Stirling Newberry

From The Agonist on the SOTU speech.

They did do nothing to deserve the name, "Americans". Showing that he is untouched by self-reflection, intellectual honesty, or self-doubt, George W. Bush has delivered a hard partisan, nasty and crassly self-promoting state of the union to a Congress. He demanded total acquiescence to his economic, foreign policy and domestic agenda, and high handedly threatened that Congress repeatedly if they did not yield to his every demand. Piling on dog whistle after dog whistle to anti-government and anti-tax zealots, in direct contradiction to being the most free spending executive in post-war history, he threw in the face of that same Congress his own duplicity on the matter. Trillions for corruption, but a few spare pennies for everyone else. Bush was never a uniter, he was never interested in bi-partisanship, and he was always interested only in imposing his will and vision on America. A series of Congresses, filled with the corrupt and the craven, not merely bent it's knee to the monarchial impulse, but eagerly participated in outrages against the Constitution that Bush now so gaily flaunts only the first three words of. Because the faith of the founders was in the Union, that web of people, states, government, law and history which was bound together by wars and conflicts, and given a living presence in a document which is fouled by the expectorant of signing statements, secret courts, and overturned elections. It is a mark of shame on this time, and on every American, that we have tolerated such continuous stream of lawless outrages by an executive that knows no honor, and a string of Congresses that have chosen to slop at the trough of pork and personal privilege, before even beginning to move a finger. The results show. This President has been mired below 50% approval for his entire second term, and below 40% for most of it. He is viewed highly negatively as a person by more people who like him even a little. And Congress? This Congress has an approval of 18%, a level which means that were the public given the option of abolishing Congress, they might well pass it by a constitutional super-majority. A foolish Speaker of the House has refused to prosecute high crimes and misdemeanors in the executive, and has cut deals on stimulus that shaft the poor, the children and the unfortunate in order to pile gifts to the extremely wealthy. A conservative Senate Majority Leader combined with her to pass more and more blank checks to the biggest squanderer in history. And two members of this inaugust Congress now vie for the nomination, topping each other in how little of the last eight years they want to undo. In poll after poll, both of them run double digits behind a generic Democrat running for the Presidency. Perhaps because the public understands how little they deserve that name. Someone must say these things, and those that curry for favor or jobs in the government or with a party cannot do so, and will not do so. Those who clamor for attention will find the road blocked by a media which rallied behind a unity towards an illegal war, and now are eager to smirk at the failures of policies that they failed to oppose. This was not an unfortunate outcome, but a clear and obvious result and culmination of exactly what was obvious on a chill night in Florida, when word came down from the Supreme Court that once an election was stolen, it could never be returned to its owners, and Americans had no right to vote for who would occupy the executive office. This is not a period of certainty, but of absolute certainty. America's position in the world is diminished, our share of global GDP is down, our dollar is at its weakest in memory, our credibility destroyed by outrageous lies to the world, our military ground up by the grit of the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time, while the more important wars remain unfought, and more dangerous prey remains unfettered. The clock of an aging baby boom has gone from the ticking of a watch, to the tolling of a bell. It will be midnight chiming soon. News is written by the winners, history by the survivors. Let me tell you what history will have to say about this President and all who enabled him: They did do nothing to deserve the name, "Americans". Go rally behind your spigot of falsehoods, around a President who has broken the laws, defamed the honor of the nation and obliterated constitutional protections that even the Kings of England would not have touched. But realize that unless and until there is a democratic revolution against this new age of absolutism, that there is only one road that we will walk, and that road is down, into the abyss of fallen imperial delusion, and among the shattered stone ruins of fallen crowns. But realize the people have turned against you. We do not merely distrust you, we hate you. We loathe your privileges and your powers. We curse your name in every day language. You can shroud your ears for many years, but with each haughty and high handed slap you deliver to the public's face, there are painful lashes coming from Clio's pen. You will not be forgotten, but remembered along side slave holders who would burn the Union down rather than be human beings, and along side the cult of gold that crushed American into Great Depression. Look upon the busts of Harding and Hoover, and reflect the long hard work you have done to give some other generation a chance to be great, by being worthy of the company of the incompetent and the incomprehensible. Let history write what ruin the arrogance of this age will bring, I say it now, because I have no love for your king. - Stirling Newberry