The speech was, as many of his speeches tend to be, a revelation of glowing facts and figures, achievements we may not have known about because this White House communications office is really just that bad. Now, I don’t work there: it’s possible they are bad by decree, the president tamping down their enthusiasm and not wanting to rub GOP noses in his accomplishments. But the GOP is out in the yard bellowing and barking, while the president’s accomplishments seem to only be whispered among friends. Why does this president keep his achievements under a lamp shade? Why isn’t more energy expended countering the constant death knoll of the GOP? Only the president knows that.
The
light over Boehner's head wasn't on,
which seemed to me laughably symbolic. The Republican Speaker of the House sat in virtual shadow while Vice President Joe Biden seemed bathed in a golden glow and the president was lit so brightly he seemed to go up two shades of skin tone. I've not heard any of the pundits comment on the lighting, which was distracting and felt like a political prank on the House Speaker. I can all but guarantee that wasn't the president's idea. Barack Obama does not strike me a s a man prone to grade-school pranks and, quite frankly, the president's speech did not need the theatrics of John Boehner as Mephistopheles (he who avoids the light). Falling short of a barn-burner, the president’s 2014 State of The Union speech was, nonetheless, Obama Classic. The strained and tenuous New Obama, bounced repeatedly off the ropes since the Sandy Hook tragedy mere days before his 2013 second-term inauguration, was banished in a burst of energetic optimism, a winning tactic this president employs far too little. The loudmouths and obstructionists in Congress, still doggedly determined to deny this president any forward momentum on any issue whatsoever—including their own, which Republicans routinely turn against the moment Obama agrees with them—rushed to cameras in not one but four dour GOP State of The Union rebuttals, anxious as always to bring America down with the gray pallor of gloom and doom. It is, as I’ve often repeated here, the basic GOP strategy: America Is Stupid [LINK] and will believe any lie that is repeated often enough. Five years of this hateful, anti-American demeanor also suggests a strong component of their strategy is White America Is Racist [LINK] and racists tend to go to extremes to soothe their conscience, justifying irrational hatred in order to prove they are not racists but are “loyal Americans.” This is why conservative America will eagerly swallow the most ridiculous and provably false nonsense the GOP shouts, ignoring the fact that the GOP blab machine is consistently and steadfastly negative.
Twice A Day
Even a fool knows a stopped clock is right twice a day: that the
conservative pundits will not, under any circumstances
whatsoever, not even on the most menial and negligible of
issues, let Barack Obama off the mat should tell us that they
are being disingenuous. Conservatives seem to miss that, eagerly
swallowing whatever comes off Fox News sand believing every
single solitary decision this president has ever made, up to and
including which tie to wear to which occasion, has been not only
wrong but un-American. This is the very definition of
propaganda: it is irrational and unbalanced to suggest this
president has done absolutely no good for anyone. Nobody bats
1,000%. The only reason to believe this to be true is if you
have a gaping wound in your conscience; if you look around and
realize you have zero black friends and all you know about
blacks you learned from watching Good Times. A guilty conscience
can keep you up at night, so better to tune into Fox for some
rhetorical Tylenol. You’re a racist. You’re stupid. The
Republicans know that: you are their bread and butter. They just
keep shoveling out this nonsense, chum for the sharks, and white
conservatives, mostly especially, continue to gobble it up. No
matter what. No matter the facts. No matter the evidence that
the nation has made undeniable historic progress under President
Barack Obama.
None of which seems to bother Obama himself. He all but bounced
onto the House floor Tuesday, and laid down a surgical strike
against irrationality and stupidity by employing not liberal
rhetoric but conservative arguments for a modest agenda and
drawing a roadmap toward goals the nation as a whole cannot
argue against while traveling pseudo-Republican paths toward
them. Still, Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner sat in
the dark with his constipated, morose face, yet another
condescending and insulting strategy that presumes his voter
base to be so stupid that he has to sit and make faces
throughout the president’s speech rather than just act, well,
normal. Grown-ups don’t sit and pout like children; whenever you
see somebody doing that, they are insulting the intelligence of
the very supporters they are allegedly attempting to satisfy.
Obama is speaking, pout, pout, pout. Refuse to applaud even
common sense ideas that benefit the American people, refuse to
stand and applaud even during those rare moments where you must
applaud. Why? Because your supporters are idiots. You treat them
like idiots, like children, like the irrational and histrionic
low-information bigots you know, for a fact, they are. Pout,
pout, pout. National deficit cut in half. Pout, pout, pout.
Troops coming home, pout, pout, pout. Unemployment numbers going
down, pout. Gross Domestic Product going up, pout. Wall Street
in overdrive, pout. If I were actually Boehner’s audience, I’d
be insulted: John, just act normal. Every day of our lives we
sit next to someone we do not entirely agree with. The vast
majority of mature adults don’t sit and make faces, but are
cordial and polite and just change the subject. We don’t make
the potty-face.
Making The Potty Face: The Republican response: absurd accusations, lies, pouting.
White House Non-Communication
The president, on the other hand, seemed to care less. The
speech was, as many of his speeches tend to be, a revelation of
glowing facts and figures, achievements we may not have known
about because this White House communications office is really
just that bad. Now, I don’t work there: it’s possible they are
bad by decree, the president tamping down their enthusiasm and
not wanting to rub GOP noses in his accomplishments. But the GOP
is out in the yard bellowing and barking, while the president’s
accomplishments seem to only be whispered among friends or
touted on MSNBC, which, like Fox News, preaches largely to the
choir. Why does this president keep his achievements under a
lamp shade? Why isn’t more energy expended countering the
constant death knoll of the GOP? Only the president knows that.
This was his best speech in a long time. It was so strong, in
fact, that the meandering and weightless GOP “rebuttals,” were
all as transparently self-serving as they were lightweight. The
nation is moving back toward where we were before the disastrous
Bush years. It’s still a mess, but not nearly as bad a mess as
this president inherited. Obama has been on clean-up detail, KP
duty, for five years, now, and all conservatives can manage to
do is spit at him. Not one, single, solitary kudo (beyond a
grudging and half-hearted congratulations on the death of Osama
bin Laden). Preaching hate to a world of idiots: nobody is wrong
all the time, and things—while not great—are much better than
the Republicans want you to believe.
Don’t skip the speech; it’s one of his best.
Christopher J. Priest
31 January 2014
editor@praisenet.org
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