Introduction

We live in a day in which everything has become politicized from health care to sexuality. The rhetorical prayer of postmodernism – everything is political – borrowed from their god, Karl Marx, for now is winning the day. Six days ago the presiding President of the U.S. declared his state of the union. This blog proffers my personal critique and response to the President’s address. I will disclose from the outset that politically I hold mostly to a libertarian viewpoint. As a Christian, I hold strongly to a Judeo-Christian ethic. The purpose of this blog is not to exalt the RNC, which I think has done nothing to counter the politicization of our culture. As a libertarian I believe that people can live a life in which very little is political. We cannot carve out a life for ourselves, however, apart from values and beliefs that form the foundation of how we live in the world. Today people in the U.S. are becoming more and more to believe that the State provides a life for them.

My response to the State of the Union Address is formed among three categories: 1) foreign policy; 2) economics; 3) political rhetoric. 

Foreign Policy

It is entertaining to listen to how Biden connects Putin’s threat to the world with the disproved charge that Trump won the election against Hilary Clinton because of Russian interference. And then he analogizes Putin’s world threat to the January 6th insurrection. To hear Biden’s claims, Putin is the most dangerous Stalinist in the history of totalitarianism. By the way, FDR, whom Biden praises, saw Stalin as an ally. Many in the military at the time saw exactly what Russia was about during those days. Is Russia about spreading totalitarianism today? Perhaps Putin may see himself as a world conqueror. 

While excoriating Russia, Biden then shows his anti-Israel colors by being soft on Hamas. Yes, he had to speak to the October 7th debauchery executed by Hamas. What else could he do? But sending money to “Gaza” is sending money to Israel’s enemies. Calling on Israel to a cease-fire with Hamas is anything but a rational foreign policy. If Putin epitomizes the evil from whom America can’t ever back down, then what is Hamas and the threat of Iran? There comes a point when the people of Gaza and Palestine must say to Hamas – no longer – no longer can you hide in innocent people’s homes, hospitals, and schools. I know that such a stance will take more courage than I can fathom. But courage is what is required to stand against such an evil as Hamas. Hamas’ evil is not limited to the gross debauchery they have perpetrated since their existence. It is also evident in their willingness to hide among civilians, placing them in extreme danger in the midst of reprisals for which Hamas’ evil deeds call forth. Israel is an ally. As such their foreign policy should not be dictated by America’s government. We may disagree at how Israel has gone about its response to Hamas; nonetheless, Israel is a sovereign country and is an ally. 

Next Biden seeks to tell everyone that China is really not rising in power and should not be considered that much of a fear factor. Tell that to the Taiwanese. Speak that nonsense to those who live in Hong Kong. If Putin is a threat to world peace, then to neglect China as such a threat, is totally irrational. In this nation we face the fact that China is buying up land and other forms of real estate throughout the country. Biden may want to claim that he and his cronies have brought to life the computer chip industry in America, but globally and economically that doesn’t make sense. China is a threat to the world as much, if not greater, than Russia. We will have to keep a close eye on Taiwan to see what happens. If China invades Taiwan, we’ll have to experience what our foreign policy is really made of. I would rather any support go to the Taiwanese than to Gaza, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. 

Failed Economic Policies

According to Biden’s speech he has made everyone better off from the poor to the wealthy. Addressing the decrease in deficit spending in the face of a $34-trillion dollar debt is like trying to irrigate a desert with a cup of water. The next government budget may very well see a fifth of its spending go simply to paying off the interest on the debt. And listening to Biden’s address doesn’t give anyone any comfort that government spending is on the chopping block. (By the way, this is as true of the RNC as it is the DNC.) Government spending is rather an oxymoron. It is actually the tax payers who are on the hook for the fiscal policies that lead to irrational spending by politicians. According to Biden, he is going to fix all problems from healthcare to education to corporate profits by the old game of tax-it-and-spend-it. Not one word did he utter regarding the government debt, what it does to the value of the dollar, and how it undermines peoples trust in economic policies. Not one word did he utter regarding the debauchery known as the Federal Reserve. End the Fed has been a shout for those who hold an understanding of economics contrary to Nobel Prize winners like Paul Krugman. The mindset that has taken hold of Washington’s fiscal and monetary policies can simply be translated as – spend our way toward utopia. 

As Biden spoke out of one corner of his mouth regarding deficit spending, out of the other side he played the old rhetorical tune of class envy, calling on the wealthy to pay their fair share. No doubt the tax burden in on the middle class. But this fact is due to both Democrat and Republican policies that uphold a so-called progressive income tax. The real question is who determined what is fair for everyone to pay in taxes. Such rhetoric is nothing more than the State being too much a part of our lives. When politicians set the tax code, then they and their IRA crony bureaucrats dictate to others what their fair share should be. There are many other pledges that Biden made that speak to what will be the continued failed economic policies put forth by Washington. Teachers will get raises, children will be forced to go into public education at earlier ages, unions will be subsidized to make America strong again. And then finally, an insult to all insults, inflation is going down. Tell that nonsense to people who are trying to buy a home, pay for an automobile, and to even those going to the grocery store. Of course all of these rises in prices will be fixed by more government spending and subsidizing of corporate cronies while the government debt continues to reach higher levels.

Everything is Political

Biden mentioned all the necessary politically-correct items from abortion to transgenderism. And then there is the border situation, which he has really tried to fix while instead trying to dictate to Texas that the state cannot string barbed wired along the Rio Grande. Literally millions of illegal immigrants have crossed the border, wreaking havoc on communities. Even schools in New York have been shut down, sending the students home while the educational facilities were used to house illegal immigrants. The border situation is a disaster. It’s remedy should be left up the each and every state that has to deal with the effects of illegal immigration. Immigration policies also effect economic policies. Those who enter the U.S. illegally are subsidized with healthcare, housing, and education. Interestingly enough, it is the very unions that Biden touts that look with scorn at immigration policies because of the jobs and inflated wage losses due to illegal immigration. I happen to believe that it is a wonderful reality that people want to move here, work, and establishing a life for themselves. But as in all countries, Mexico included, there are legal and legitimate ways to obtain that goal. Tax payers should not be subsidizing those who cross the border illegally.

Biden’s political rhetoric, which is true of Washing D.C. as a whole, was replete throughout his address. If we were to believe him, he will put forth policies that will solve all of our problems, of course at the tax payers’ expense. With every line, he had to take a jab at Trump (and I’m no Trump supporter). Of course it’s an election year. What this State of the Union puts forth is like most addresses over the last few decades, if not longer. People are to look to the beltway in D.C. for a life. Never mind the the pandemic and the policies that followed from it crushed the economy. Never mind that politicians are spending the economy into oblivion. Never mind that our foreign policy for the last decades since WWII have taken of the goal of a Pax Americana. And never mind that NATO is an organization that is at best a silent enemy of what America supposedly stands. NATO stands because of the American military and loss of American lives in foreign conflicts that we should not have engaged, from Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan.

Conclusion

The political rhetoric continues. Look to the politically elite for a life. They know better how we should live. The populace surely cannot carve out a life for themselves worth living. People are called to depend on the government. That is the taxpayer.

John V. Jones, Jr., Ph.D/March 14th, 2024

ANALYSIS OF POWER/Politics