They Deserve a Vote Edition

Last night was the first State of the Union of Obama's second term and truth be told, it felt very similar to everything we've heard before, but there was one section that truly felt like a genuine, heartfelt moment.

Of course it was about gun control, the political topic that's been at the forefront of our national discussion since the tragedy at Newtown.  Put simply, President Obama stated that gun control measures should get the chance to be put to a vote, not killed in committee or filibustered or what have you.  He listed off names and places familiar to us, all affected by gun violence.  He told the personal story of Hadiya Pendleton, a star-student and band majorette who performed at President Obama's inauguration and then was shot a killed a short time afterward.

It was a simple, heartfelt, logical plea.  Even if people vote no on these measures, the victims of gun violence deserve the ideas to at least get voted on instead of dumped into the clogged toilet that often is Congressional politics.

While I absolutely agree with the President, I feel like "They deserve a vote" has such a wider application.  How many times has legislation that could have really helped people been filibustered for what seemed like arbitrary reasons while laws like the sequester deal get passed?  Or, Mr. President... why was the public option not even discussed at all during the health care debate despite widespread support across the country? We can only get something done when it's the equivalent of stabbing our own leg with a fork, or when it's stopping the bleeding from the last fork we stuck in our other leg.

Moving on... I know it's more complicated than how I'm about to present it, but that's where the fun is after all.  I get a weird kick out of seeing the President talking about paying our bills on time, not acting like coked-up celebrity train-wrecks at the national level, giving all kids a chance, and helping the middle class, and then watching Republicans sit there with sour looks on their faces.  I imagine that's the exact face the Grinch would make if he walked into a Target in early November and saw a Christmas display.  If there was ever a universal cause out there, it seems like it would be children, but nope, Republicans still manage to bring the full dyspepsia to the State of the Union.

Again, I know it's more complicated and in this case I don't even know who the person was that the broadcast cut to, but the woman disgustedly shaking her head while the President talked about getting a fair pay law going was also oddly fun.

There's some things I don't get about republican politics, namely the overwhelming desire they have for the economy to grow and the total unwillingness to look at domestic programs outside the military or bridges to nowhere that could make that happen.  Republicans must be like political super-tasters.  Investing in infrastructure, day care for our kids, technical research camps in economically depressed parts of the country, and getting jobs back home through tax reform seems all right to a layman like me, but it must actually be political cilantro to Republicans the way such ideas repel them.

Of course, I'm operating from the position that Congress wants to get stuff done that their constituents, nay, the very foundations of our democracy demand!!!!  Like how voting in this country is put to shame by the voting infrastructure of American Idol.  Voting is literally the first step to our whole process and we can't get it even in the ballpark of right.  If political slogans had any interest in accuracy, we wouldn't have "Forward" or Mitt Romney plagiarizing Friday Night Lights, we'd have "It's Time To Stop Sucking."

Of course, part of the State of the Union tradition is the response, and of course I mean Ted Nugent's reaction.

Ted Nugent Slams State Of The Union.  Why Did He Rip GOP, Too?

A couple of quick things... first, here's Mr. Nugent's response to last night's State of the Union:

My reaction? I’m not allowed to do that because I’m supposed to keep my pants on.

I know he's trying to make a joke here, but that's what Mr. Nugent brings to the table.  He's loud, bombastic, over-dramatic and a far cry from an intellectual.  So I'm always unclear why he's part of our national discussion except for the fact that he presents himself like a white trash reality TV star.  But there he sits on the board of the NRA, which hopefully is finally getting ostracized into the background noise as we speak.  One other funny but sad observation from that article:

As Slate’s perceptive Dave Weigel noted Tuesday, “If Nugent joined the Republican caucus, he wouldn’t even be its most conservative member."

On a related note, how about Chuck Norris?

These two are a joke, and Chuck Norris internet memes are tragic because they celebrate a moron.  Let Mr. Norris and Mr. Nugent fade away, they don't belong in our political discourse.

As for Mr. Rubio's response, I'm not sure it was actually connected to reality some of the time.  What he claimed President Obama's speech said is not quite what I heard literally five minutes earlier.  He talked about Obama-care's burden on business, but I know companies have skirted providing benefits to employees whenever they can, not because it might be marginally more expensive now, but because benefits have always been a real chunk of change, regardless of the system.  For a while, IBM had a plant where I lived in Upstate New York that relied on - essentially - full-time temps at the lower levels specifically to avoid providing benefits.

Mr. Rubio also spoke about the small business engine that elevates the middle class as if it was mutually exclusive from infrastructure investments.  Small business will not fix bridges or get the country wired for high-speed internet, but they will certainly benefit from such investments.  Can't have a thriving small-business atmosphere if our big government is doing its part to strengthen the workforce or providing the law enforcement that prevents said small-business from getting robbed...

The "no matter how many job-killing laws we pass, our government can't control the weather" comment was also fairly precious.  First, last year, our Congress dived to a new low for passing legislation.  Never mind passing these made up job-killing laws, our dysfunctional legislative branch isn't passing anything.  Second, there's a real difference between controlling the weather, and realizing we impact the weather.  The implied smirk and head-shaking at how stupid Democrats are for thinking
 the government can control the weather ignores the fact that no Democrat is stupid enough to make that suggestion.  Mr. Rubio, you have to do better than junior-high-debate-team straw men in your national moment in the spotlight.

Having said that, drink of water aside, at least he managed not to come off nearly as stiff as Gov. Jindal two years ago.  And he managed to look at the camera, which was more than Michelle Bachmann accomplished three years ago.