With assistance from a bottle of zinfandel, I watched the entire State of the Union address, an event that always strikes me as a somewhat silly spectacle -- the ruling class coming together in order to congratulate itself. The pols shake hands and slap one another on the back, and even those that despise one another make nice for the TV cameras. I wonder how many of them are drunk on expensive booze provided by industry lobbyists. I wonder why John Boehner from Ohio looks like he just returned from a week in the Bahamas – but of course Boehner always looks like that, so a better question is: how much time does this jackass spend in a tanning salon? Why does the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court look so smug?
As Obama found his rhythm and laid out a laundry list of initiatives that will never come to pass, one could easily get the impression that things in America, Inc., are hunky-dory. The financial meltdown was bad, but it could have been worse if the Obama Administration had not acted as it did. I was encouraged to hear Obama admit that he hated the big bank bailout, though last I looked Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers were still on his economic team, and that Wall Street-adoring-duo seems to believe that the bank rescue was a perfectly acceptable and wise use of taxpayer money.
Obama tossed crumbs to this group and that, a tax cut here, a small business assist there, all designed to give the appearance of forward momentum, though never was the prevailing order seriously challenged. The rules and parameters of the game remain the same.
I was pleased to hear Obama remind (finally!) the Republicans of the deep hole his administration started in – a hole dug by eight years of Bush-Cheney and Republican majority misrule and corruption. Lest we forget the Bush-Cheney-GOP scorecard: two costly wars, a ruined financial sector, anemic job growth, huge debt, and runaway health care costs. On the other hand, I was dumbfounded when Obama stumped for “safe” nuclear power (no such thing), expanded off shore oil drilling, and the myth of “clean” coal. That’s not the change in energy or environmental policy I voted for.
Obama makes a fine speech, no doubt about it, but what happens now? Will he retreat to the sidelines once again and allow lobbyists and Congress to dominate the agenda? Times are bad, make no mistake – you only have to look at California to understand how bad – and we desperately need a president who can channel FDR, not Herbert Hoover.
It’s hard to argue with Obama’s assertion that Washington has created a deficit of trust. Polls consistently make clear that Americans want a comprehensive publicly funded health insurance system like Medicare, but the politicians won’t deliver it – and even worse, few of them, including Obama himself, are brave enough to try. Expanding Medicare for all Americans was never on the table.
The real State of the Union circle jerk takes place in the media – before the speech and for days thereafter, on talk radio and all the major TV networks. The coverage and commentary on Fox News is the most out of touch with reality, as if Hannity and Company watched an entirely different speech. CNN’s coverage takes top prize for sheer ridiculousness – with its large cast of talking heads, high tech props, and breathless analysis of Twitter messages. Sweet Jesus, no wonder the American people are so easily duped.
I don’t quit, Obama said, and the American people don’t quit. I’m sure about the latter – at least when the people are allowed to play the game fairly and with a stake in the outcome. For the past thirty years, however, the game has been rigged in favor of the wealthy, in favor of corporate power, in favor of the few at the expense of the many. The balance of power has tilted too drastically to one side, and so the ship of state lists, takes on water, and threatens to sink.
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