In some respects, Joe Biden’s third state of the union address was a reflection of who Biden has long been. From jocular salutes to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to vintage celebrations of bipartisanship underwritten by the liturgy of American exceptionalism, Biden’s speech covered plenty of familiar territory. In other parts, however, Biden offered a refreshing rhetorical break — not only from the kinds of things Democrats have typically emphasized but even occasionally from his own record and history.

Thus, a former senator and vice president who has sought multiple times to cut Medicare and Social Security emphatically pledged to protect them. Biden, no stranger to donations from the pharmaceutical industry, also uttered the words “Big Pharma” and chastised companies for raising the price of prescription drugs. Despite having recently spearheaded the effort to impose a contract on railworkers poised to strike for paid sick days, he endorsed the potentially transformative labor law reform package the PRO Act, heralded blue-collar workers, and declared, “I’m so sick and tired of companies breaking the law by preventing workers from organizing.”