Joe Biden: "Lots of luck in your senior year."
What?
President Biden ad libbed that line when sparing with GOP hecklers unhappy with the cap on drug prices that is part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
It was a strange thing to say. When I heard him say this it struck me as a gentle taunt, but confusing and weird. He was probably telling them "fat chance." Or "knock yourself out." Or "yeah, right." I couldn't make out the meaning and I have learned later that neither can anyone else. That is why is worked so nicely for Biden.
He attributed the phrase to something he heard from an unnamed coach, which makes it a bank-shot taunt. Biden was just reminded of some long-past wisdom appropriate to insert here. Biden has used the expression from time to time over several decades, always attributing it to a coach.
It seems to be a dismissive insult. No one else says it, at least not in any place where it gets noticed. Perhaps the phrase is a status marker, a put-down. Maybe the coach is saying to wanna-bes that they might grow up and have a senior year. Perhaps it means the other person can try, but will fail. It's the challenge of the "knock yourself out" meaning, obscured by the "senior year" reference. Perhaps the meaning is imbedded in the fact of sarcasm and teasing itself. They are markers of status. We don't use sarcasm or a smirk with social superiors. Joe was smiling as he said it.
Joe Biden's folksy sayings are part of his schtick. Malarkey. God love you. Look folks. Here's the deal. Sometimes they read as gaffes. The denoted words are space fillers. The words aren't the real meaning, nor are they the real meaning in whatever the "senior year" phrase means. This was a body-language signal that Biden didn't take them seriously as a threat.
I join most other observers in having settled on a simple frame for the State of the Union event. Biden looked unusually articulate and competent, so he surpassed expectations. His speech addressed kitchen table issues of wages, drug prices, and jobs, so his policy direction surpassed expectations also. Meanwhile, Republicans looked at their very worst. McCarthy looked helpless and the GOP caucus he leads looked uncivil. The visible ones acted like kooks. The crazy-crowd has taken over the GOP. It was affable Joe versus those hecklers. Hecklers create a tricky situation. If a speaker ignores them, the speaker looks bullied. If he confronts them, it becomes an argument among equals, and they can keep it going and take over a meeting, It can be lose lose, unless the speaker can dispatch them. If Biden had responded with direct opposition or something comprehensible, for example a direct "knock yourself out," Biden would have been responding in kind and empowering the hecklers. Instead, he dispatched them.
I wonder if I am missing something.
Incomprehensibility has its virtues. So does a chuckle. A soft answer turns away wrath.
I've heard of freshman senators, sophomore senators, so I'm guessing there are senior senators. Senior year being the year they are up for re-election? I read this as; good luck getting re-elected if you are taking the side of drug companies. Just my take.
When the coach says “lot of luck in your senior year” it means you won’t be playing in your senior year. I think what he meant was “lots of luck in your next election.”