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By David Pepper
Last year’s State of the Union was one of the best hours of President Biden’s term as President.
Ever since, I’ve thought, bottle that up and do it everywhere.
First, because it’s the far more accurate account of what’s actually happening. And the American people deserve to hear that truth directly from their president. The narrower frame that it’s largely about Trump blinds us to so much of what’s happening—and what we have to do to overcome it.
And as my friend Gevin Reynolds (a Yale Law student and former Vice Presidential speechwriter) and I explain in a piece in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that full account also allows the American people to finally connect the dots between the attack on democracy in all these states and the avalanche of extremism all around them—a connection that too often goes unexplained. This way, the real-life consequences of the broader attack on democracy—including the direct undermining of freedoms like abortion access and choosing IVF—become far more clear and painful than the endless DC debates, complex court cases and heated elections that most folks don’t perceive as impacting their daily lives.
Third, as Gevin and I explain, by doing so, President Biden will make it clear that the battle for democracy spans way beyond the swing states that usually get all the attention in presidential years. Instead, he “can engage Americans in all fifty states, make them feel seen, and let them know that they too have a role to play in saving our democracy. We are all on the front lines.”
And fourth, such a speech would “remind Americans that the threats to our democracy go far beyond the presidential and congressional races that will be decided this November.” He can “remind the American people that it is they who have the power to fight back. How? By participating in and voting for democracy up and down the ballot.”
(And yes, that also happens to be a heck of a way to drive turnout everywhere, even where enthusiasm for Biden itself may be lagging at the moment).
Finally, this emphasis also allows Biden to make the case why it’s so critical that the Congress, as its first act in January 2025, pass the voting rights bills that will revitalize the Voting Rights Act, curb voter suppression in states while ending gerrymandering. It’s a promise he should make explicitly tonight. Boy is that something so many Americans, worried about our democracy, will want to hear.
Doing this will only take a few minutes.
But true straight talk from the President about the breadth and depth of the attack on American democracy would dramatically change American’s understanding of why things appear so broken, and how we can can ALL play a role in fixing them. Everywhere!
No doubt, Biden will rightfully declare that the state of our union is strong. But as Gevin and I write, as he does so, “he must emphasize….that the state of democracy in our union is only as strong as it is in the states where democracy is weakest. In this ongoing battle, there is where we must focus our fight.”
For Gevin’s and my full piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, go HERE .
