State of the Union

Dear Friends,

Last night's State of the Union speech proved once again what a great speaker President Obama is and what a great speech he and his aides can write.  He demonstrated those areas where he is willing to fight and left out or glossed over those areas where, I am afraid, he is unwilling to fight. 

He made great and passionate arguments for his healthcare legislation and for eliminating the tax breaks for the richest 2% and subsidies to oil companies.  He also seemed to prioritize and be willing to fight for the Dream Act and education reform.  I am not sure that I buy his focus on winning a global competition for jobs, but if that approach is his way of politically ensuring that the government actually funds the much needed infrastructure projects, green technology and education then I will be pleased.

I was disappointed in several things:
He did not even mention the increasing poverty in the country or the devastating gap between the richest and the rest.
He did not argue for Social Security.  The most that he would say was that he would not "slash" benefits.  That leaves a lot of room for destroying an incredibly valuable safety net.
About the only mention of Medicare that he made was to refer to it as the largest cause of our budget deficit.  He failed to defend it as the best and most efficient medical insurance program that we have and that it is essential for the health and well being of millions of people.
There was no mention of gun control.
He spoke about the United States being a beacon of justice in the world but did not indicate that he would in any way bring to justice those who tortured in our name nor did he indicate that he would actually give current or future prisoners the due process rights that our Constitution and international law guarantees to all.
He spoke about the success in Iraq, but he really said that we are gone.  Fortunately, he did not speak of "mission accomplished".  He also spoke about defeating al-Qaeda, but it sounded like it would be a military defeat.  Apparently, he has not yet learned that you cannot win over the hearts and minds of people by killing them particularly when you kill lots of innocents at the same time.  He also employed the now obvious trick of starting to talk about al-Qaeda and then quickly morph to the Taliban when talking about Afghanistan as if al-Qaeda and the Taliban are the same and pose the same risk to the United States and its interests.
Every time he mentioned education, he focused on science and math both of which are critical but so are the arts and language skills and creative thinking. 

I am aware that he cannot mention everything in the State of the Union speech and that it is probably more a political speech than a policy speech.  So I am willing to wait and see what his actions are.  We can only hope that the speech was part of a strategy to put the issues before the American people and propose reasonable approaches to many of the issues that we face in a way that Republicans could not object and still look reasonable. 

I will give the President time.  He is our best hope that we can get this country out of the current economic woes, put people back to work, educate our children, restore our infrastructure, save our environment and develop green technology, be able to compete in the global economy, effectively regulate our capitalist system, provide a safety net for all people that need it, provide for those among us that are least able to help themselves, and give all an opportunity to succeed.

Our job is to keep ourselves informed, hold the President accountable and be heard.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal