SOTU: Political Theater Galore
The political actors on the so-called “left” and “right” love the spotlight
I did not watch the State of the Union address this week.
I had no intention, no desire to tune in at all. I did not want to watch a second of the political theater.
And to make it clear, it wasn’t because Joe Biden delivered it. It’s because it indeed is nothing more than political theater. It is theater when delivered by Biden. It is theater when delivered by Donald Trump. It is theater when delivered by Obama, Bush, Clinton, etc.
Not only did I not plan on watching the speech, I had no intention to listen to any of the stupid talking heads on the so-called “left” or “right” discuss the speech. I did not want to subject myself to a second of the circus.
Unfortunately, I let my curiosity get the best of me. I saw a headline about some fireworks that occurred, and I just had to take a peak under the circus tent.
The story, of course, that I saw had to do with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) calling Biden a “liar.” And the media ran wild. The “left” media decried Greene’s antics. The “right” media applauded Greene for standing up to the “liar.”
What’s not discussed is the substantive issue underlying the whole incident. And if you actually look at the substance, you’d understand how pathetic and useless the Republicans really are. And, in fact, how the GOPers are the biggest liars of all.
Here’s a Tweet, video of the incident included, by Gardner Goldsmith.
Simply stated, Biden accused some Republicans of wanting to eliminate Social Security and Medicare. The Republicans made clear they do not want to eliminate entitlement programs.
Goldsmith gets to the substance in his Tweet:
“The GOP-ers who protested might want to rethink their position on continuing these unconstitutional, immoral systems of thievery and redistribution of the stolen property.”
Exactly. What happened was Republicans were accused of wanting to get rid of entitlement programs and the GOP went apoplectic. They were so offended that anyone would suggest they would ever eliminate a massive, big government, unconstitutional, immoral, evil, socialist, Ponzi scheme program. Never would the GOP want to get rid of that.
The GOP, including conservative darlings like Greene, love to lie straight to your faces that they oppose socialism, that they love the Constitution, that they love liberty. But in reality, they will defend those socialist, unconstitutional, liberty stripping programs every time they can.
That’s the case for Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) who released a statement to Biden’s “lie.”
Lee spoke out of both sides of his mouth as he begins by writing: “We should not trust the federal government with sweeping power over people’s livelihoods.”
Ok, great. So, when Biden said the GOP wants to get rid of these entitlement programs, Lee shouted, “You’re damn right!” That’s what he said, right?
No, no, no, no. Instead, Lee assured the entitled masses that he’s always “offered solutions to improve those programs and move them toward solvency.”
Of course, no Ponzi scheme can ever achieve solvency. You can only kick the can down the road. And that’s Lee’s plan who went on to write the “real issue” is that “our mounting national debt jeopardizes our ability to fund… those same programs (Biden) now accuses us of trying to dismantle.”
Now, I don’t know how to handle that idiocy. You will find nobody who cares more about the national debt, now $31.5 trillion, than me. So, tell me Mike, why do we have such an insurmountable debt? Could it be the creation and continuation of unconstitutional, immoral programs such as the ones you are defending?
It is, as Bradlee Dean often says for Sons of Liberty, that “today’s conservatives are yesterday’s liberals.” The conservatives offered no pushback on the GOP submission to the sodomite agenda.
I have no doubt that a few years (heck, it actually might be months or weeks away) from now when the “left” starts pushing the normalization of pedophilia in earnest, the conservatives will suddenly be on board with the transgender agenda. I mean, Fox News is doing its best to help that along by putting this thing on their airwaves:
But I digress. Let’s get back to Social Security and Medicare.
Gary Galles provided a good summation for the Mises Institute in 2013:
“If Social Security and Medicare both involved people voluntarily financing their own benefits, an argument could be made for seniors’ ‘earned benefits’ view. But they have not. They have redistributed tens of trillions of dollars of wealth to themselves from those younger.”
“Social Security and Medicare have transferred those trillions because they have been partial Ponzi schemes.”
“After Social Security’s creation, those in or near retirement got benefits far exceeding their costs (Ida Mae Fuller, the first Social Security recipient, got 462 times what she and her employer together paid in ‘contributions’). Those benefits in excess of their taxes paid inherently forced future Americans to pick up the tab for the difference. And the program’s almost unthinkable unfunded liabilities are no less a burden on later generations because earlier generations financed some of their own benefits, or because the government has consistently lied that they have paid their own way.”
