State of the Union Address

....And I am back.

Took a little time off from ranting about politics to spend quality time with Old Republic, as well as recharge before the election craziness got fully into gear.

So what better time to get back into things then with the Presidential State of the Union address to congress and the nation?

I cannot think of another myself actually!

By and large, I liked the speech. Let me start off by saying, if you expect the SotU to be about specifics you are fooling yourself. The SotU is all about the President talking about what they have done and what they would like to do. It is an "explaining" speech, for the great unwashed masses, who do not have the time or inclination to scour the inter-tubes. This is an important thing politically and substantively. The President gets to make his case to the American people, laying out what his priorities have been and are. While the American people get an opportunity to evaluate the words their leaders speak versus their actions taken.

So as you can guess, I tend to be a fan of SotU speeches. I have watched them all since President George H. W Bush was in office, and whether I agree with the current office holder or not, I listen intently. Why? Because they are my President, whether they chose to ignore me or pander to me.

Back to the speech itself. The portion of it that really caught my attention was the middle section. Starting here:

...the basic American promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement.

The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What's at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them.

This is a basic restatement of the social compact we all understand in the States. That if you work hard, and keep your nose clean, you will get ahead and can be successful. This is something hardwired in American DNA. We recoil from any intimation that this is not true. Even in the face of demonstrable proof to the contrary.

That was a nice setup for this bit:

Let's remember how we got here. Long before the recession, jobs and manufacturing began leaving our shores. Technology made businesses more efficient, but also made some jobs obsolete. Folks at the top saw their incomes rise like never before, but most hardworking Americans struggled with costs that were growing, paychecks that weren't, and personal debt that kept piling up.

In 2008, the house of cards collapsed. We learned that mortgages had been sold to people who couldn't afford or understand them. Banks had made huge bets and bonuses with other people's money. Regulators had looked the other way, or didn't have the authority to stop the bad behavior.

It was wrong. It was irresponsible. And it plunged our economy into a crisis that put millions out of work, saddled us with more debt, and left innocent, hard-working Americans holding the bag. In the six months before I took office, we lost nearly four million jobs. And we lost another four million before our policies were in full effect.

People tend to forget how bleak things were in '07-'08. Policy makers were genuinely concerned that we were staring at the onset of another Great Depression.

So this states the situation he inherited. Which leads to here:

Those are the facts. But so are these. In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005. American manufacturers are hiring again, creating jobs for the first time since the late 1990s. Together, we’ve agreed to cut the deficit by more than $2 trillion. And we've put in place new rules to hold Wall Street accountable, so a crisis like that never happens again.

The state of our Union is getting stronger. And we've come too far to turn back now. As long as I'm President, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place.

This is the argument the President is making, "Things were/are bad, but we are making them better. You will hear that we have made things worse, but that simply is not reality.".

I think that is a pretty fair argument. I have my disagreements with this administration, but when pressed, I honestly do not think the alternatives are better. More to the point, I think, if their rhetoric is to be believed (it should be), they would have been worse.

This is the crucial argument of the next 9 months. Shall we continue to work for a more equitable society, or shall we cede more power, control and influence to our "betters"?

-Cheers