Biden’s State of the Union address signals a major pivot, but to what?

President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address to Congress on March 1 has been heralded as a major pivot by an administration after just a year in office. It has been variously described as a “reset,” a “reboot,” and a “course correction.”  However it is characterized, it certainly qualifies as a significant new direction, pivoting from “forever wars” to a strong allied stance of harsh sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine.   

The speech also pivoted from even mentioning the term “Build Back Better” — the president’s ambitious $2.75 trillion social spending and climate package scheme —instead paring it down and extracting from it the more affordable, palatable bite-sized components aimed at helping hard-pressed low income families with “getting prices under control” as his “top priority.” Biden termed his new mix of nostrums as, “Building a better America.” Old presidential initiatives don’t fade away; they are simply reframed and rebranded. 

The speech was obviously well-received by the American people and the Congress — welcome relief from the long-running COVID pandemic, the mid-winter doldrums of surging inflation and soaring crime rates. President Biden deserves high marks both for the tone and energetic delivery of the address, breathing new life into a presidency and administration that already seemed stalled and stagnant.   

However, just as a swallow does not a summer make, one speech cannot remake an administration or turn things around for the nation. The key will be in the follow-up and implementation of the president’s extensive wish list. Even then, it is questionable whether key policy enactments can be translated into majority votes for Democrats running for Congress next November.   

Traditionally, the party in control of the White House loses seats in Congress in the midterm elections, and Democrats are already barely inching by on razor thin majorities in both chambers. Moreover, the president’s paltry approval rating prior to the address, according to an NPR/Marist poll, was at a record low of 39 percent, though after the speech it jumped to 47 percent.   

One heartening new element in the president’s speech, missing from his first year in office, was an explicit appeal for bipartisanship. In the president’s words, “Let’s stop seeing each other as enemies and start seeing each other for who we really are: fellow Americans. We can’t change how divided we are, but we can change how we move forward on covid-19 and other issues we face.” 

As examples, the president proposed “A Unity Agenda for the Nation” consisting of four things we can do together: end the opioid epidemic; take on mental health; support our veterans with job training and other initiatives; and end cancer as we know it. 

Even for those problems on which there should be common ground and agreement, unity may be evasive. Republicans in Congress are going their separate ways in opposing most of Biden’s programs to date and are thrashing about to develop their own agendas. Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has already vetoed an eleven-point platform served-up by National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott (Fla.). And House Republicans are attempting to revive a “Contract with America” styled program dubbed, “A Commitment to America,” even tapping former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) to help shape it.  

Moreover, House Democrats are far from united. For the first time ever, there were three different congressional Democratic responses to their own party’s president by the progressive caucus, the Black Caucus, and the centrist caucus. 

The State of the Union Address has its origin in the constitutional mandate that the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union, and such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”  Woodrow Wilson was the first president in modern times to deliver to Congress in person his “Annual Message” (as it was then called). Since then it has become a regular ritual with all the pomp and pageantry of the Sovereign’s speech to the Parliament. The assembled members, senators, and other dignitaries serve as a useful backdrop to the proceedings, with the president’s party heading-up the cheering section with frequent pop-up hoots, hollers and clapping.  

Abraham Lincoln was wrong in saying, “The world will little note nor long remember” the words he spoke at Gettysburg. But most State of the Union messages are not long remembered. In the past, the so-called “rhetorical presidency” was a powerful tool in moving parties and the nation. Nowadays, however, “rhetoric” is generally perceived as requiring an adjective modifier like, “hollow” or “empty.” Only time, elbow grease and momentum will determine whether this year’s State of the Union “pivot” will lead to something better. 

Don Wolfensberger is a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Bipartisan Policy Center, former staff director of the House Rules Committee, and author of “Changing Cultures in Congress: From Fair Play to Power Plays.” The views expressed are solely his own.