The State of the Union

I’m not in the mood to analyze the intracies of Bush’s speech except to say that his descent into more liberal, grand, and utopian ideas gets worse by the day, e.g., “America rejects the false comfort of isolationism. We are the Nation that saved liberty in Europe, and liberated death camps, and helped raise up democracies, and faced down an evil empire. Once again, we accept the call of history to deliver the oppressed, and move this world toward peace.” Of course, we did those things after being attacked and ultimately in defense of our own national interest. It was a defensive war unlike our proposed continued interventions in places like Iran or Taiwan.

At the same time, he continues to flee the historic, inherited America in favor of abstractions like “the growing economy.” He says, “Protectionists want to escape competition, pretending that we can keep our high standard of living while walling off our economy. Others say that the government needs to take a larger role in directing the economy, centralizing more power in Washington and increasing taxes. We hear claims that immigrants are somehow bad for the economy – even though this economy could not function without them. All these are forms of economic retreat, and they lead in the same direction – toward a stagnant and second-rate economy. ” Bush insults his audience by suggesting our only concerns should be economic and that all restricts on immigration are one stepped removed from socialism. It’s no more a Berlin Wall to have protected one’s borders and limited entry than are the walls around one’s home. Remember, the Berlin Wall kept people from leaving; we want to keep people from coming in. A jail is not a home, though both have walls.

There is little conservative about this man or his administration.

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