A Message From Obscuria

[Daveparts]

A Message From Obscuria
By David Glenn Cox



It was a victory for the English-speaking peoples, this last state of the union address by George W. Bush. His stunted sentences, his hyperbolized hypotheses, his grandiose victories imagined by he alone. He was in his own mind; the old soldier about to fade away but his imagined triumphs belied the true temper of the room. For while he awaited his accolades the others in the room were awaiting only his departure and the open bar.

It was the retirement party for that department head that everyone hated. The man whose stubbornness and intransigence made Mondays a drag and held back progress for us all. The man who thought every good idea was a bad idea and every bad idea a good one. The man who took credit for dumb luck and blamed others for his obvious failures. Wistful and reminiscing he asks, “We did have some good times didn’t we?” The room applauds politely then mutters, you son of a bitch under their breath. For while he was celebrating his coming both parties of Congress were celebrating his leaving.

Iraq is a victory to him, ah hell, it all victory in his mind. Winston Churchill was once asked by a reporter about his role in saving western civilization. The aged Churchill responded, “I just did my bit.” But to lonesome George it all grand accomplishment and grand illusion. The tenuous hold on sanity, of a reality being what ever he says it is. A shark fin in the water, a red light on the panel but now with an air of optimism that we might just survive this after all.

The camera pans to Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton each wondering if they will be giving this address next year. The media attempting to turn their campaign into wrestlemaina XX but ignoring those conspicuous by their absence, one Senator John McCain. What was the message there? Was this an affront to George W. Bush? Or does McCain feel that after being tortured by the North Vietnamese in the Hanoi Hilton that he should be granted a pass from this torture from follies of obscuria. Will the media now question McCain’s patriotism?

Had McCain’s absence been a statement of principle I would have applauded it, but I think it was a personal statement more than a principled one. Perhaps if more members had followed McCain’s lead then perhaps, we would have held an event worth watching. The idea of the state of the union address was a noble one, that the leader of the executive branch should come to Congress and speak his mind about the direction of the country and to lay out his legislative agenda. Instead it has become a media event, a campaign speech complete with cheerleaders.

When your adversaries speak they will always teach you two things, those things that you know already and those things that they do not know yet. So even if we discount the celebration of Bush’s immanent departure Congress overall seems to be a happy and contented bunch. Bipartisan applause for the tax policy, the war on terror, and breaking our dependence on foreign oil which has become a staple of every Bush state of the union address reminiscent of Pa Kettle’s line, “I’m going to fix that one these days” but not in this lifetime. So outside of George’s departure, what are they all so happy about?

Because in their America, things are going great! Why not applaud, they only know of one person losing their job! In the House of Representatives the 25 wealthiest members have a net worth ranged between 9 million to 289 million dollars in the Senate the poorest 25 average 600,000 a far cry from the tax payer average of $46,000. In the Presidents own cabinet, its no wonder Henry Paulson is treasury secretary, after all he owns one of his own with a net worth of 392 million dollars. Compared with poor Alberto Gonzales, who listed his net worth as $425,000 its no wonder that he held on so long, he needed the work! The administration dares to call us poor consumers while Condy Rice buys those expensive shoes with her net worth not even 3 million dollars.

The government by the people and for the people has become the government of buy the people and ignore the people. For example Rep John Linder author of Mike Huckabee’s “fair tax” proposal lists a net worth of 33 million dollars. The fair tax if inacted would be for a person with a net worth of 33 million dollars Christmas every day. It boggles the mind that with so much wealth that it would require heavy equipment to bury all in the back yard that they can still worry so much about themselves and so little about their country. A palace mentality, why must the poor besiege us so?

Why must I pay for Social Security? Why must I pay for poor children’s education?
Why must I pay for poor people’s health care? I didn’t tell them to be poor!

To send your children to war, to send your job to the third world, to make illegal aliens legal because it’s the humane thing to do. To profit from the war, to gain the riches from globalism, and then dare to talk to us about our responsibilities and morality while they make Marie Antoinette look like Mother Teresa. From E pluribus Unum meaning from many one to from many mine, The reality was they weren’t applauding George W. Bush’s departure into obscurity at all, they were applauding for themselves and their successes, for their private little club, the King is dead, long live the King. The only change coming is the anointing of another from inside the royal family to wear the crown and carry the diadem.