Quick Take: State of the Union and Senator Katie Britt's Response
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The comedian George Carlin once said, “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” It’s funny because many of us tend to have a low opinion of what we believe to be the “average” person - and by definition half of all people are stupider than average. We all think we’re better drivers than average too - and that just cannot be possible. It’s called the Superiority Illusion.
Maybe the word “stupid” offends you, and to be sure, that was Carlin’s style: offensive to everybody. If you weren’t offended by what Carlin said, he’d get around to you later in his routine.
But he has a point here, especially in the political realm. Most people don’t follow politics beyond the headlines, or what some meme on Facebook or Twitter says. The average voter carries a “sense” of the direction of the country and their personal, lived experience. That’s all they have, for the most part, tuning in to these speeches - if they tune in at all. And the party apparatchiks know this intimately and fundamentally.
That’s what I’m thinking this morning after watching both Joe Biden’s State of the Union and the Republican response presented by Alabama Senator Katie Britt. These were both blatantly political speeches, of course, not for the high-minded. To be sure, they both addressed “the issues” - immigration, inflation, Ukraine, Israel. But it was the context in which they were delivered, the “feelz” or vibe, the listener - the average listener - would take away that is most interesting.
Speeches like these aren’t “tuned” to convert the hard-core MAGA crowd, or force much-needed introspection among the "wokerati”. For sure, they’re intended to reinforce the party’s base - motivate the troops, throw them some red meat. But they’re also to persuade the undecided voters by saying “Look, we’re not crazy and dangerous like those other guys, and we’ll be great for you.”
As such, the purpose is less on statistics and data, and more on emotional appeal. This has not been the case historically, but in an age of stark and bitter divide, it’s become the norm.
For folks like me, these speeches are insufferable, cringeworthy and tedious. Biden shouted out enough whoppers to launch his own Burger King franchise, while Britt’s alternately treacly smile and dour, disapproving sighs just didn’t strike me as serious. But then, I wasn’t the target audience for either address.
Biden was aiming to convince blue collar workers and blacks that he’s on their side, because he’s been bleeding out votes in those demographics. He was also aiming to dispel the notion he’s old and enfeebled - by delivering his remarks in a Ritalin-charged shout literally all the way through.
Britt’s appeal was to average women voters, among whom the GOP has been having serious problems. Her focus was on how poorly the economy has performed under Biden, for families specifically. At one point she leaned forward and spoke directly to “the moms out there” saying “we get you, we hear you”. This was delivered literally from her kitchen table at home. I don’t know how much more directly she could have made that appeal.
Did either speech “work”? We shall see. A lot of polling will happen in the coming weeks and we’ll see if Biden was able to move the needle on his abysmal approval ratings and I’m sure the GOP will be sampling to see if women were persuaded by Britt.
But that’s the synopsis. Two ham-fisted political speeches delivered with the intent to shore up weaknesses by appealing to the average informed (and below) voters.