This is not a knock on the President, or the policies he discussed, or his demeanor or his emotions or whatever else people may have decided to be upset or happy about. Nor is it apathy regarding the serious issues raised in that speech about the Gulf, the environment, energy, climate, etc.
It’s a simple matter really. I long ago stopped watching most Presidential addresses to the nation. Why? Because sometimes they lie (George W. Bush and Nixon). Sometimes they tell us what we don’t want to hear years before we are ready to hear it (Carter). Sometimes they make up funny stories that have no basis in reality (Reagan). Sometimes they are frankly boring (Ford and Bush No. 1). And often they tell us how much they care while helping to gut our social safety net and promoting corporate policies to keep the cash flowing to their campaign fund (yes, Bill Clinton, I’m looking at you).
No, what matters to me are results. So I’ll let others opine about the defining moments of the speech or whether it went too far or (as I seem to be hearing from most progressives and liberals, even at Dkos) not far enough. Chewing over President Obama’s words and spitting them back out in various interpretations is too close to what what people who read tea leaves or pore over astrological charts or simply bloviate on the Cable News Channels do for a living.
We have enough people who do that already, and I doubt adding my voice to the mix will help a great deal. Instead I’ll stick to writing about what I know is happening in the world (Big Oil and Wall Street screwed us over, climate change is real and accelerating, tasers kill people, gun control isn’t a dirty word, Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgendered people are PEOPLE entitled to the same rights as anyone else, racism still exists, wars are the worst way to conduct foreign policy and immoral to boot, our current economy and unemployment rate is untenable and continually going along with what our mega-corporations think is best for their bottom line isn’t going to magically solve that problem, etc.) and what I believe should be done to fix those problems.
And when someone does something, even a little something, to alleviate those large and small, global and very human problems, I’ll give them the credit they deserve. Until then, I’ll let others watch most of the speeches and try to figure out if it was a smart political move or a bad one, what it means for pending legislation, what it means for the elections ad nauseam.
Besides, I hate dislike political speeches. For those of you who enjoy them, have at it.
