Obama’s 2015 SOTU Address vs. Reagan’s 1987 SOTU... #SOTU Over the years there have probably been more lies told at our yearly State of the Union addresses than in all the nations courtrooms and barrooms combined. The SOTU is really nothing more than a chance for the president to extol the prosperity, unity, safety and near utopia he has brought to his subjects and how the next year will be even better. Bearing this in mind, I would like now to compare Barak Obama’s 2015 SOTU address to Ronald Reagan’s 1987 speech, since they had both been in office for six years. Believe it or not there are some similarities and they appear as if they could have been written by the same author. At least to a point. If you compare them side-by-side you can see the almost inconspicuous differences as well as the blatant ones. There are links at the end of this article to both speeches. Reagan starts his address by recognizing the historic 100th Congress: “May I congratulate all of you who are Members of this historic 100th Congress of the United States of America. In this 200th anniversary year of our Constitution, you and I stand on the shoulders of giants—men whose words and deeds put wind in the sails of freedom. However, we must always remember that our Constitution is to be celebrated not for being old, but for being young—young with the same energy, spirit, and promise that filled each eventful day in Philadelphia’s statehouse. We will be guided tonight by their acts, and we will be guided forever by their words.” Mr. Obama’s speech started with how terrible the first 15 years of the 21st century has been, but how we have finally turned the corner: “We are 15 years into this new century, 15 years that dawned with terror touching our shores; that unfolded with a new generation fighting two long and costly wars; that saw a vicious recession spread across our nation and the world. It has been, and still is, a hard time for many. But tonight, we turn the page.” On the future of the economy and jobs, Mr. Reagan said this: “Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sending the Congress a complete series of these special messages—on budget reform, welfare reform, competitiveness, including education, trade, worker training and assistance, agriculture, and other subjects. The Congress can give us these tools, but to make these tools work, it really comes down to just being our best. And that is the core of American greatness. The responsibility of freedom presses us towards higher knowledge and, I believe, moral and spiritual greatness. Through lower taxes and smaller government, government has its ways of freeing people’s spirits. But only we, each of us, can let the spirit soar against our own individual standards. Excellence is what makes freedom ring. And isn’t that what we do best?” Now, compare that with what Obama had to say: “And in fact, at every moment of economic change throughout our history, this country has taken bold action to adapt to new circumstances and to make sure everyone gets a fair shot. We set up worker protections, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid to protect ourselves from adversity. We gave our citizens schools and colleges, infrastructure and the Internet, tools they needed to go as far as their efforts and their dreams will take them. That’s what middle-class economics is: the idea that this country does best when everyone gets their fair shot, everyone does their fair share, everyone plays by the same set of rules. We don’t just want everyone to share in America’s success; we want everyone to contribute to our success. So — so what does middle-class economics require in our time? First, middle-class economics means helping working families feel more secure in a world of constant change. That means helping folks afford child care, college, health care, a home, retirement, and my budget will address each of these issues, lowering the taxes of working families and putting thousands of dollars back into their pockets each year.” As you can see, Mr. Obama leads one to believe, in a very subtle way, that without government programs no one has a chance at success. That the game is rigged and the only way to level the playing field is for government, not the free-market, make and enforce the rules. He goes further with this, “In today’s economy, when having both parents in the workforce is an economic necessity for many families, we need affordable, high-quality child care more than ever. It’s not a nice-to-have: it’s a must-have. So it’s time we stop treating childcare as a side issue, or a women’s issue, and treat it like the national economic priority that it is for all of us. ” That sounds a lot like Hillary Clinton’s It Takes A Village. A little further along, Obama said this: “But — but you know, things like child care and sick leave and equal pay, things like lower mortgage premiums and a higher minimum wage, these ideas will make a meaningful difference in the lives of millions of families. That’s a fact. And that’s what all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike, were sent here to do.” No, Mr. Obama, that is not what you were sent to do. You were sent to defend, not destroy, the constitution. To protect the American people from enemies foreign and domestic, not just the ones you believe are a threat. To establish justice, make sure we are all secure in our person and property, not to try to promote economic egalitarianism. That is impossible. Reagan’s belief that the American individual can achieve greatness when the tethers of government are removed are antithetic to Obama’s belief that government programs must be expounded and even more of them created for the individual to have a chance. One thing Reagan said in his address would never be spoken by Obama. In fact, progressives are doing all they can at a feverish pace to double-down on religious suppression. (With the exception of Islam). Reagan had this to say: “Finally, let’s stop suppressing the spiritual core of our national being. Our nation could not have been conceived without divine help. Why is it that we can build a nation with our prayers, but we can’t use a schoolroom for voluntary prayer? The 100th Congress of the United States should be remembered as the one that ended the expulsion of God from America’s classrooms.” The two speeches are from two men that had very different views on America’s exceptionalism and the role of government in our lives. Aside from the obvious wealth redistribution vehicles such as free healthcare, free childcare, free college, etc., etc. that have incurred more debt than the 43 presidents who came before him combined, the rest of Obama’s speech was rather boring, as are most presidential speeches. Oh, one other thing. Did Obama name radical Islamic terrorism, Iran’s potential nuclear weapon capability, Russia’s renewed sights on conquest or our national debt as the our greatest national security threat? No. No, he said that climate change (formerly known as global warming) was the greatest threat. I just don’t know how he does it with a straight face. I guess Jonathon Gruber was right.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 00:54:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015