Dear America,
Tonight is President Obama's seventh, and penultimate, state of the union address, and no matter what he says, he can't win. I must admit that I voted for him twice, and no matter whom the Republicans had run, I probably would have voted for him even knowing what I do now, but a significant part of what he seems to believe is anathema to me. He clings to the supply-side notion that reductions in business taxation will stimulate the economy. But I believe that, with corporations world-wide sitting on over $2 trillion at one point, and probably close to half that in this country alone, giving more money to business moguls through tax abatement doesn't create more profit from which more taxes can be raised. It just goes into corporate coffers and CEO's bank accounts. Thus, while business might benefit in some respect, that benefit would never redound to individual Americans, nor to the enhancement of their common weal. Even Obamacare is problematic for me. It's like democracy in that it is probably the worst system available...except for all the others available in this country. It still seems like a sop for the insurance industry to me, but at least it has resulted in something in excess of 17 million Americans who were not insured having health care coverage, and thus health care itself, in many cases for the fist time in their lives. But like Keynesean vs. Supply-Side economics, the single-payer system just wasn't politically credible in 2010, while Obamacare was at least a step forward...and humane as well, despite being profitable for the insurance industry. And of course, we can't forget immigration. Hispanic Congressmen, virtually all of them Democrats, are bellowing over the recent increase in deportations at our southern border while Republicans bellow about the reductions in deportations on account of The President's "dreamer" policy. No matter which way The President turns, he can't win. And of course, we can't forget foreign policy.
Start with something simple, like the trans-Pacific trade deal, which many people feel is worker-adverse. On the Republican side, and on the more conservative Democratic side as well, it is another trickle down strategy that is supposed to redound to the benefit of our working people by making business practices more universal. Conversely, many people believe that the consequence will be like what has often been attributed to the North American equivalent signed by Bill Clinton: jobs going elsewhere because barriers to bringing the "American goods" foreign workers produce for American corporations don't face any restrictions or tariffs while the responsible corporations increase their profits by reducing labor costs with the effect of perpetuating lower standards of living in places like Mexico and Guatemala. It will be difficult for Mr. Obama to sell that trans-Pacific deal as progress in tonight's speech. And then there's Syria, regarding which he has stated his strategy over and over again though somehow the Republicans seem to get away with saying he has none and then claiming that doing more of the same things is their own, preferable policy. We have sponsored and abetted the replacement of dictators with chaos and disadvantageous rebellion all over the world, but Mr. Obama still cleaves to the notion that deposing Assad is a good idea and a sine qua non for peace when it is more likely to incubate anarchy at best and ISIL at worst. At the same time though, no one is advocating doing something about Kim Jung Un in North Korea, where a populist rebellion might well inspire democratic reform while abating the nuclear threat that North Korea now represents. At the same time though, there's the Iran treaty intended to interdict development of nuclear weapons in that country while we let a bellicose Israel slide on the subject of nuclear weapons. We berate Iran for its international sponsorship of terrorism and Shiite insurgency, but we say little to nothing to Israel and Netanyahu about settlements in the West Bank, which belongs to Jordan legally, not Israel, making it is nothing better than a spoil of war. The world is in turmoil, and while our president didn't cause it for the most part, he hasn't done much to quell it either, if there is anything to be done.
So, President Obama will take the podium in our congress tonight and will face an audience that is probably more hostile, given the extreme partisanship with which we now suffer, than any audience he has talked to in the past, including previous congresses. He will talk about how far we have come since he took the helm of a ship of state sinking in a financial crisis, and the numbers he will recite will be on his side. But the conservative, Republican palaver to the contrary will persist, and in large part succeed against all reason. And thus, while Democrats will applaud enthusiastically for the most part, this state of the union address will be as futile as can be because eloquence and logic aside, President Obama has been largely diffident...a shrinking rose in a business in which only thorns get noticed. That doesn't make him a bad man, but the question remains: does it make him a good president.
Your friend,
Mike
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