It wasn’t a stirring, progressive call to action, but Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address hit several right notes and managed to turn the thumbscrews on the petulant children we know as the Republican party quite nicely.
But the most important thing about the president’s speech last night really wasn’t anything he said. It was, instead, what he did. And what he did was hand the Democrats a picture perfect plan for the next nine months that could easily erase any ground the GOP has gained of late. Now, if he sticks to the message — and Congressional Democrats pick it up and run with it — things could seriously turn around.
But both of those points are far from guaranteed. Obama has hit all the right notes before only to reverse course when it came down to push vs. shove. And Congressional Democrats … well, let’s just say doing the right thing comes as hard to them finding the proverbial needle in the proverbial haystack. It sure set up a platform for a Democratic revival. Now, if only the Democrats will step on it.
Obama laid claim to all the things Republicans lie about — that they want to help small businesses, that they’re the party of the people, that they are better at national security, that they are the ones to control taxes. That Obama is an arrogant sonovabitch.
It didn’t seem to go over very well on the Republican side of the chamber. They sat stone-faced with their arms across this chests like teenagers angry that they have to listen to another lecture from their obviously clueless parents, oblivious to the fact that they, as teenagers, are the clueless ones.
To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills. And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that 60 votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership.
That Republicans were unhappy was plain for all to see, if not during the speech then certainly with their wholly expected whining afterward. Obama was full of “hot air,” the Tea Party Express said, he’s “stone deaf” to the American people, said Orrin Hatch. Dave Camp said it was “just another speech” with “no concrete plan.” Mitch McConnell said he blamed everything GW Bush, apparently having fallen asleep during the parts where he took responsibility for his own administration’s screw-ups.
And then there was Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell delivering the GOP “response,” if by “response” you mean “theatrically staged faux State of the Union delivered by a governor who’s been in office 11 days before a hand-picked audience.” Like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal before him, McDonnell suffered from having written his speech before hearing Obama’s. It was 10 minutes of Republican talking points that could have been taken from any Faux News broadcast. Especially amusing were the parts where McDonnell took the president to task for not doing the things he said in his own speech he would do.
But the real message of the SOTU was for Democrats. Obama took on his critics and handed his Congressional party colleagues their strategy on a silver platter. After acknowledging that he, too, “hated the bank bailout,” Obama noted that it staved off even worse consequences. ”When I ran for president,” he said, “I promised I wouldn’t just do what was popular, I would do what was necessary.”
The Republicans couldn’t bring themselves to applaud when Obama rattled off some of the 25 tax cuts passed by Congress this year. They frowned when he pointed out the growth of many small businesses as a result of the stimulus bill. They practically growled at the idea of cutting tax breaks for corporations that ship their jobs out of the country and giving them instead to businesses that create jobs here. And their eyes shot daggers at a president who talked about not letting lobbyists kill the financial reform bill. They groaned aloud when he said “that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change.” Education reform, help for college students, not popular with Republicans. Health care? Seems that telling the truth about Republican lies spoils their mood.
Our approach would preserve the right of Americans who have insurance to keep their doctor and their plan. It would reduce costs and premiums for millions of families and businesses.
And according to the Congressional Budget Office, the independent organization that both parties have cited as the official scorekeeper for Congress, our approach would bring down the deficit by as much as $1 trillion over the next two decades.
But he got a smile from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell when he said
If anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.
But the frowns came right back.
From some on the right, I expect we’ll hear a different argument, that if we just make fewer investments in our people, extend tax cuts, including those for the wealthier Americans, eliminate more regulations, maintain the status quo on health care, our deficits will go away.
The problem is, that’s what we did for eight years.
On and on it went. Ending the war in Iraq. Republicans holding nominations hostage on political whims. ‘Put aside the schoolyard taunts about who’s tought.” The hate crimes bill. Repeal DODT, although sadly, not passing ENDA. Pundits reducing serious debate to “silly arguments.” But most of all, he called for an end to the partisan divide. Not just by saying, end the partisan divide, but by calling to our greater selves.
Those of us in public office can respond to this reality by playing it safe and avoid telling hard truths and pointing fingers. We can do what’s necessary to keep our poll numbers high and get through the next election instead of doing what’s best for the next generation.
But I also know this: If people had made that decision 50 years ago or 100 years ago or 200 years ago, we wouldn’t be here tonight. The only reason we are here is because generations of Americans were unafraid to do what was hard, to do what was needed even when success was uncertain, to do what it took to keep the dream of this nation alive for their children and their grandchildren.
And there you have it. How those who care about the people of this nation and not how much money they can make or how much power they can amass can move beyond the morass we’re in. It’s up to the Democrats to put that in action, to spread this word and not the lies and misrepresentations that the Republicans are pushing. Time to stand up and show the American people who really has their backs.
I’m probably not as “disenamored” with Obama as some other progressives because I was never all that enamored to begin with. But I’ll take this president over John McCain any day of the week. I don’t even want to think about where we’d be if we’d picked another Republican to follow the catastrophe that was the Bush administration.
Obama has not performed as I’d have him perform. But I also know that I’m on the leading edge of change, not in the middle still wondering if we really need to.
It’s a classic bell curve, when you come down to it. Some of us are way back on the “no change at any cost” end and some of us want lots of change now. But most are in the middle. Those are the people we have to bring along to our way of thinking, always battling the pull from the other side. We will win, but we will not win as fast or as cleanly as we’d like to. It just can’t happen. As Obama said, making big changes “stirs up passions.” That’s just the way it is.
Nobody said it would be easy. But there’s the plan, laid out pretty damn clearly, if you ask me. Be the adult. Speak calmly and clearly. Accept faults and mistakes, but keep going. Tell the truth about what’s been done and what will be done. Challenge the liars, the obstructionists and those who would have us go backward instead of forward.
It’s not that hard. But if you’re a legislator who’s more worried about re-election than about doing the right thing, we don’t need you. These are serious times, and they call for serious people to take serious action. Thoughful action, not just kneejerk responses.
Some of those legislators have just 10 more months to show us they’ll do the right thing. Obama has three years. If they don’t, we’ll get somebody in who will — and it cannot be that we go back to the other party for the policies that have already screwed us.
The message is pretty clear. And time is short.
Daddy’s home originally appeared on A World of Progress TeamZine on January 28, 2010.
AWOP contributing editor, politicsOn Facebook
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