Posted on 01/28/2014 6:52:37 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Yes! The State of the Union Address feels like a national ritual that is stuck on autopilot, lumbering along year by indistinguishable year, immune to reform or adaptation or updating, usually instantly forgotten and increasingly irrelevant and yet unstoppable. Even the speech text is pretty much the same every year, regardless of the actual condition of the country.
National Journals Matt Vasilogambros points out how often the opening statement must include the cliché, the State of our Union is strong! (Its become a catch phrase. The audience expects it like the bar crowd shouting NORM! on Cheers, or Kramer exploding into a room on Seinfeld.)
Whats worse, the actual state of the nation hasnt been anywhere near strong lately, at least not since the crash of autumn 2008 and perhaps not since 9/11. The economy plods along at best, sputters and stumbles. Wages are stagnant. We had a complicated, headache-inducing health care system before Obamacare, and now its exponentially worse. Too many schools fail our kids. The debt grows. The world beyond our borders looks like chaos.
And yet every year, the president, and this president in particular, goes out and says, in effect, Were doing pretty darn good! And things are looking up! Hooray for us!(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
“It has turned into a childish spectacle. I don’t want to be there to lend dignity to it,” Scalia said, with a certain amount of mischief.
Just as it would be nice to have an authentic opposition Party, once again, the country could use another Jefferson, who tossed aside Washington and Adams ritual addresses, counter-addresses and counter-counter messages for a simple written report on “the state of the Union,” as is called for “from time to time” in the Constitution.
Democrats are the only people clapping at the SOTU.
Obama did not say that the “Union is strong,” he said “that it is Americans like you that make the Union strong.”
National Security and Generals are not clapping.
Why should they?
Nothing said about NSA...or his drones...
Eric Holder is a pons...just like his boss...why should he expect to be arresed?
Zero looks like he’s high. What a babbling, stupid, marxist, embarrassment.
]]]spit[[[
He shouldn't, obviously. Such is the "State of the Union".
“The State of our Union is DOPE, y’all! Peace out! “
NRO just wants more Mandela adulation
Sergeant at Arms.
“Dick Sargant” was Samantha’s husband.
In this New Year, 2014, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address will occur on the same day.
This is an ironic juxtaposition of events. One involves a meaningless
ritual in which we look to an insignificant creature of little
intelligence for prognostication.
The other involves a groundhog.
It would be refreshing if the SOTU was actually that instead of another campaign speech.
oops...
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