Initial response to 2014 State of the Union Address

President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union Address certainly updated the President’s resume by optimistically listing his accomplishments to date while offering a handful of minor policy pursuits shadowed by the need for massive reforms to public policy as he reiterated his commitment to the liberal agenda.  From the other side, the Republican response took the tone of a motivational speaker offering hollow catchphrases that undercut social/leadership/positional responsibility and support problem avoidance over problem solving.

 Instead of offering a vision for America, Republican Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers offered a heartwarming message loaded with key phrases that the anti-Obama Camp wanted to hear as she set forth a Republican agenda seeks to the circumvent the President.  Given that Congress acts through the Executive Branch, this essentially means Republicans are planning to continue their “take what we want or leave it” approach as the President pledges to continue his efforts to circumvent Congress whenever possible.  In many respects, the GOP has treated President Obama as a lame duck President since the 2010 elections with Obama fighting against this status with so-called Executive Orders and actions.  What we have is a lame duck President and Congress fighting a political system built on the wounded egos of self-serving, self-righteous special interests groups driven by their pursuit of power.

Unfortunately, both sides are trying to play nice, yet no one is willing to apologize and commit to political reconciliation.  Both President Obama and Congresswoman Rogers said some nice things, but the only thing the American People needed to hear was how our politicians are going to work together to get things done.  Neither side offered anything resembling a path forward.  As such, American political theater will probably be less nasty in the coming year, but we are still on the same degenerative trajectory we have long needed to change.