The State of the State of the Union

Last night, President Obama gave the requisite “State of the Union” address. While it wasn’t quite FDR’s “New Deal,” or LBJ’s “Great Society,” it proposed an array of specific policy initiatives on a variety of important issues, from infrastructure improvement to early childhood education, to the federal minimum wage, to deficit reduction. I had several issues with the specifics of the President’s plans, especially his pledge to be more “transparent” about how we conduct our foreign policy and the power of the executive branch to order the targeting of both American Citizens and foreign nationals for political assassination. President Obama offered no specifics about how this transparency would be accomplished, or what criteria are currently being used to sentence human beings to death by remote control without due process of law as required by the 5^th and 14^thAmendments to the Constitution. I also had some concerns about Obama’s pledge to use executive order to bypass Congress with regard to Environmental issues; although court decisions have more or less given the EPA (and therefore the executive branch) the power to enact “cap and trade” rules, it seems to me to be a better idea to use the legislative process.

What concerned me more, though, is the Republican response to the State of the Union which was presented by FL Sen. Marco Rubio. As a FL resident for 16 years, I have become accustomed to Rubio being a dynamic speaker, and although I often disagree with his positions, I also often admire his ability to articulate them with a rational yet passionate delivery. I was sorely disappointed in Mr. Rubio tonight, as his “rebuttal” was a simple rehash of GOP talking points, with no character or any specific policy initiatives. In fact, listening to Republican speeches these days has become akin to the old “Frankenstein”Saturday Night Live routine: “Taxes Bad!!!!” “Government Bad!!!” “Guns Good!!!” What was especially striking to me was Rubio’s hypocrisy with regard to social program spending. The GOP Platform is clear that it opposes Federal Student loans (yes, it advocates Federal insurance of private loans, which is its own can of worms). In Rubio’s response he stated that he couldn’t have gone to college without Federal Loans. He also stated that both his parents benefited from the Medicare system. And yet… These are all the things that Mr. Rubio’s party are eager to cut to ensure that taxes are not raised on the richest segment of the nation. What Mr. Rubio is essentially saying is, “Now that my loans are paid off, (a few months ago, apparently,) no one else need benefit from these programs. Medicare is good for my parents, but there’s no reason anyone else should benefit from that program.” And Republicans wonder why average Americans aren’t getting their economic policy?

Another issue is the current Republican effort to suppress the voting rights of minorities and those of lower socio-economic status. This is especially important in my state of Florida, because the GOP Governor, Rick Scott, and the GOP Legislature has done as much as possible to make it as difficult as possible for those in certain areas (read: areas that tend to vote Dem.) to cast their ballots. They have done this through a combination of gerrymandering, punitive “voter ID” laws, creating obstacles for former prisoners to have their franchise reinstated, and the elimination of as many early voting days as possible. This is not only a problem in FL, but around the country, as bills are pending in PA to change the electoral law to divide electoral votes amongst districts, rather than awarding them to the winner of the aggregate state vote, because the Republican-controlled legislature has managed to draw districts in such a way that GOP Candidates would almost always come out of the state with more electoral votes.

These strategies are all reminiscent of the “poll Tax” and“literacy requirements” of Jim Crow days calculated to suppress black votes. Generally, the reasons given have to do with “voter fraud” issues. Except that voter fraud has not been a major issue in any United States Election. There are more UFO sightings every year than allegations of voter identity fraud. When the State of Indiana was asked to defend its voter ID laws by a court, it could not cite a single instance of voter identity fraud in its history. This is the definition of a“manufactured crisis.” These laws are not necessary to protect the democratic process; in fact, they are cynically calculated to usurp that very process.

Mr. Rubio’s response did not even mention the issue of correcting the system of elections in the U.S. that forces some individuals to wait in line, in some instances for 6 hours, to cast his or her vote. This, of course, is likely because these difficulties tend to crop up in urban areas where the majority of voters have a tendency to vote Democrat. (In FL, the problems in the Miami area can be directly traced to the elimination of extra early voting days, and more stringent ID requirements enacted by the Republican administration.)

There is no doubt that the end of the President’s speech was a calculated bit of “political theatre” meant to appeal to the emotions of people with regard to gun violence and voter suppression. As much as I would prefer that was not the strategy to be used, the underlying issues are very real, and until the GOP can come up with some sort of actual common-sense policy that would address them, they have little reason to object. 

So, it appears the State of the Union is business as usual, with the President articulating specific policies to address the problems facing the country, and the opposition party simply objecting to everything, without any substantive ideas of their own.This is a pity, because our republic works best when good ideas are forthcoming from both sides of the aisle.