One would be forgiven for mistaking President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday night as a campaign speech. It was overtly political, with the president making more than a dozen references to his “predecessor” and current rival, former President Donald Trump, and several dozen more about the supposed “threats to democracy” Trump poses.
But Biden’s reelection pitch wasn’t aimed at the general election voters he needs to win over. It was aimed at the left wing of the Democratic Party, which he also needs to win over if he wants to stay at the top of the party’s ticket.
That’s why Biden had no problem touting the most radical parts of his agenda, such as his climate policies, which are driving blue-collar workers out of their jobs in swing states such as Michigan and raising energy prices for households across the United States. It’s why he pushed for an even more radical expansion of the federal government, including increased corporate and wealth taxes that sound like they came straight from Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) playbook. It’s why he made no effort to reach out to Republicans, instead bashing them over the head for rejecting an immigration bill that would have allowed thousands of illegal immigrants to enter the country every month. And it’s why he didn’t think twice before insulting the Supreme Court justices to their face for their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Biden realizes that the biggest threat to his campaign right now is his own party. He has lost hundreds of thousands of primary votes over the past couple of weeks to dissatisfied leftists launching a protest campaign against him. And he knows that even if they are unable to boot him off the ballot before the Democratic convention this summer, they could tank any chance he has at winning the swing states in November. In Michigan, for example, more than 100,000 Democrats protest-voted against Biden in the party’s primary last month. Biden beat Trump in Michigan in 2020 by just 150,000 votes. And in Minnesota, which Biden won by about 300,000 votes in 2020, 1 in 5 Democrats voted against him.
This is a serious problem that Biden is clearly trying to reconcile, starting with the State of the Union. His speech was an insult to the history and purpose of the event, but it may very well have accomplished what he intended by assuring the Left he is fully committed to them.
It also assured the rest of the country, however, that he will gladly sacrifice its concerns to further his political ambitions.