Prescription drug costs. The fentanyl crisis. Veterans services.
As he delivers his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, his first as the leader of a divided government, President Biden will tout a “unity agenda” focused on areas that he believes he can find common ground with House Republicans, even as they elevate a raft of divisive voices into leadership roles, some of whom refuse to admit he was legitimately elected.
It’s a dress rehearsal for a likely reelection campaign, when he will be trying to convince American voters once again that his experienced leadership and willingness to work across the aisle makes him the right leader in these polarizing times. Biden is hoping to build on his success over the last two years at getting some Republicans to sign on to major investments in infrastructure, boosting tech manufacturing in the U.S. and a modest gun safety bill.
Yet those accomplishments were achieved while Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress. Hoping for similar successes going forward can seem naive and even laughable, especially given how beholden Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is to the right-wing members of his caucus, many of whom only assented to his leadership after dragging out the nomination fight for five contentious days and 15 rounds of voting. The concessions McCarthy made included making it easier for his own party to oust him and giving some right-wing members more control over which bills will get voted on. It all adds to the difficulties of getting McCarthy to compromise with Democrats and bring his own caucus along with him.
“Sounds great, doesn’t it? Yeah, good luck,” says Paul Stob, the chair of the American studies program at Vanderbilt University, about Biden’s effort to promote his goal of advancing bipartisan legislation. “A pipe dream might be too strong of a word, but…
