Yo, Joe―Do More Speeches!

​COMING OUT IN APRIL, 2023

"Tropical Depression," the final episode of the "Equal and Opposite Reactions Trilogy," will be released on APRIL 27, 2023 by Black Rose Writing.
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​YO, JOE―DO MORE SPEECHES!

         Last night I, probably along with many of my fellow citizens, tuned into President Biden's State of the Union speech expecting to be considerable underwhelmed. What a surprise when old Joe grabbed that speech and knocked it out of the park! 
         There he was, looking cheerful and relaxed at the podium, warming up by joking and making friendly with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and even saluting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. 

      The President then hit the ground running on the state of the economy, reminding us of his not insignificant accomplishments during his first two years: the passing of the infrastructure bill, construction of the Ohio Intel chip factory, investments in the social safety net, affordable health care legislation, prescription drug price reform, legislation to fight climate change and promote clean energy, a minimum 15% tax rate on wealthy corporations, and creating more jobs in two years than any other president created in four years.
         He talked electric vehicles, conservation, gas prices, manufacturing, a billionaire minimum tax, cracking down on wealthy tax cheats, banning non-compete clauses, passing a "Junk Fee Protection Act" to ban those sneaky fees that airlines, hotels, ticket vendors and others add on to the listed price of their goods. He talked China, immigration, democracy.
        The President showed empathy to those Americans suffering hardships, heartbreak, injustice. Over and over he asked us to let him finish the job. He riffed and spoke off the cuff and from the heart. ​

         There was no question that Joe Biden was crushing this State of the Union. He was energetic and in the zone. He looked good. He looked presidential. But the absolute show-stopping pièce de résistance of the night came when he brought up that there were some Republican members of Congress who, instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes, wanted to balance the budget by cutting out Social Security and Medicare. This brought cries of indignation from the Republican side of the room.
            Marjorie Taylor Greene, of course, channeled her inner middle-schooler and began calling the President of the United States a liar.

       But then in a few brilliant moves Biden not only maneuvered the Republicans into publicly standing up for the preservation of Social Security and Medicare,  but checkmated them into giving him a standing ovation in the bargain.

         It was priceless.  
        And of all the takeaways from Joe Biden's aced State of the Union address last night, to me the most obvious one was this:  He needs to do what he did last night more often. Give more speeches. More press conferences. More televised events where he gets out in front of an audience and reminds us what he's accomplished and what he strives yet to do. If Joe Biden wants the nation behind him as President, he needs to keep speaking to the nation as he did last night.