I was so busy drooling over Apple’s iPad announcement that I almost forgot about the other big event tonight. Obama’s State of the Union address certainly didn’t make me drool like Apple’s keynote did, but it had moments worthy of applause and I have more hope for 2010 now than I did before.
Obama finally broke his silence on the issue and took a stand on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, as expected. He placed the focus back on jobs (we’ve heard that one before) and dropped some seriously radical propositions on college. (Seriously? All debts forgiven after 20 years, 10% of income to student loans? Is that even possible, much less passable? We’ll have to wait and see on that one.) He got in a few cheap shots at Republicans, which everyone can enjoy. He even called out his own party a bit, which is refreshing, since the statement that they haven’t been doing much to help the American people that elected them is absolutely true.
But will anything actually change? That remains to be seen.
All of the reforms Obama has promised us with this speech are fine and good — in fact, they’re necessities — but we have heard all of this before. Democrats had nearly half of a year with a supermajority and a willing President to change half of these promises into realities. They didn’t do it then. Who’s to say that they’re going to do it now, when Obama’s approval ratings are already threatening to go negative (or, according to some polls, already have) and Democrats are now at the mercy of a Republican filibuster? A few shout-outs and a guilt trip or two isn’t going to change the Party of No into an open-minded party that endorses bipartisanship. They booed climate change and they booed healthcare reform. Hell, they even booed small businesses. Remember John McCain’s small business ass-kissing during the campaign? The threats that Obama was going to “raise taxes on small businesses valued at more than $250,000″? They’ll even let small businesses suffocate like beached whales if it means defeating the President and the “agenda”. They aren’t about to open up.
I am still a Democrat, and I still have a small, but definitely real faith in this administration. I will keep an open mind, but it’s hard not to think that our chance at real reform was left in the toilet by Blue Dogs and Democratic in-fighting and Massachusetts flushed it down.
The generic congressional vote polls have firmly switched to favoring Republicans in 2010. 2010 needs to be the year of action, or Democrats are going to hope-and-change themselves right out of office.
I should really go back to drooling over Apple announcements; I’m getting far too pessimistic.
Posted by polarimetric 