazar said, was a disrespect for our “institutions, our President, history or the solemn dignity of the State of the Union.” It was, he said, a party’s “race to the bottom.” On Republicans remaining silent on Greene’s theatrics, Salazar said “it reminded me of the police where good cops sometimes just sit on their hands” as others despoil their profession.
Following the State of the Union, newly elected Arkansas Governor and former Trump press secretary Sarah Sanders delivered the traditional out-of-power party’s response to the Biden address. But rather than tout a positive counter and different perspective to cutting Social Security and Medicare, critics called her response dystopian, laced with attacks on LGBQT rights, critical race theory and ‘wokeness.’
“The choice,” she said, “is no longer between right and left” but tantamount to one between “normal and crazy.” Sanders’ response highlighted a few of her first acts as Governor of Arkansas, including acts aimed at ‘ending racism’ in her state’s classrooms. Among them were banning the term ‘Latinx,’ and banishing CRT which she said, “emphasizes skin color as a person’s primary characteristic, thereby resurrecting segregationist values, which America has fought so hard to reject.” It should be noted that CRT a college course and not taught below the high school level.
Sanders’ banning of ‘Latinx’ and CRT effects only 22.3 percent of the state’s population while having only minimal impact on the remaining 87.7 percent of the state’s 3,025, 000 residents.
