The Real State Of the Union
Deborah Venable
01/28/07
The
hype leading up to the SOU address was as nauseating as usual this year. The theatrics were as false as they always
are – maybe more so considering how so many of the people in that room really
hate the man they shoved folks around to shake hands with. The anti-bipartisanship was as obvious to
the experienced observer as it ever is, but the pettiness was a little more
appalling this year. The gallery line
up, I thought, was more deserving of note than usual. Finally, the response was particularly mean and totally
self-indulgent on the part of Mr. Web.
I
may be a little late with this little critique, since the speech occurred
several days ago. Rosie certainly piped
up soon enough after to implore “some senator” to “stand up and call for the
impeachment of President Bush”, so call me a little slow to respond, okay? I seem to be in my own personal crisis
finding the words to relay any constructive criticism to the record or anyone
else’s interpretation of the real state of this union – but I’ll get over
it! In the meantime, Rosie, keep it up
and love that applause because you are entertaining if nothing else.
Getting
down to the crux of the speech, the president started off with the right words
when he said, “Yet
we are all held to the same standards, and called to serve the same good
purposes: To extend this Nation's prosperity ... to spend the people's money
wisely ... to solve problems, not leave them to future generations ... to guard
America against all evil, and to keep faith with those we have sent forth to
defend us.”
This
is what the people in that room should be concerned with. We all know that most of them are not.
It
wasn’t long before Bush reverted back to the perception of what government is
for when he said this: “Our job is to make life
better for our fellow Americans, and help them to build a future of hope and
opportunity – and this is the business before us tonight.”
I
feel like a broken record when I say again that this is NOT the “job” of
government, but it IS what far too many people expect from government. It is actually government’s “job” to stay
out of our way so that we may make a better life for ourselves and build our
own future of hope and opportunity.
Whenever government tries to do that for us, we all get hurt.
The
three economic reforms Bush discussed were
valid concerns of American citizens, thus should be valid concerns of the
people’s representatives. However, the
people in that room were not up for listening to anything he had to say about
economic reforms because they only care about them when they can be used as
talking points in campaign speeches.
(Remember, Bush no longer has to campaign for the next election.)
Everything
he had to say about the budget deficit, earmarks, and entitlements was right on
the money, (no pun intended) for the conservative point of view. The whole Social Security thing is such a
monster that all we can hope for is that government won’t make it worse. After all, it was conceived by the
Democrats, and every Republican president has at some time or other burned
their hands on that “third rail” every time they attempted to get too close to
actually solving any problem with it.
Naturally, the liberals hated this attention to the economics of
government. Any positive response from
them was grudgingly given at best.
On
to education and health care. Since I
personally think that federal government should have NO part in either of these
issues, I always have to choke back nausea whenever they are discussed – which
they ALWAYS will be during this annual production. I’m glad he didn’t dwell too long on either issue. My only question is, (pardon my Rosie
imitation) when is some representative going to stand up and call for
government to get out of the education and healthcare business?
The
next thing on the president’s agenda was to comment on the immigration
issue. It was too soon for me, so the
nausea, instead of subsiding got violently worse. Whenever the subject comes up, it is as if lawmakers need to
invent immigration law for the first time – as if we don’t have any laws
governing immigration in this country!
All politicians are guilty of this ignorance of existing law. The reason so many conservatives insist on
calling those who storm or sneak over our borders “illegal aliens” is because
THAT’S WHAT THEY ARE! They’ve already
broken our laws on immigration. We
certainly don’t need MORE laws to define what we should do with them. It’s quite simple – we don’t let them sue us
for rights they don’t have; we don’t allow them to become a voting bloc that
politicians will pander too; we don’t apologize to them because we don’t speak
their language here; and we don’t change our laws to accommodate them with citizenship
on a silver platter! It’s almost funny
how our mostly conservative thinking president can continue to trip over this
liberal stumbling block and be hated by both sides of aisle – but he does have
that effect on this issue.
The
final domestic button President Bush had to push was, of course, the energy
button. On this one, anger got the
better of my nausea. How dare the folks
in that room, including the president, propose the reduction of oil consumption
through such means as alternative sources when THEY use much more oil than any
of us ever think about using, and THEY would not be affected by such
reductions! I have nothing against
alternative fuels research and development and I have nothing against legitimate
environmental concerns, but I’m really tired of government driving American
business and industry into the ground with more and more regulations.
It
is the government’s fault that if I want to buy a new American made car, it
will probably have foreign made parts and labor in it and cost me more than my
first two HOUSES cost! It is the
government’s fault that I can’t expect that car to withstand what cars used to
withstand because they must be manufactured out of lightweight fiberglass
instead of good old American made steel so it will get better gas mileage! It is the government’s fault that it will
contain seat belts, which I don’t use, airbags, which I probably would not
order, but NO ash trays unless I special order them, for which I will pay
more. It is the government’s fault that
American car manufacturers are going under and taking much of the American
economy with it, while foreign car manufacturers have taken their un-rightful
place at the helm of American industry.
American industry has become more of an import-export business than the
mainstay of the American work ethic it used to be because of ridiculous, unfair
government regulation.
The
people that were in that room do not give a damn about that. All they can think about is adding to the
debacle of regulation instead of encouraging the market to manage the fuel
crisis with a well-balanced combination of oil weaning with domestic
development of supplies and alternative energy sources. The market can also manage the health of the
environment far more effectively than any forced government regulation ever
could. Nobody that believes in the free
market system wishes to destroy the earth because they know the public would
call them on it!
