Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Response to 2011 State of the Union


As speeches go there were a lot of highlights of President Obama's 2011 State of the Union address but where does this leave the American people. Obama's vision of a better future for American children, workers and the economy sounds not only realistic but achievable. I give it to Obama he has the ability to hold any audience captive. Although missing were details about how his administration planned on tackling America's many growing problems. The president's ideas of compromise and a bi-partisan government appear to be less realistic to Republican and Tea Party political figures. If the new speaker of the house John Boener's reactions to many Obama points is shared by Republican leaders, we will be in constant debate with little or no real movement on America's issues. The president's SOTU address lays out the expectation of a government that less polarized and more towards working together. Really? How do you make adults behave civilly. The struggle to achieve this goal of unity has been difficult throughout the last two years and appears to be worsening. Within seconds of the SOTU ending there were various Republican and Tea Party politicians criticizing the president. Did they even have a chance to digest his words? This does not seem like the rhetoric of a party that's willing to compromise unless the type of compromise they want is one-sided. The president must realize that we are not in a political culture that's conducive to finding the middle ground. He must make the decision to stray away from the middle and be faithful to his goals regardless of opposition. He must show himself as a president who is willing to be stubborn and selfish in order to achieve his stated goals. Obama loses that edge for the thought of a bi-partisan government that doesn't exist yet. He must abandon this idea in order to make real change. President Obama is not just one man with one vote; he's the one man with the biggest vote. Its time to stop playing the great facilitator and start being the fearless leader.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This was a very great article. I noticed that the Speaker of the House was not very pleased with all of President Obama's points. There were many times that he decided not to clap and really showed no emotion besides when they praised him for his new position. When Obama mentioned the new healthcare law it seemed as if the room became very hush.

reggie.white said...

Absolutely! the speaker appears to have no intention on being supportive of a collective government and didn't attempt to hide his displeasure. It was very insulting

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