State of the Union Address

I've never really been interested in politics; embarrassingly, I've never sat through a political speech and actually understood (or try to understand) what exactly was being talked about. But after being in American Studies for only one semester, I found that sitting through Obama's State of the Union Address actually interested me. The reasons it interested me was not only because I heard the President's plan to create a better nation, but because I was able to observe patterns in the messages that he was portraying to the public and compare them with the messages of the past.

Obama's continuous theme of not quitting, saying "I promised I wouldn't just do what is popular, I'd do what is right", applying the Recovery Act, and applying many other programs to help Americans get more jobs and make more money to help the economy align with Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. This idea of Civil Disobedience has been a pattern throughout the leaders in American history. In order to lead a group of any kind, persevering and making changes has been the most effective way obtain the group's goal. (however not always do these leaders do what they say or reach their goal)

But the part of our President's speech that I found most interesting, and in a way most comforting, was his goal of peace. Peace. It's something that when I've always thought about it, it had to do with peace with other countries. But, how can we make peace with another country if there isn't complete peace within our own country? It's true, we aren't at war with each other... so... isn't that peaceful enough? The truth is, that it's not. Obama said that none of the forums that will help improve our country will work if they (democrats and republicans) don't work together. He says that as they are now, one side views the other's loss as their gain. And even if they make "good politics" it's not demonstrating good leadership. He adds "we are here to serve our people, not be ambitious". He wants to have meetings with republicans and democrats separately. He earlier talks about (and focuses his speech on) the idea that JOBS is his goal for the year. More businesses will grow (via Recovery Act, new job bill, tax bill, etc.) to supply more Americans with jobs. More of our material will be made in the U.S, and taxes will be cut so citizens could spend their money at businesses instead of their taxes. This idea of working together as one strong nation is what I thought of as a huge similarity to Abraham Lincoln's A HOUSE DIVIDED SPEECH. In both speeches, the presidents are stressing the importance of a happy, well-structured, self-benefiting, and functional nation. This will ultimately lead our country to peace within our nation which in my opinion, is the basis of a strong and successful government and future.