Joe Biden’s third State of the Union address as president of the United States happened nearly two weeks ago on March 7, 2024. As an American with a vague sense of “civic duty,” I watched it live. Though I did think it was one of the better speeches from Biden’s presidency, in my perspective and from the viewpoint of the few vaguely progressive liberal Fordham peers I watched the speech with, Biden’s last State of The Union address of this presidential term remained altogether unimpressive.
The speech that Biden gave heavily emphasized the differences he had with former President Donald Trump, someone he obliquely referred to as “my predecessor” at least 10 times, according to Al Jazeera. This turned it into “more of a campaign speech than it was a State of the Union speech,” per Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett. Trump is his 2024 opponent; I feel as if we’re reliving moments in limbo. Biden, just like he did in 2020, sought to frame the election as a battle for “America’s soul” between competing visions.
On domestic issues, Biden touted his economic record but offered little in terms of structural changes to improve workers’ lives. As the journalist Ben Burgis wrote in Jacobin magazine, there were “bits and pieces of populist economic rhetoric,” but it sounded similar to the moderate centrism of former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama who were focused more on “producing a better workforce” than “structural changes to make life better for the workforce we already have.” References made to the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and a $15 minimum wage felt a tad perfunctory.
Biden did pledge to codify Roe v. Wade, which was overturned under his watch, if voters give back the House of Representatives in 2024 to Democrats, an important issue post-Dobbs, something which carried the 2022 and 2023 U.S. elections both electronically and rhetorically. Overall, though, his economic vision centered on bolstering and regulating corporations rather than expanding the safety net or empowering labor.
One of the most salient issues among Republicans is immigration, and Biden, after his address, said he regretted using the term “illegal” to describe the suspected killer student of University of Georgia Laken Riley during his speech. “I shouldn’t have used illegal — it’s undocumented,” he clarified. But Trump seized on the comment at a Georgia rally with Riley’s family, blaming Biden’s policies for her death and vowing mass deportations. Riley’s murder has become a 2024 flashpoint and rallying cry for the GOP amid record migrant crossings. Biden had backed an asylum overhaul and border funding deal, which some to the left of Biden have described as a “boon to right-wing xenophobia.” Despite this, the bill collapsed under direct pressure from Trump for not going far enough, while Senator Mitt Romney argued that Trump wanted to “kill” the border bill so he could “blame Biden,” and run his election on the border issue.
The recent ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza dominated the foreign policy portions. Biden criticized Trump for wanting to tell Russia to “do whatever the hell you want” while assuring Israel of his “lifelong” support. This position comes as many Democrats, one being Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, one of the highest-ranking government officials whois also a Jewish-American, break from their unconditional backing of Israel’s right-wing government.
Chuck Schumer stated that the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has “lost his way” and is now “an obstacle to peace,” even suggesting Israel should hold new elections — a major rebuke from the highest-ranking Jewish Democrat. Biden praised Schumer’s “passion,” stopping short of echoing his call for Israeli elections but acknowledging the “serious concerns” Netanyahu and his far-right coalition in the Israeli Knesset have raised since Oct. 7.
Meanwhile, American advocates for Palestine blocked Biden’s motorcade in a protest prior to the speech. To address criticism of enabling Israel’s siege on Gaza, which has already left over 30,000 Palestinians dead and has left half of Gaza at risk of starvation, Biden announced a plan for a temporary pier to deliver more aid that Israel refuses to let in. But humanitarian groups doubt this will suffice compared to pressuring or even forcing Israel to open land crossings. It seems more like a band-aid than a real challenge to Israeli human rights abuses cited by the United Nations.
At the start of the Israel-Palestine conflict, a Nov. 27, 2023, article from the Jewish News Syndicate titled “Biden is the primary obstacle to Israeli victory” provided an awfully blunt statement from retired Israel Defense Forces Maj. General Yitzhak Brick: “All of our missiles, the ammunition…all the airplanes, and bombs, it’s all from the U.S. The minute they turn off the tap, you can’t keep fighting. You have no capability… Everyone understands that we can’t fight this war without the United States.”
Biden’s failure in stopping Netanyahu from disrespecting human rights has proved to many of the progressive Americans who made up much of the “uncommitted” vote in the Democratic primaries, that Biden doesn’t deserve to be the one who saves American democracy despite being the only one who can. His instinct is to uphold an unacceptable status quo rather than fight for justice in Israel and Palestine and in an America plagued by inequality. While certainly better than the Trumpist alternative, Biden needs to raise the bar higher for liberal voters.
Biden’s 2024 State of the Union offered too little, too late. It relied on anti-MAGA framing more than a bold, substantive vision to inspire the Democratic base in a high-stakes election year. With the future of democracy on the line, “not as bad as the other guy” is not a high enough standard. To secure a second term and steer the country to a better place, Biden will have to aim higher these next few months and push harder for progressive change. His first term suggests that this may be easier said than done.
Drew McDonald, FCRH’26, is a history and political science double major from Sacramento, Calif.
