It would be easy—but it would be very wrong—to dismiss Biden’s State of the Union speech from last Thursday as “just more political bullshit.” Yes, there were lies and distortions galore. But this was no ordinary State of the Union—because this is no ordinary time for the capitalist-imperialist class which rules this country, nor for all the people here and worldwide who suffer under that rule. There are, in fact, important and essential truths to uncover by analyzing Biden’s speech.

Biden began with two major comparisons. He compared the international position of the U.S. today to the beginning of World War 2, when the U.S. fought Germany and Japan over which power would dominate Asia, Africa and Latin America. And he compared the situation within the country to the period of the U.S. Civil War. No president since Lincoln—speaking shortly before that Civil War broke out—has ever used the State of the Union to do anything remotely similar! And note this: Biden began it all by saying that people didn’t get the gravity of the situation and that his “purpose [was] to wake up the Congress and the American people.”

For anyone who has wondered whether the revcoms and Bob Avakian have been “exaggerating the situation,” well, here’s Biden himself telling you to wake up. Of course, there’s one big difference: he is “waking you up” to enlist in keeping the same system going at a time of acute crisis; we are telling you to prepare now to take advantage of that crisis to bring into being a whole better way to live and a fundamentally different system.

Biden Invokes World War 2 to Describe the Situation Today… and Go After Trump

Biden used his World War 2 comparison to go after Trump and the Republi-fascists. He hit them for refusing to send more arms to Ukraine, thereby undermining the U.S. proxy war against Russia.¹ He slammed Trump for his invitation to the Russian president Putin to attack countries in NATO—a military alliance with European countries dominated by the U.S.; and he welcomed the addition of new countries to NATO.

Perhaps most important, Biden proudly listed his aggressive economic, diplomatic and military moves against China. Then he taunted Trump: “Frankly, for all his tough talk on China, it never occurred to my predecessor to do any of that.”² 

Biden was speaking to several audiences. First, he was talking to the 32 million Americans estimated to have tuned in, preparing them mentally for more war and more aggression. Second, he was talking to the ruling classes in other countries, letting them know he intended to continue the even more aggressive stance he’s brought to the U.S. position in the world. Finally, he was speaking to forces in the U.S. ruling class and the Republican Party. Biden may calculate that some of those who back—or are at least willing to go along with—Trump’s program for fascist clampdown could possibly be won over to Biden, on the basis of his aggressive foreign policy, especially against China, as well as Russia.

(As for Israel, whose ongoing slaughter of the Palestinian people has been funded and defended by the U.S., Biden packed so many lies and distortions into that part of the speech, we are covering it in a separate attachment to this article.)

A New Civil War?

That’s one big thing about the speech. Then there’s this: a U.S. president proclaimed to the world that the country has not been so divided since the Civil War. And you could see it and hear it in the jeers and raucous behavior from the Republi-fascists. Biden touched on some instances of this—most of all the attempt to stop the election and carry out a coup on January 6, but also the Supreme Court’s repeal of abortion rights, the Republi-fascist attack on Black people’s right to vote, the hatred they stir up against trans people—as well as other examples.

All this bears out Bob Avakian’s crucially important point in his social media dispatch Number Eleven, in analyzing the conflict between these two sections of rulers. After going into the program of the fascists, Bob Avakian (BA) says that:

The … section of the ruling class, represented by the Democratic Party, is trying to maintain the “democratic” form through which this system exercises political power—an actual dictatorship—over the masses of people in this country, in order to maintain its system of brutal exploitation and murderous oppression, backed up by mass slaughter, which this ruling class continues to carry out all over the world.

The presidential election this year, 2024, will be a sharp focus of the fight between these ruling class parties—Democrats and Republicans—a fight that is very likely to break all out of the bounds of the “normal way” they exercise power over the people, and keep their whole system going.

This could lead to armed clashes between the opposing sections of the ruling class, which could even develop into large-scale military confrontation—a new kind of civil war. In any case, this kind of profound crisis within the ruling system is bound to affect every part of society, and every major institution of this system, including its armed forces—with the real potential for major splits in those institutions.

Now think about it. Biden’s program includes, if necessary, nuclear war and features even now his funding and backing for the horrific genocide being conducted every day in Gaza by Israel. Where are the interests of humanity in that? These are two sections of the most vicious ruling class in history fighting over who will be in the captain’s chair during a period of unprecedented challenges to its rule.

In addition, Biden’s opposition to the Christian-fascist religious tyranny that Trump and the Republicans are moving to impose takes a back seat to his determination to hold this people-destroying system together. The long history of the Democrats and Biden himself conceding and compromising away abortion rights and voting rights, his attempt to unite with the Republi-fascist program on immigration (while criticizing the overt cruelty of Trump), the phony gestures he makes toward saving the environment while the U.S. sets new records in oil and gas production… all this shows how bankrupt it is to say “at the end of the day, you have to vote for the lesser evil.” NO! And especially “NO” at a time when there is the leadership, the program and—yes—the chance to change the course of everything: THROUGH REVOLUTION.

The Urgent Challenge

There is still time to gather the forces needed for that revolution. Think back from what it would take to make a real revolution—the millions that would need to be moved to consciously act toward that goal. For that to happen, thousands must be moved NOW to come forward and gain the knowledge and experience to lead those millions. This whole process—beginning with the need for revolution against this system and concluding on how we could actually make that revolution—is covered in Bob Avakian’s series of social media dispatches, “Real Revolution In This Time: What the Powers-That-Be Don’t Want You to Know.” Everyone reading this needs to get into this NOW!

Again: there is time now, but there is not much time. If you have been holding back, come forward; if you have been coming forward, get in deeper; and if you are down with this, then get down even more. Join the REVCOM CORPS For the Emancipation of Humanity. Spread Bob Avakian’s social media, as well as the Bob Avakian Interviews on The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show, everywhere.

Oppose and STOP the dark night now falling; and be part of bringing forward the new dawn we so desperately need.