By Nathan Britt
The President’s State of the Union address is always a platform for empty words and sullen promises. The tradition was continued again this year.
President Obama made a very “election-year” speech. Fluffy rhetoric floweth freely from the quill of his speech writers. His speech writers are quite adept at making what should be a 15 minute speech drag on for over an hour. In fairness, this is done almost out of necessity. If he does not touch on certain points he gets attacked for not caring enough about a certain issue. Everyone needs their plug. These things are always way too long. Always.
Obama’s previous speeches have been a little more aggressive. He toned this one down and tried to play the part of the cool headed, cooperative Democrat while the Republicans have loud squabbles about their nomination process. He managed this with nice, completely unrealistic proposals. Proposing a financial crimes department? We already have that in the FBI and Secret Service. Come on. All of his proposals sounded great (at face value for an average person). But if even one of them is truly implemented, I will cut off my arm with a plastic fork. Congress will not be compliant with the majority of his proposals. It was a great show speech but lacked in legitimate substance. It was politics at its finest.
As for my opinion about what he said: the Libertarian in me cringed at the thought of even more regulation of the free market. Obama casually twisted his words to underhandedly blame the economic crisis on the successful capitalists and Wall Street. Then, he introduced more regulations that would curb the big, bad powers that be in Capitalism. He also advocated for tax cuts (YES!). Unfortunately shortly before, he wanted changes in the tax code that would make the higher income citizens pay a 30% tax rate. That is an absolutely insane rate to me. I am personally an advocate for a flat tax rate (but that is another story). The worst thing is that he is proposing spending (money we don’t have) without any sort of timely plan to reducing the debt. That just does not make sense. However, I was happy with his thoughts on the military. Obama was very polished and well spoken as usual. He is clearly running for reelection. Therefore, I don’t see him getting anything accomplished in the next few months.
As for Mitch Daniels’s GOP response, I thought it was appropriate but way too long and boring. Daniels was more straightforward than Obama but elaborated too much. In comparison to previous GOP responses, I think it was eons better. That still does not make me want to watch it though.
Overall: too much fluff, not enough substance. Same story it is every year.
Follow Nathan Britt’s Blog at: http://thefrankingprivilege.wordpress.com/
Kayla Hubert • Mar 30, 2012 at 2:45 am
His speech falls more in the category of a pep talk. Of course it had that re-election like atmosphere which every other politician had at one point. I believe the American people need to hear that things are getting better and will continue. In Obama’s state of the union addressed, he mentioned on how America should punish companies who send jobs overseas. Maybe American needed to hear that…
Faven Butler • Mar 30, 2012 at 2:29 am
The fact that the TRN staff chose to address the federal government in this column should be complimented for its new level of writing. It shows they are not just talking about school events or sports, but they also expand their thoughts on a national level and provide insight to how they feel about the changes being made in our country.
John Shumar • Mar 29, 2012 at 6:28 pm
I think it is good that the newspaper is discussing politics, and I think it should be given plenty of attention. Why? Well, as Americans it is our responsibility to be educated about the dealings of our leaders and we have 18-year-olds in our school who will make American-changing decisions come November. (Picture one of your 18-year-old friends….yeah, it is a scary thought). This is a good article and was fun to read.
Stephen Brockwell • Mar 29, 2012 at 2:33 pm
I am glad to see that the school is becoming more aware of and involved in political matters. One of the strong points of this article is the fact that it was very objective. In fact, this was one of the few things I have ever read on politics that was educated and critical, but also unbiased. This was a refreshing quality.
Alex Crowder • Mar 27, 2012 at 10:39 am
This is why I hate politics. Not only do they give people false hope through pointless speeches, they cause the other side to throw up their hands in protest as those they’re being personally attacked. And sometimes they are. There’s never any footholds in any politician’s state of the union address, and this isn’t just an Obama problem. America’s presidency show be reevaluated by the masses, and the media should stop praising one side for doing something stupid and booing the other side for doing the same stupid thing. Bitter as this may sound, the world would be better off if people cared more about the issues and less about the fluffy speech bunnies.
Olubusola Olanrewaju • Mar 23, 2012 at 7:41 am
I agree with this article to a certain extent. Yes, I believe that State of Union address is usually empty promises. Then on the other hand the President may want these things to happen but Congress has to propose these things, and unfortunately this may never happen.
Matthew Schneck • Mar 18, 2012 at 6:51 pm
It is great to see that the newspaper is bringing forth articles having to do with our federal government. So often, students go through high school without out any knowledge of what goes on in the real political world. Then when they turn eighteen, they cast their votes based on hasty generalizations spoken be candidates during these empty speeches. With articles such as the one above, students can begin to realize that much of what politicians say is fluff and that young voters need to truly discover, and base their vote upon, the real issues our country is facing. Overall, the article accomplishes its purpose of keeping the student body up to date and informed about the current political situation.