The State of the (dis-) Union
The Constitution of the United States, in Article II, Sec 3, requires that the President of the United States, from time to time, provide to Congress a report on the state of our union. This requirement has, over the decades, become an annual address outlining the president’s recommendation on his own legislative agenda, more so than a report on the actual state of our union, as it were. On rare occasions, the president has elected not to provide such a report, and the vaguely referenced requirement in our Constitution provides for this leeway.
In the past, most notably when presidents have faced defeat (typically following the mid-term congressional elections), they have reached out to the opposing party and proposed consensus-building initiatives for the greater good of the country. For example, when President Clinton suffered such a defeat in the mid-term election of 1994, he used the State of the Union address to reach across the aisle to engage the Newt Gingrich-led Republicans, and the result was fruitful in providing for needed welfare reform and, thanks to a change in the accounting procedures which moved some of the country’s financial obligations “off the books”, a so-called balanced budget, as well. These two initiatives proved better for the country at large, and business responded favorably.
In essence, Bill Clinton decided that it was better for the country for him to work with the opposition, than it was for him to stick with his partisan base and continue to try to ram through ideologically-driven initiatives, such as “Hillary-care” which would have divided the country and promoted even more legislative inaction.
This past autumn Barack Obama suffered, far and away, the worst electoral mid-term defeat of any president since the 1930’s. Nine senate seats changed hands and the House Republicans picked up an additional forty-seven seats, giving the GOP the largest share of House seats since the Great Depression. Not that “His Arrogance” was bothered in the least, as he inferred that the election results were nothing more than a reflection of poor voter turnout- which, reminded us of someone who throws the blanket over their head when they flatulate in bed. Tonight he will deliver his state of the union speech and, rather than putting the country ahead of his own lofty ego, he is going ahead with plans to further drive a divisive and toxic wedge into our country’s electorate, by once again driving home the dubious point that the rich need to do their “fair share”, and pay even more in taxes than they already pay. That is not exactly a legislative initiative that seeks to spur economic growth, according to any economist with half a brain, aside from Paul Krugman who, it would seem, only has half a brain. Some people, like Obama and Krugman, will never get it- the “it” being that communism doesn’t work, socialism doesn’t work, and taxing the rich doesn’t work, either. Again, Obama couldn’t care less. Should the country go down the tubes, he’d still be more than satisfied in the scent of his own flatulence, so why in the sand hill would he want to reach across to Republicans at this point in his presidency, and accomplish something good for the country?
He’ll swagger his pen and insist upon continuing to act as though he were some kind of monarch, and run down a list of executive orders that he intends to issue- Congress be damned. The useful idiots in the major media will continue to jump over each other in voicing ejaculatory praise for his lofty vision- a vision designed to further marginalize what was once a truly an exceptional nation, because his presidency has proved to be nothing more than an expression of his determination to make the United States of America no better than any other nation in the world. In other words, his stratagem is this: “if you cannot lift up the rest of the world through the example of your own leadership, than the best thing to do is lower the United States to the level of the rest of the world, ensuring international equality”. In a world view where equality trumps excellence, nothing improves and, by definition, everything deteriorates, instead. That will prove to be the legacy of Barack Obama.
When all of us are dead and gone, historians will surely say of him “He brought us down to make us equal”… that’s some legacy, indeed. God help us.
-Drew Nickell, 20 January 2015
© 2015, by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved