by Todd E. Brady
You can often tell what is underneath something someone is saying. Sometimes, they come right out and say it. That was the case with President Joe Biden and Thursday night’s campaign speech which was billed as a State of the Union address.
It was a packed room. Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate along with the Speaker of the House, the Vice President, the President’s Cabinet and other guests were present. The US Constitution requires the President to give Congress a State of the Union message on the condition of the country. The first State of the Union message was given by George Washington in 1790 and was only 833 words. Obviously, it takes over 6,400 words these days to describe the State of the Union.
There was an underlying philosophy of the speech. You had to listen to the end to hear him say it. He said, “In my career I’ve been told I’m too young and I’m too old. Whether young or old, I’ve always known what endures. Our North Star.” Then he said it. There was no subtle speech or beating around the bush. He said, “My fellow Americans, the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are, it’s how old our ideas are.”
There is much concern, rightly so, about the President’s age and mental ability. Although at the end of the speech, he jettisoned talk about his age and instead talked about the age of ideas.
Indeed, few things are more powerful than an idea. This was clearly articulated by Richard M. Weaver in his 1948 book, Ideas Have Consequences.
Behind any action is an idea. Behind any policy or procedure is an idea. Behind all rhetoric is an idea. Behind Thursday night’s State of the Union address was an idea.
Concerning writing, we often hear teachers discuss the controlling idea. It is the idea, or the main idea, that is controlling the paragraph or the composition. There is an idea driving what is being written. In the same way, there was a controlling idea driving the State of the Union speech. The idea was that an old idea is bad and that a new idea is good. This is the faulty assumption that Biden makes.
Biden has embraced the new idea that abortion is a matter of a woman’s reproductive right. Strangely, this is contrary to what Biden once embraced. As a Delaware Senator, he voted against a 1977 bill allowing Medicaid to fund abortions that included an exception for victims of rape and incest and when there were concerns for the life of the mother.
He once was against abortion, but now he is for abortion. I guess his vote in 1977 was the result of an old, out-of-fashion idea and that his support for abortion now is a new, en vogue idea.
Thursday night, Biden placed the issue of abortion front and center, even speaking directly to the Supreme Court Justices present and telling them that he thought they were mistaken in overturning Roe v. Wade. Biden has become the chief flag-waver for America’s Culture of Death.
Today’s new idea of murder in the womb will one day become an old idea. Then something like the murder of senior adults who don’t “contribute” to society will be the new idea. After that something like the murder of infants who limit adults who “contribute” to society will be the new idea.
Mr. President, there are many of us who are teaching our children that some of the best ideas are the old ideas.
“Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. (Jeremiah 6:16)
When it comes to the new idea of a Woman’s Reproductive Right, let us remember the old idea that life is sacred. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
William Feather was right. “We don’t need men with new ideas as much as we need men who will put energy behind the old ideas.”
Todd E. Brady serves as Staff Chaplain and Advanced Funeral Planner at Arrington Funeral Directors. He and his wife, Amy have five sons. You may write to him at tbrady@afgemail.net. The Jackson Post’s opinion/editorial page is meant to help launch public discussion of local issues or allow local people to discuss national or statewide issues. Publication of a column is not an endorsement of that column by The Post, its owners or any of its advertisers or employees. To join the discussion, send a guest column or letter to the editor to brandon@jacksonpost.news. Submissions for a specific week’s print edition need to be sent by Monday night. Sending does not guarantee publication that week as that is based on space availability.
