2023 State of the Union & Response
President Biden gave his second State of the Union address this week and Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered the Republican response. Both touched on issues that are top-of-mind for our audience of moderate women, but the approach could not have been more different. Biden took a hopeful tone describing a future with Americans coming together and furthering our “story of progress and resilience,” while Sanders emphasized our deep divide and evoked fear with narratives of the “woke mob,” “radical left,” and an America where “violent criminals roam free.”
The President spent a significant amount of time talking about wins with the economy, job creation, the climate, and prescription drug costs, speaking directly to the kitchen table issues on the minds of many and positioning his administration as benefiting all Americans: “When the middle class does well, the poor have a ladder up and the wealthy still do very well. We all do well.” He talked about the threat to our democracy and our fundamental rights: “Make no mistake; if Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it.” And he closed with a message of unity: “We must see each other not as enemies, but as fellow Americans . . . there is nothing, nothing, beyond our capacity if we do it together.”
In stark contrast, Governor Sanders painted a dark picture of the state of our country, one that is irreparably polarized: “The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left; the choice is between normal and crazy.” And she stoked fear of the other, tapping into racial resentment and anxiety over gender ideology: “Children are taught to hate one another on account of their race,” drugs are “pouring across our southern border,” and the “woke mob can’t even tell you what a woman is.” These grievance-based culture wars are pulled straight from the authoritarian playbook.
The speeches highlight how critical our work will be in the coming year to combat polarization and advance progress. Building on our 2022 success, our 2023 strategies are rooted in research, issue education, and disinformation defense, with a focus on the very topics we heard about in the State of the Union and the response.
- Kitchen Table Issues: the economy, inflation, climate, healthcare, caregiving
- Culture Wars: reproductive freedom, backlash to equity (“critical race theory,” LGBTQ+ rights), othering (anti-immigrant, anti-Blackness, antisemitism, anti-Asian)
- Democracy: faith in elections, civic agency, value of voting
We know our audience of moderate women are not single-issue voters. We will provide tailored programming and a hopeful, solutions-based narrative on this range of topics they care about to move us toward an America where we all can thrive.
