Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and president/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
Politics can be boring again.
I listened with anticipation to President Biden’s hour-long State of the Union speech to see how he would express a message that defines the moment in history that we are living through. More specifically, how he would deliver the line that all State of the Union addresses must apparently say.
“The state of the union is strong, because you, the American people, are strong.”
As this was his first State of the Union as president, expectations were high. And Biden delivered his vision and agenda for the future of the United States. There was seemingly something for everyone. And we all seemed to be asking, “Is this the moment when Biden gets back on track? Will this be how his approval ratings turn around?”
Personally, I find the approval polls as helpful as I find canned spinach. A little slimy and served with a touch of vinegar. They are a meaningless scorecard, surveying people who are actually grading their own lives and expectations of the near-future. After many years of fear-mongering, propaganda and outright lies, it’s no wonder we disapprove of everything. For most Americans, cynicism is our constant companion.
This was the context in which I listened to the speech while finishing some household chores. I noted the opening visuals of two women sitting behind the president while he spoke and smiled to myself. Yes, we need more women in elected office and in the halls of power.
Perhaps because of the global tensions surrounding the Ukraine invasion and resulting humanitarian crisis, I wanted our president to grasp the moment. But I failed to be moved to hope or belief that his vision was possible. At the same time, I found the speech to be a “normal” State of the Union address. As intended, Biden included many agenda items that he campaigned on and that progressives call for: new jobs, higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy, more union participation and a better life for working class Americans. In my mind, I could hear my conservative friends and family asking how we would pay for it all. I also heard clear outreach to conservatives, highlighting issues that are near and dear to conservative hearts like a strong support of capitalism, no new taxes for working Americans and increased funding to police.
There were, however, some lines in the speech that were inspiring and offered hope, especially those moments in which all members of Congress stood and applauded in unison. The division and toxicity in Congress is worse than ever so those seconds, as fleeting as they may have been, of bipartisanship and unity were a relief.
I was struck by the personal tone as Biden spoke about the cause of his son’s death (brain cancer) during a section on the VA pioneering a new way of linking toxic exposures to diseases veterans are experiencing. Acknowledging the need for our country to take responsibility for our veterans is long overdue. For him, veterans' care is deeply personal. The call to support veterans will be meaningful if we actually support veterans and not just use them as a prop.
Biden’s encouraging words about strengthening democracy around the world, as well as domestically, was balm to my soul. Given the focus of The Fulcrum and the members of Bridge Alliance (affiliated with The Fulcrum), it was nice to hear our work in the State of the Union. He called on our better angels to enact voting rights and other reforms to bolster the integrity of our elections. If we don’t get this right, nothing will improve.
Like most Americans, I long to ditch the mask without risking others’ lives. I look forward to our near future of “normalcy” without giving up on what must be done. My heart resonates with his words, “It’s gonna be OK.”
It was a relief not to hear partisan, propaganda-style claims, name calling or blame being cast on others. Instead of inflaming my fears, Biden left me soothed yet a little skeptical.
Perhaps in these tense times “soothing” is enough.
Today’s news will be full of analysis of Biden’s speech. I’ve avoided doing so hoping that a moment of reflection for myself and for our readers as to the times we are living in would better serve us all.
Biden’s first State of the Union speech felt predictable. And boring. And I loved it. Biden provided a soothing hope for the future and a vision for our shared opportunities. After all, political identity is not who we are, it is how we make decisions in a democracy. Politics should not have the lead role in our lives. Our friends and family should. Today, maybe we can start being one nation again.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivers a keynote speech at the 62nd Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, in Munich, Germany.
Marco Rubio is the only adult left in the room
Finally free from the demands of being chief archivist of the United States, secretary of state, national security adviser and unofficial viceroy of Venezuela, Marco Rubio made his way to the Munich Security Conference last weekend to deliver a major address.
I shouldn’t make fun. Rubio, unlike so many major figures in this administration, is a bona fide serious person. Indeed, that’s why President Trump keeps piling responsibilities on him. Rubio knows what he’s talking about and cares about policy. He is hardly a free agent; Trump is still president after all. But in an administration full of people willing to act like social media trolls, Rubio stands out for being serious. And I welcome that.
But just because Rubio made a serious argument, that doesn’t mean it was wholly persuasive. Part of his goal was to repair some of the damage done by his boss, who not long ago threatened to blow up the North Atlantic alliance by snatching Greenland away from Denmark. Rubio’s conciliatory language was welcome, but it hardly set things right.
Whether it was his intent or not, Rubio had more success in offering a contrast with Vice President JD Vance, who used the Munich conference last year as a platform to insult allies and provide fan service to his followers on X. Rubio’s speech was the one Vance should have given, if the goal was to offer a serious argument about Trump’s “vision” for the Western alliance. I put “vision” in scare quotes because it’s unclear to me that Trump actually has one, but the broader MAGA crowd is desperate to construct a coherent theory of their case.
So what’s that case? That Western Civilization is a real thing, America is not only part of it but also its leader, and it will do the hard things required to fix it.
In Rubio’s story, America and Europe embraced policies in the 1990s that amounted to the “managed decline” of the West. European governments were free riders on America’s military might and allowed their defense capabilities to atrophy as they funded bloated welfare states and inefficient regulatory regimes. Free trade, mass migration and an infatuation with “the rules-based global order” eroded national sovereignty, undermined the “cohesion of our societies” and fueled the “de-industrialization” of our economies. The remedy for these things? Reversing course on those policies and embracing the hard reality that strength and power drive events on the global stage.
“The fundamental question we must answer at the outset is what exactly are we defending,” Rubio said, “because armies do not fight for abstractions. Armies fight for a people; armies fight for a nation. Armies fight for a way of life.”
I agree with some of this — to a point. And, honestly, given how refreshing it is to hear a grown-up argument from this administration, it feels churlish to quibble.
But, for starters, the simple fact is that Western Civilization is an abstraction, and so are nations and peoples. And that’s fine. Abstractions — like love, patriotism, moral principles, justice — are really important. Our “way of life” is largely defined and understood through abstractions: freedom, the American dream, democracy, etc. What is the “Great” in Make America Great Again, if not an abstraction?
This is important because the administration’s defenders ridicule or dismiss any principled objection critics raise as fastidious gitchy-goo eggheadery. Trump tramples the rule of law, pardons cronies, tries to steal an election and violates free market principles willy-nilly. And if you complain, it’s because you’re a goody-goody fool.
As White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said not long ago, “we live in a world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.” Rubio said it better, but it’s the same idea.
There are other problems with Rubio’s story. At the start of the 1990s, the EU’s economy was 9% bigger than ours. In 2025 we were nearly twice as rich as Europe. If Europe was “ripping us off,” they have a funny way of showing it. America hasn’t “deindustrialized.” The manufacturing sector has grown during all of this decline, though not as much as the service sector, where we are a behemoth. We have shed manufacturing jobs, but that has more to do with automation than immigration. Moreover, the trends Rubio describes are not unique to America. Manufacturing tends to shrink as countries get richer.
That’s an important point because Rubio, like his boss, blames all of our economic problems on bad politicians and pretends that good politicians can fix them through sheer force of will.
I think Rubio is wrong, but I salute him for making his case seriously.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.