Discussing the republican response to the state of the union

 So, the republicans gave a response to the state of the union like they always do. And...I have mixed views on it. 

On the one hand, it seemed to be effective at criticizing Biden. They went straight for the "it's like it's the 1970s all over again" argument that I figured they would go with. And while they were totally wrong about the root causes of the issues, and how no, government spending isn't why inflation is happening, and no Biden isn't being weak on Russia like Carter was, I think that people need to take pause for how effective these talking points will be among the voting base.

I mean, Biden's administration is having problems, and at least on the domestic front, i think he's flopping hard on them. While he gave a nice virtue signally speech talking about jobs and lowering costs and everything, I think we know in practice that Biden is gonna do very little as long as congress keeps fighting him. And that's going to make him look weak and ineffective. And these talking points will have power.

I wanna give you the perspective of the Boomer generation here. I'm a millennial, born in the late 80s, now in my mid 30s, the great recession is what really scarred my generation and drove us so far left on economics. But....Boomers and the like are different.

These guys grew up in the era of "big government", born mostly in the 1950s, some before in the 40s, some after in the early 60s. They came of age in the 1970s. This was an era of high inflation, an ineffective president on foreign policy issues, and general dysfunction. And these guys, despite growing up in the era of the New Deal and all of its benefits, quickly turned on it. Why? Because the government wasnt doing anything. Despite unions, bargaining power, and a high standard of living, these guys came of age in an era of fuel shortages, inflation raising the cost of living more than wages, and being told to wear a sweater.

Now we have more inflation, and COVID restrictions are unpopular with a lot of the country. With "get the vaccine" or "wear a mask" being the new "wear a sweater" or "turn the heat down". And as I said, Americans hate to take their medicine.

This is why in Biden's speech he totally rolled over on COVID and committed to going completely back to normalcy despite the virus still being a threat.

I remember growing up in the early-mid 2000s as a teenager and getting my political awakening with the right and Rush Limbaugh. Wanna know what they were saying back then? Basically, that the 1970s were horrible, and then Saint Reagan came along and fixed all of our problems by getting rid of government and being tough on Russia. He galvanized an entire generation of people to support conservatism, which led ultimately to the right being so vicious today with the tea party and Trumpism. It all started with Reagan. Technically with Nixon, but with Nixon it was the realignment of coalitions. Reagan was the realignment of politics, ideology, and policies. Nixon laid the ground work. Reagan popularized the right into the force it is today. 

And now, in this era of Biden, we have the same problems that we had in the 1970s. So in this speech, the republicans painted Biden as weak. Weak on the economy, giving people money to not work and causing inflation. Being weak on Russia. Being dictatorial on masks. And you know what? Half the country will buy it.

NOW, to be fair, I mostly expect this to be effective among older audiences. Boomers and Gen X. But they make up most of the voters. But still, it might work.

Now, and this is where I was going with the "on one hand" at the beginning of the article, on the OTHER hand...is it true? NO! Republicans were lying like crazy. On the economy, Biden isn't responsible for inflation. It's supply shortages, price gauging, and a labor shortage which may or may not be exaggerated by corporate America that is more related to COVID than anything else. On foreign policy, Biden is EXTREMELY effective on Ukraine and I totally endorse his actions. Meanwhile the orange fuhrer is actually siding with Russia. because he's a moron. of course he's out of the spotlight so no one is paying attention, but that's the thing with republicans. THEY ARENT PAYING ATTENTION. And on COVID...again, I'm dissatisfied with Biden's direction as I follow the science and still believe it is a threat. But, I understand Biden caved. Biden is also appealing hard to trumpers with his campaign to build stuff here in America. He's literally trying to sound like trump to win over the trumpers. Now, a lot of that is talk with no real plans of action, but you would think those people wouldnt know that. 

But that's kind of the problem with the GOP. No matter what a dem does, it's bad. No matter what their side does, it's good. They'll attack the other side over everything but then with their side they tend to have a blind eye to everything said.

So, let's face it. Kim Reynolds, you're full of crap. But...sadly, her voters won't notice that and I expect her lies to be incredibly popular. Especially if Biden fails to get the economy under control.

Honestly, I feel like the SOTU and response were like campaign stump speeches, and should give you an idea of what 2022 looks like. Biden pushing for mildly progressive things but people not seeing any real action. Republicans acting like everything is bad because dems are in office and a lot of dumb voters believing them. Ugh, I hate the two party system.