Did you see it? Live from Capitol Hill in livid color? Make no mistake - the big news from Obama’s State of the Union speech wasn’t Obama sputniking off into another rhetorical haze, it was John Boehner’s pink tie.
What was it all about? Some tweety bloggers made a quick connection between Boehner and the type of, “bad-donkey” macho guy it takes to sport a flashy pink like that, just the kind of opinion to be expected from people with solid, underwear three sizes too small, Tea Party credentials where farcical explanations are a membership requirement.
Maybe it was intended to be a “Save The Boobies!” promotion? Instead of a mold-injected plastic pink bracelet that a manly man like Boehner could never wear, he styled us with a very mammary toned tie. It could be that the rest of the world lacks the intellectual subtlety to appreciate his gesture. After all, Boehner’s GOP has done so much to insure that all women have access to the health care they need to, um, wait a minute… Wasn’t that a nasty look on Boehner’s face when Obama mentioned our new health care programs?
So, maybe it was a simple ploy to distract attention from Obama’s speech. Considering the things that have tended to distract GOP politicians the past few years, could it be that Boehner naturally figured people would look at Obama, see that long, straight, pink thing sticking up behind him like that and, well, not concentrate so much on the speech.
Or maybe it was Boehner’s way of conceding a point to Obama. Almost the very first thing Obama brought up in his speech was bi-partisan cooperation. Reaching across the aisle. There was a notable effort made before the speech to have the members of Congress mix it up a bit by sitting next to members of the other party. By so prominently displaying a flag of passivity, Boehner was signaling his party’s willingness to compromise and work together with Obama to salvage America for the good of all Americans instead of just the aristocracy’s K Street money machine that pays GOP salaries.
Right. And Obama really meant all that stuff he said, too, just like he meant it when he was campaigning to be president. Unless Obama is really dumber than the dirt from George Bush’s old ranch and just a really good actor able to do incredibly convincing readings from some of the world’s best scripts, he knew he was selling his whole speech out in its first ten paragraphs.
The Republicans have plainly stated, more times than Sarah Palin has made a fool out of herself, that they are unwilling to do any “compromising” that doesn’t give them total victory. They have repeatedly proven that they aren’t going to go along with anything Obama wants to do short of being gaffed off the side of the Ship of State like the sharks they are, lured by the bait routinely carved out of Obama’s political flesh.
To call Obama’s 2008 campaign promises empty rhetoric and a lot of hot air deprives rhetoric of its dignity and euphemizes the fetid stench of barked-up stomach gas. On the campaign trail Obama told beautiful, inspiring stories about a world there is far too little evidence he really intended to work for. He got us to hope, to believe, and then left us in the lurch just like almost all his kind before him. We should have known better.
Obama’s State of the Union speech is full of wonderful visions that are all the more frustrating for being framed in the death by a thousand compromises of his policies so far and the company they keep with endlessly repeated ideas that either can’t work, he’s not sincere about, or are complete fallacies to begin with.
For instance, Obama ignoring climate change as assiduously as he keeps on about “clean coal.” Just what is that supposed to be? That’s like saying, “living dead,” or “humane warfare.” These things don’t exist. Clean coal is a pig that can be painted up with a lipstick the size of a clean coal power plant’s smoke stack, and it will still be a piggish, inefficient use of natural resources and carbon pumped into places it shouldn’t go. Even worse, putting coal of any kind in an American discussion about energy is just going to insure that everything else gets shouted down.
Guantanamo was supposed to be closed a year ago, yet now it appears that it will not only never be closed, but that its importance in a system designed specifically to circumvent the law is assured. Obama avoids talking about Guantanamo like the TSA doesn’t avoid violating the privacy of your very genitals, and it’s all part of the same police state creep. The more we allow the rights of any to be trampled for the fear of others the less freedom we all have.
We were promised health care, yet what we got was a gift for the insurance companies and what may yet prove to be a strawman for the GOP tide rising up from America’s bowels like rotten meat that won’t digest. The public option we needed to insure the success of our health care instead of the profits of the insurance companies was taken off the table from the beginning, because despite his populist façade, Obama has demonstrated himself to be for business first and business’ victims later, if they survive.
The first time the economy was mentioned in his speech was to announce that the stock market “has come roaring back” and that “corporate profits are up.” Then he mentioned jobs and the lot of the working class, but not without peppering his remarks with more assurances that it was all good for businesses. But how much care for the good of Wall Street and business should there be among the at least 10% of America that is unemployed and the many millions more who are working harder while their standards of living decrease? American businesses are more and more about shipping their work overseas and using their increased clout to bust unions and further reduce the ability of American workers to share in the prosperity of “American” business.
Visionary presentations like Obama’s State of the Union speech and his 2008 presidential campaign promises are great – but only if actions follows rhetoric. Otherwise it’s all just bedtime stories for people whose waking lives are walking nightmares.
That’s why John Boehner’s pink tie is last Tuesday evening’s big news. It was that little bit of non-sequitor unreality in the dream that’s supposed to alert you to the fact that it’s not reality. That pink tie was the signal to snuggle down into your warm blankets and enjoy the snooze while it lasts, because it’s going to be a cold, dreary morning when you wake up. The heater’s broken, the toilet’s frozen, the landlord’s sending a couple of thugs over to collect the late rent, and you’re going to have to fight with the cockroaches over the crumbs left in the kitchen for breakfast.
