With Joe Biden at the helm, disunion is strong and present

President Biden gave what c✤ould be his final S✅tate of the Union address Thursday.

While many presidents have used such moments to focus on the “union” of all Americans in our shared values and interests, Biden spoke to our disunion and seemed, again, to push the nation fur🃏ther apart. 

Much of the rhetoric was familiar, i𒀰f deliver⛄ed as in a higher volume. 

Biden raised the same demons he’s raised before, as he 🎐painted his opponents as threatening demo🐼cracy itself. 

🌌As with the speech in Philadelphia and Valley Forge, Biden selected a backdrop of unity to hi♏ghlight and play on our divisions. And many in the media were thrilled by the display. 

The president attacked Trump and the Supreme Court, and compared political opponents to those presenting the same thre💦at as Hitler in World War II. 

After the speech, MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace gushed that it “was like a punch in the🅰 face to every Republican in the room.” 

After repeating again that it “was a ܫpunch in the nose,” she added, “everybody knows this is a great speech.” 

I beg to differ. 

It was certainly a powerful delivery for Biden, but it was a rather poor State of the Union speech becaus♍e there was little unifying ꧑in it. 

Biden attacked his political opponents over a dozen times and even seemed to lash out at the Supreme Court justices sitting before himꦜ. 

He returned to the themes of his infamous Philadelphia speech with the portrayal of his opponents (including millions of Americans) as representing an existential threa𒆙t 𒀰to the nation, like the Nazis or the Confederacy. 

The hellish red backdrop was gone but in💖 some ways it was more chilling precisely because this was a different setting. 

This was supposed to be the State of the Union, where a president lays out what he views as the natio♔nal interest, not just his political interests.

There is a difference. 

Some Republi♎cans showed the same lack of appreciation for this moment in heckling and shouting a🐼t the president.

I have written that such condℱuct should not be tolerated at the SOTU. 

We’ve forgotten civility 

While a guest was removed from the chamber and arrested for yelling at the president, some members ಞcontinued to treat the SOTU like a cathartic primal-scream session. 

The media also showed the ecstat൲i𒉰c response to the rage and recriminations.

They praised Biden’s speech while largely ignoring the over-the-top partisanship ꦬand dubious factual claims. 

What was lost is wha🦂t we once had in these ꦗmoments. 

I can remember as a young page♌ standing in awe of this chamber and its occupants. 

Presidents and the members were every bit as partisan a🎶nd bitterly divided.

However, at ✅the SOTU they could stiꦿll transcend the politics. 

It was a moment that reminded the nation that we are still capable of reaching these moments o🌞f civility and decorum. 𒅌;

In some ways, the SOTU may have died when former Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up the address of former President Donald Trump.

Her drop-the-🐽mic moment will have a lasting impact on༒ the House. 

While many in the media celebrated her lack of decorum and respect, she tore up something far more important than a♐ speech.

She shredded decades of tradition of civility and any remaining🌳 residue of restraint in our politics. 

Now media figures like Wallace are praising a president for g❀iving a speech that is “a punch in the face to every Republican in the room . . . a punch in the nose . . . Everybody knows this is the message going into the next eight months, but the polls will soon rꦦeflect that, in this will be a real fight.” 

It does not matter that Wallace has spent the last three years joining figures like Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) in condemning “Donald Trump’s speech inciting the crowd to go ‘fight like hell, or you wo🍰n’t have a coun💎try anymore.’ ” 

I condemned that speech on ☂Jan. 6 when it was sti♒ll being given. 

However, for some, the rhetoric of division appears thrillin꧅g rather than threatening when delivered by the right party.🌃 

Now it is a matter of pride to see a president use the same rhetoric to “punch Republicans in the nose” and call on citizens to fight against tens of millions supporting his opponent. ꦑ;

🎃I find no sense of joy or comfort in Biden’s State of the Union.

It remains the same politics of division. 

It is not that Biden did not hear🌠 the call of history to unify a nation.

He just chose to ignore it. 

Instead, thꦿe public was given scripted rage and choreographed demonstrations. 

The question is whatꦓ the public will now demand. 

We can seek candidates who reach for something greater than we a🍨re at this moment . . . Or we can all just punch each other in the nose until the whole country is left bloody and broken. 

Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.