A Gender Unity Agenda? My Advice for President Biden in the SOTU
Last year, Biden announced a Unity Agenda, see my suggestion for what he can include this year.
On the political calendar, tonight’s State of the Union speech by Biden is an event I’ve had circled for a while. As expected, we are now planning for a rematch of 2020 between Biden and Trump, only this time Biden is the incumbent. So how will Biden use this important moment?
Lately, I’ve not watched these speeches live. Instead, I’ve read the manuscript and watched the highlights. The performative applause by each side of Congress gets to be too much for me. But this year I will be watching live at 6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern anyway. I’m hoping, among many things, that he includes something of a Gender Unity Agenda.
Last year, Biden set forth plans for progress on his Unity Agenda. I thought it included some important messages, like reducing the harm of opioids and supporting our veterans. Sadly, in the ensuing year, I believe that message was often overshadowed by other, though also important, issues.
As I wrote a few weeks ago, there are a few obvious items that Biden will address: abortion/women’s reproductive rights, the border issue, economic highlights, and international issues, esp. Middle East, Ukraine, and Taiwan/Philippines/China.
Thanks to a reader from Washington D.C. who also suggested that Biden will trumpet two major accomplishments that have helped everyone, and in particular many blue-collar workers:
The Chips Act, which has infused billions into domestic computer chip manufacturing, and
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act), which is creating thousands of jobs to fix infrastructure such as bridges, roads, water lines, and more. (They removed some lead pipes on my street thanks to this.)
While these help everyone, the two acts are adding millions of jobs in male-dominated fields such as manufacturing which have been declining since the passage of NAFTA, and in construction and related fields. While the Democrats have seen their support from blue-collar workers erode, this is an important accomplishment for Biden to emphasize. With an estimated 7 million men sitting on the sidelines and not even looking for work, this is a huge source of jobs.
As I have shown in previous posts, Biden should aim for better than -8% with men to stay in The White House, and this speech is a change to telegraph support for everyone, women and men, of all demographics. Indeed, using the language “Unity Agenda” sounded good, but he did not mention men and boys directly as he did women and girls. This graph shows how important it is for Democratic Incumbents to support men — they consistently do worse with men when they hold the White House.
I hope he directly mentions men and boys tonight, and here is my paragraph of suggested text from a few weeks ago, which he could easily work into his speech after some other important issues:
Suggested text for the 2024 State of the Union by President Biden:
My fellow Americans, I would also like to spend to moment to speak about another group of people in our country who are struggling, and that’s our boys and men. While my administration fully supports women and particularly securing their right to choose, the challenges that our men and boys are facing must be addressed, too. Men’s life expectancy is now 5.9 years less than women’s — which is why I’m urging Congress to pass H.R.4182 - Men’s Health Awareness and Improvement Act, which would create an office of Men’s Health. This act would also help men suffering from mental health and addiction issues. In 2022 alone, over 120,000 American men and boys died from “deaths of despair” — suicide, opioids, and alcohol-related deaths. That’s over twice the number of servicemen who died in Vietnam. For the good of the country, we must work to help our boys and men.
I think that would be a simple, noncontroversial message, would give male voters a solid message of support, and would support members of Congress who are pushing the bill. I see no downside to this, and it would take about 20 seconds.
With all of the recent discussion of the “Gender Divide,” this would be a perfect way to start to bridge it. I know there are many important things to discuss, and I’m curious as to how President Biden does. Happy viewing!