A tired speech for a tired nation

We’ll all have plenty to say about the State of the Union as delivered, but the excerpts released in advance by the White House are so old and tired that the email is covered in cobwebs.  

Here’s the mummified example that really stood out: “It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country – the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love.”  

A sop for all my immigrant, racialist, and gay rights supporters!  But what the hell does any of that mean?  What’s it got to do with the gigantic insolvent government sucking the life out of anyone Obama thinks “got ahead” a little too well?  I could swear he’s peddled that same line before, pretty much word-for-word.  His tired straw-man army of nasty scarecrow Republicans who don’t want people to get ahead because of what they look like, or who they love, is ready to plod once more onto the rhetorical field.

This is the stuff I pre-emptively warned against in my SOTU prebuttalsponse.  For the love of God, the hour is late, this government is bleeding billions in waste and fraud, our economy has entered a state of cardiac arrest, and we’re still getting focus-grouped applause line platitudes in place of leadership.  What a pity Americans didn’t vote for leaders who presume them guilty of sexism, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia.  What a pity we don’t have leadership that shows a little faith in us, or at the very least talks to us like adults.

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