Obama's State of Dysfunction speech

Tonight, Americans who bother to tune in to the President's State of the Union message will watch the work of a rhetorical master with a flair for illusion. He will take the podium in the Capitol in hopes of laying the groundwork for a political debate on his terms--one where he stands on emotional appeals, populism, and class warfare, not the shaky ground of his crumbling record. And looking back at him will be the US Senate which, for the last 1000 days, has failed to pass a budget--a total shirking of their fundamental duty to be the diligent stewards of the taxpayers' dollars.

The President will rely on the power of his words. He will tell us the story of America through a progressive's eyes--one where "fairness" takes on a new meaning, where America's core values are brushed aside, and where the truth about a failed presidency is forgotten.

He will tell us that the federal government should be the guarantor of equal outcomes and that "fairness" of achievement should be decided by bureaucrats in Washington. This is the root of the President's ideology. It is not, however, the ideology on which our country was founded.

The American dream is that people may use their individual freedom to apply their talents and abilities in order to better themselves. The President does not support that dream. Instead he has made clear that he believes that only through government engineering can society advance. He believes that this is accomplished by government power, federal programs, economic regulations and infrastructure spending--all funded by "fair" taxes on the wealthy.

President Obama's message will be designed to appeal to the American people. That's what politicians do. Listening to what the President says tonight, we will hear subtle references to class warfare, to blaming others for failures of his administration. However, we all need to ponder how the people have actually fared under the President's policies. It's hard to miss the 13.1 million unemployed Americans, the plodding economy, the inflation of prices, the businesses that are not growing or expanding. He won't bring up the trillion dollar stimulus bill, government takeover of the auto industry, the proliferation of government regulations, the crony capitalism of the Solyndra scandal, and the illegal appointments to critical federal agencies. He will not bring up these "achievements".

President Obama makes great promises, but his ideology is faulty and becomes evident to anyone who looks beyond the words he speaks and actually looks at the results of his ideology!

(Excerpts from The Heritage Foundation 1/24/12)