A Night of Political Theater

Please remain prayerful for the entire performance..

A reported 32 million Americans tuned in to watch President Biden’s State of the Union address last Thursday, a marked uptick in viewership from recent year’s totals. The renewed interest can be reasonably accounted for. Of course, being an election year will have more people wanting to hear the President’s plans for the future. Over at Hot Air, journalist Jazz Shaw guessed that Democrat supporters of Palestine were likely wanting to hear the President’s plans for US intervention in the Israel-Hamas war.

But in the end, most people were likely watching to gauge whether reports of the President’s cognitive decline were accurate. His defenders have said that he’s sharp as a tack, but it’s hard not to notice his tripping up stairs, wandering aimlessly and a string of verbal gaffs, trailing off and becoming unintelligible. Given that polling consistently shows voters worry about the President’s ability to complete a second term in office, a convincing display of mental acuity was critical to the President’s re-election campaign. There was plenty of speculation that the President must have had a few shots of espresso (to be charitable) because, on that front at least, it wasn’t terrible.

Corporate lefty media uniformly described the speech as “fiery” while right-wing outfits went with “angry” and “divisive”. The President managed to alienate at least half of America by once again describing Trump supporters and Republicans as threats to democracy. He broke with protocol to criticize his “predecessor” and chastised the Justices of the Supreme Court (who were seated in the chamber) for returning the legislating of abortion back to the states. As Al Mohler noted in his summary of the address, the President made clear he is all-in on the culture of death, promising to make Roe the “law of the land” if he retains the White House in November.

All up, the President had a very different take on the state of America – economy, jobs, book bans, voter suppression – than many outside the Beltway might recognize, but Speaker Mike Johnson’s facial expressions throughout the speech were a good stand-in for middle Americans.

The presidency is a tough gig, I’ve no doubt, and made more difficult when your moral compass is tied to the spirit of the age. All the more reason why we should continue to pray for men who can lead with integrity and humility, who will punish evil and reward good. More than that, pray for the Holy Spirit to convict the hearts of our leaders that they would be brought to repentance and faith. As Rev Fisk wrote recently, it’s not “the total state that is the problem, nor constitutional law that is the solution, but the gods whom the people worship that matters.”