Any old mule can kick down a barn | GARY COSBY JR.

When President Joe Biden delivered the State of the Union address, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene managed to give the Democratic Party a gift. She interrupted the speech, shouting “Liar” at Biden in the middle of his remarks, further reinforcing the image of the Republican far right as being out of control.

Classless. To say the least. To say more, such outbursts confirm for most of us what we already think about the far right of the Republican Party - they cannot be trusted with power.

The issue of whether Biden was truthful or not is a bit more complicated. Biden, as virtually all presidents have done in State of the Union addresses, used only the facts that suited his argument and a number of those facts were quite heavily twisted. After all, who wants to stand before the nation and admit a less than rosy truth?

While Biden’s speech was laced with partial truths, in reading up on the “facts” he presented, none of them seem to have been patently false. Many of the things he said were incomplete, distorted, or lacked context. In other words, he spoke like a life-long politician.

Biden said some outrageous things regarding Republicans. While they didn’t warrant the interruptions by classless members of the party – that’s what the Republican response is for – there is no doubt that in past State of the Union addresses such statements as Biden accusing Republicans of wanting to sunset all federal legislation and thereby endangering Social Security would have warranted boos in any Congress and justifiably so.

I have read some reviews of the speech where Biden was termed feisty. OK, whatever. I’m not sure that verbally sparring with the likes of Greene and several others in the Republican Party isn’t tantamount to wallowing in the pig pen, but that was what he decided to do.

In doing some reading on past State of the Union addresses, it appears that opposition responses during the speech have been limited to boos or snickering, that sort of thing. Outbursts such as were seen during Biden’s speech are without precedent, at least in the modern era of American politics. Apparently, our cultured cousins across the Atlantic are more accustomed to such outbursts. British prime ministers are frequently interrupted during speeches to Parliament.

More:USA Today Analysis of Biden's speech

The problem for Republicans is obvious. When people like Greene and several other radical Republicans become the face of your party, the only people who are going to support you are people who are already core party supporters.

She, perhaps more than any other in government, typifies what many of us see as the problem in our Congress and in our elected government as a whole. This belligerence is not just unseemly and unprofessional, it is juvenile. Is this how we wish for our highest level of elected officials to behave? And, more importantly, is this the kind of person or political party in which the majority of Americans will invest power?

I have written before that both parties have a core of unwavering support that will vote for their party no matter what. Those voters are not the concern. The problem is that neither party has enough core supporters to elect their candidate for president without help from a tidal force of voters who, like the waves in the oceans, will vote Republican one time and Democrat the next based upon their perception of where the country is and where they think it should be.

When you have people in the party like Greene, or, on the Democrat side like Ilhan Omar, a Muslim who was recently ousted from her position on the foreign relations committee for radical statements made against the state of Israel, those swing voters have to decide which party is more trustworthy.

More:Fact checking the State of the Union

Don’t misunderstand, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ilhan Omar have been elected and reelected by the voters in their districts. I can think they are over the line, but if their districts continue sending them to Congress, what can you say?

For the sake of the next presidential election, the leadership in both parties desperately needs to rein in those who would bark the loudest at the opposing party. I can’t pretend to speak for all of America, but I will say that I am absolutely sick and tired of our elected representatives going to Washington and acting like jackasses.

Perhaps you have heard the expression: Any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a carpenter to build one. I am looking for a good carpenter, maybe even 100 of them in the Senate and 435 of them in the House because I am looking for people who can build a nation, not kick one to pieces.

Right now, what I see and hear in Washington is far too many braying jackasses attempting to kick down the barn and far too few who have the mindset to build our nation.

Gary Cosby Jr. is the photo editor of The Tuscaloosa News. Readers can email him at gary.cosby@tuscaloosanews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Any old mule can kick down a barn | GARY COSBY JR.