At some point we have decided the State of the Union speech is political in nature and not a report to congress assembled. Essentially the report, mandated by law is similar to a CEO providing his board of directors and his shareholders a status report.
The idea that we allow a formal rebuttal strikes me as absurd and I don't watch them. There is plenty of opportunity after the report to raise questions and challenge factual statements. It just seems to me that our chief executive should be allowed to make his report without the appearance of a second government.
We live in an era when politics has become more important than actual issues. Each congressman and senator are supposed to be an independent representative of his district or State. When they simply vote along party lines on most issues it's hard to believe they are.
I'm also a bit tired of the media, except generally the right-wing media, acting like both sides engage in similar behavior. Take the outburst that interrupted the speech trying to accuse the President of putting the Marines in Afghanistan in danger. They are always in danger when deployed and while the incident at the airport was a bit of a fiasco, the commanders in the field set up the scenario. What the President did was get us out of an expensive and costly (in lives lost) war. No marines are currently in danger in Afghanistan.
Job well done.
No comments:
Post a Comment