“Since its creation, Social Security has been expanded multiple times. Each expansion meant those already retired paid no added taxes, and those near retirement paid more for only a few years. But both groups received increased benefits throughout retirement, increasing the unfunded benefits whose burdens had to be borne by later generations. Thus, each such expansion started another Ponzi cycle benefiting older Americans at others’ expense….”
“Social Security and Medicare’s generational high-jacking has become ‘the third rail of politics’ in large part because seniors want to believe that they paid their own way. But they have not. They have only paid for part of what they have gotten. The rest has indeed been a Ponzi scheme. And as Social Security is already revealing, the future cannot be put off forever, however much wishful thinking is involved. Some are already being forced to confront the exploding pot of IOUs involved, and it will get much worse.”
“The supposedly ‘most successful government program in the history of the world,’ according to Harry Reid, has turned seniors into serious takers. The fact that some of them are now starting to share the pain caused by those programs does not contradict that fact. It just shows the dark side of the most successful Ponzi scheme in the history of the world.”
But, you can expect nothing else from the GOP politicians. They’re all actors. They are arrogant, narcissistic actors out only for themselves. They all want power and control over our lives. Every last one of them.
Greene, the actress that she is, has made the media circuit for calling Biden a “liar.” Of course, no substance. Just theatrical talk. And I’m sure she loves every news story about, whether positive or negative. It keeps her “relevant.” That’s what politicians want. They are important people. You are not.
The Theater Never Ends
Again, outside of that one moment from the speech, I have no idea what was said. And quite frankly, you wouldn’t know if you listened to any of the coverage following it.
All you get is narrative pushing. From the so-called “right,” Biden was “stumbling and slurring” during his speech. From the so-called “left,” Biden’s “chances of winning” reelection went up after an “inspiring” speech.
That’s what matters to these people, how well a speech was delivered. These people are freak, clowns. I have no understanding why any American takes any of these people seriously, but they do.
Even on the Greene outburst, the coverage focused on things such as her new BFF globalist Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-California) shushing her.
Then there’s the hypocrisy of both Democrats and Republicans. The so-called “right” is quick to point out the hypocrisy of the so-called “left” for being offended by Greene’s heckling while not being offended by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) ripping up Trump’s speech a few years ago. Of course, the so-called “right” was offended by the Pelosi incident but not by the heckling. Both sides, absolute hypocrites.
And here’s one of the dumbest things I’ve seen in the coverage following the speech. There are “conservatives” offended by Biden’s wife, Jill Biden, kissing Kamala Harris’ husband on the lips. Some are actually taking this seriously. Of course, Fox News thinks it’s a story.
Here’s the full video of the kiss:
Honestly, a rather benign incident. But sensationalizing it as “making out” is always better for theatrical purposes.
Tune Out of the Absurdity
Two years ago, I wrote about Biden’s first SOTU speech (technically it wasn’t a SOTU). Like this one, I did not watch it. What I wrote at the time:
I did not watch it nor had a desire to watch it. And it’s not just because it was Biden delivering the address. I’ve never cared for the pomp and circumstance of the annual event and never cared to watch it, regardless of whether or not I supported the president delivering the address. It’s just theater exemplified by the parade of Congressmen and Senators on both sides of the aisle scampering to shake the president’s hand and get their faces on camera.
I agree with America’s third President Thomas Jefferson who warned that the circus of an in-person speech to Congress creates a monarchy in a letter to Martin Van Buren in 1824. Jefferson wrote “…the pompous cavalcade to the state house on the meeting of Congress, the formal speech from the throne, the procession of Congress in a body to re-echo the speech in an answer….
The U.S. Constitution under Article II, Section 3, Clause 1 does state that the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient,” but it was most often delivered as a written statement to Congress until President Woodrow Wilson started the trend of in-person speeches in 1913….
Tuning into this façade each year gives credence to the political class that they’re important people when they’re not. Americans waiting with bated breath to hear from their “leaders,” or more aptly their “masters,” is the problem, and it’s never been more evident than what we’ve witnessed over the last year under the COVID-19 tyranny.
Here’s an idea, if you want to know what the state of the union is, talk to the people closest to you. Don’t listen to politicians in either party. Talk to your family, your friends and neighbors.
The politicians are only important if we make them important. Tune these arrogant freaks out. Think for yourself. Take accountability for your life. Become independent, and resist every edict from the political clowns. They have no authority over your life unless you give it to them.
Think free, live free, be free!