Tonight I listened (via the radio device) to President Barack Obama give a very inspired State of the Union address, the night after a very heated, nasty and somewhat cynical debate by his potential Republican rivals. Obama talks like a President. Obama looks like a President...at least what I would have imagined a 21st Century President of the United State of America would look like.
However, at what point will this President realize that bipartisanship is not a reality right now? There is not one single Republican, not ONE, who has any interest in working with the Democrats (or, for that matter, the Independent and very wise Bernie Sanders of Vermont) on issues that are in the best interest of the country.
Now stop... I am not saying that the Republicans don't care about the interests of the country. There are good people in the Republican party. They rarely get any attention, but I digress...
But, when was the last time one of them was open to the idea of working with the other side of the aisle (What an awful idea, by the way! Why on earth is the Congress physically divided? Talk about setting yourselves up for battle/failure!)? Have any of you ever heard Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity describe one single non-Republican idea as good or valid?
Let me answer that for you? Nope.
The closest they've ever gotten was Bill O'Reilly (God help us) admitting that global warming was most likely real and that he saw no reason gay people shouldn't marry ("“Do I care about this? Not really. I don’t care what Lenny and Squiggy do. They want to get married, let them get married. If you open it up for one group, you’ve got to open it up for all the groups." PBS interview with Marvin Kalb on PBS in 2008).
Most logical people can see at least ONE of their opposition's viewpoints as valid. For example, I believe that the Republican viewpoint of a strong national defense and limited government to be, at its core, a very good philosophy. The problem as I see it is that the Republican party does not seem to know what defense is, and instead runs into every country, flexing its muscle and telling everybody to bend over and grab their ankles. Oh and by the way, how is telling people they can or cannot get married to the person they love LIMITED government? Hmm...
So... why on Earth is President Barack Obama spending the bulk of what could be his LAST State of the Union ever as acting President trying to create a sense of "Kumbaya-let's-kiss-and-make-up-smokum-peace-pipe-and-ride-off-into-the-sunset-together" bipartisanship?
It's NOT GOING TO WORK!
I would have so much more respect for you (plus you'd probably secure my vote- which you have not yet done btw) if you just said:
"Ok ladies and gentlemen, you've had your chance. I'm the motherfucking PRESIDENT of the United States. Now you're going to pass every single cockadoody piece of legislation I propose or I will veto every shred of paper that passes my desk. I don't care of it's a homeless shelter for eskimo pygmy children or if it's a multi-trillion dollar stimulus bill that gets us out of debt with one flick of my pen. I will shut this motherfucker DOWN. Why? Because I CAN. Bitch. Now get on board or I'm going to FUCK ALL OF YOU UP! And you know I can. You know why? Cuz I'm BLACK. And you pissed me off."
I'm done rooting for you, Barack. You've lost your pass with me. You need to EARN my vote. You did it once, despite everything I was taught as a proud Southern Catholic/Christian from a conservative Republican (the good, hard-working, earnest kind, not the Romney/Gingrich/Perry/Bachman/Palin crazy kind of "Republican") family.
If you want me to not abstain from voting for President this year- because as it stands that's my only other option- you need to have a friggin' backbone and tell those stiff ol' white people staring back at you as you addressed the Union tonight to yank the stick out of their ass and remember why they're SUPPOSED to be in government in the first place.
Bring it.