As
my anger subsided, President Bush moved on to remind the Senate of its duty to
STOP holding up the confirmation of judges he nominates. Score one for him – sad they needed the
reminder.
Then to the crux of the matter, the president waded into the war waters and painstakingly explained the situation once again to an all too often apathetic, hate-filled crowd:
“For
all of us in this room, there is no higher responsibility than to protect the
people of this country from danger. Five years have come and gone since we saw
the scenes and felt the sorrow that terrorists can cause. We have had time to
take stock of our situation. We have added many critical protections to guard
the homeland. We know with certainty that the horrors of that September morning
were just a glimpse of what the terrorists intend for us – unless we stop
them.”
The next thing he said was lost on far too many in that room:
“With
the distance of time, we find ourselves debating the causes of conflict and the
course we have followed. Such debates are essential when a great democracy faces
great questions. Yet one question has surely been settled – that to win the war
on terror we must take the fight to the enemy.”
I
still have a problem with the word, “democracy” being used to describe our
representative republic, but they all do it – to our detriment I believe. However, if the president truly believes
that the “one question” has been settled, his rose colored glasses are a little
foggy. Those folks and far too many of
ones they are supposed to represent haven’t even settled the question of
WINNING yet – much less where the fight must occur. Many of them do not even believe there IS a fight!
This portion of Bush’s comments were perhaps the most important
of what he had to say, yet it was obvious from the Democrat response that most
of them (and even some Republicans) still don’t get it:
“For
America, this is a nightmare scenario. For the enemy, this is the objective.
Chaos is their greatest ally in this struggle. And out of chaos in Iraq, would
emerge an emboldened enemy with new safe havens... new recruits ... new
resources ... and an even greater determination to harm America. To allow this
to happen would be to ignore the lessons of September 11th and invite tragedy.
And ladies and gentlemen, nothing is more important at this moment in our
history than for America to succeed in the Middle East ... to succeed in Iraq
... and to spare the American people from this danger.
This is where matters stand tonight, in the here and now. I have
spoken with many of you in person. I respect you and the arguments you have
made. We went into this largely united – in our assumptions, and in our
convictions. And whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure. Our
country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq – and I ask you to give it a chance
to work. And I ask you to support our troops in the field – and those on their
way.
The war on terror we fight today is a generational struggle that
will continue long after you and I have turned our duties over to others. That
is why it is important to work together so our Nation can see this great effort
through. Both parties and both branches should work in close consultation. And
this is why I propose to establish a special advisory council on the war on
terror, made up of leaders in Congress from both political parties. We will
share ideas for how to position America to meet every challenge that confronts
us. And we will show our enemies abroad that we are united in the goal of
victory.”
Well, for what it’s worth, I thought President Bush did an
excellent job of explaining, once again, that there IS a fight and that we are
in it through no fault of our own. I
think that any other thinking on the subject is contrary to the safety and
future prosperity of our country. I do
NOT respect the rebuttal by Jim Webb that seemed to concentrate on past wars
with no comparison to this one. He has
a right to his opinion, but his words describing that opinion are dangerous:
“The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this
war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military.”
Even if that were true, which we do not know if it is, our
enemies did not need to hear it on this occasion and in this venue immediately
following the annual State Of the Union speech. What’s more, the brave souls, (including their commander in
chief), who have been charged with the duties of fighting the enemy did not
need to hear it.
For all of Mr. Webb’s references to his family’s and his own past
military service, he seems to have forgotten that his newly elected office does
not include the duty of military command.
The president’s, however, does.
The people in that room who were a part of wasting the people’s time and
resources to bring forth that “non-binding resolution” against the prosecution
of the war in Iraq are not necessarily right in their opinions or in their
interpretation of the people’s wishes, though their actions leave no room for
error on their part. Have they bothered
to ask themselves what the consequences of so completely damning the
president’s efforts with such a meaningless, yet convictive action would be if
they are indeed dead wrong? I doubt it,
even though the new Secretary Of Defense warned THEM.
The implied threat at the end of Jim Webb’s rebuttal was
cute. I think it was meant to be cute,
for that is the only purpose for such a comment. This freshman senator offering to show Bush the way if he does
not cooperate with the Democrat majority certainly did NOT serve the benefit of
the American people. Talk about
anti-bipartisanship!
Of course one part of every SOU speech deals with the offering of
federal crumbs to the world’s needy and sick.
Mighty expensive crumbs if you ask me, but we aren’t likely to see that
change. America is the welfare state of
the world, so we will continue to support the dependency on our good will with
the reality of our tax dollars. After
all, we ARE a charitable people and everyone can get up off their butts and
clap for it when it is trotted out in the speech. (I’ve always wondered if the people in that room bother to open
their personal pocketbooks to help charities here at home support various
community good works like most of us do.)
Unfair question, I know.
The final segment of the speech, devoted to the gallery, was sincerely
celebratory towards what America used to cherish above all else – selfless
courage. I found it very
refreshing. Even this positive
direction the speech took has been blasted by the Bush haters as
“disappointing” to say the least and “grossly negligent” because Bush “failed”
to mention Katrina or New Orleans a single time. Never mind that the flow of federal dollars has continued and is
continuing to flow into the abyss we now know is the epitome of government
expectations – Bush failed to keep the hurricane from nearly wiping the
Crescent City off the map so he must be one of the worst presidents in our
history.
Okay, I’m getting quite nauseous again – but you get my
drift. Where is Rosie when you need
her? I need a good laugh!