The progressive response to the State of the Union address
Adam Hilton, assistant professor of politics at Mount Holyoke, talks about the response to the State of the Union address from the Democrats.
On March 1, President Joe Biden gave his first State of the Union address. In an unusual move, there was a response from the president’s own party afterward: Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., gave a speech calling for student loan forgiveness and voting rights legislation.
Adam Hilton, assistant professor of politics at Mount Holyoke and the author of “True Blues: The Contentious Transformation of the Democratic Party,” told USA Today that the progressive response to Biden is a way to put pressure on the policies that the Democratic base strongly supports.
“I think it’s their way of signaling that this is where, if not the majority of the party is, it’s where one of the strongest elements driving the party is located,” Hilton said.
