COOKIE CUTTERS AND THE STATE OF THE UNION
I watched the State of the Union address Wednesday night. Like many of you, I think the Union is in crisis. People are hurting. Unemployment was at its’ highest since 2002 when President Obama took office, now is at its’ highest since 1984. The deficit has tripled his first year in office. Banks aren’t loaning money. Houses stand empty. Foreclosures continue to rise. I would have thought that elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and now Massachusetts would awaken the President to what the people are saying, “Stop it! Stop this march towards Marxism. Leave us alone.” I expected the President to admit his mistakes and announce a new direction for the country. My hopes were dashed as soon as I heard him say “I have never been more hopeful than tonight.” I knew then he still isn’t listening. He still doesn’t get it. The Stimulus plan didn’t work, so let’s try it again. TARP didn’t work, so let’s hemorrhage more money. Let’s put new “fees” on the liabilities (read loans) of the biggest banks, and discourage them even more from loaning money. The people don’t want a government take-over of health care, but I am a fighter, so let’s do it anyway. The military is stretched to the breaking point, so let’s add gays in the military to their challenges. Yet to be seen is whether the bones he threw to common sense, a spending freeze, off-shore drilling, nuclear power, and tax cuts for small business will ever happen. About the only thing he got right was when he said there is “a deficit of trust in how Washington works.”
After the speech, Fox News commentators said what I saw as a disastrous outline for the future of America was interrupted by applause more than eighty times. I thought back to the audience, and guessed it to be maybe 650 people. The Supreme Court in black robes sat up front. The Joint Chiefs of Staff in uniform sat next to them. The only difference in the rest of the audience, mostly men, all in suits, was the width of the stripes on their ties. I flashed back to Speaker Pelosi, then Vice-President Biden, then both of them standing up, then Democrats, then Republicans, then all of them from the House and Senate standing up, over and over again. I realized that our government consists almost entirely of men and women made from the same cookie cutter. These cookie cutter politicians interrupted a speech I would give a D-, more than eighty times with applause. The anger I have felt for the past year welled up again, and made me all the more determined we must replace politicians with leaders who offer Americans a clear choice. I will continue to stand up and talk about what I feel in my heart. We are in a fight for our way of life, for pride in America, and in being Americans. I know this fight will not end soon, not in the caucuses, or the County Assemblies, or the State Convention, the primaries, or even in November. This fight will not end until we take our country back. Join me in the fight, because failure is not an option. “Do not go gently into the night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light!”
President Obama's plan puts sugar in the gas tank instead of jump-starting the engine of economic development.
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