In Which I Wax Political

You have been warned. 🙂

DKC and I watched the State of the Whatever They Felt Like Calling It last night, as well as the Republican rebuttal (which ended up emphasizing the “butt” more than the “re” or “al”). I’d have to say that overall, I enjoyed Obama’s speech. Yes, it tended toward the “we can do everything we set our minds to” side of the spectrum, just falling short at times of coming out and saying “If you all clap your hands reeeeeeally hard right now . . .” but the message seemed optimistic and generally took an approach I agreed with. (Essentially: our country’s in a real pickle, and let’s stop worrying how we got here and let’s get to fixing it.)

So going from Obama to Jindal was quite a bit of a letdown. Number one, he sounded like he was trying to audition to be the next Mr. Rogers. All that was missing was the cardigan. Number two, it seems to me that my party of choice (yes, I still consider myself to be a Republican–although “independent” is starting its siren song) these days is interested in nothing more than saying “nuh-uh” to anything Obama comes up with. I don’t really agree with the political approach of not trying to cooperate on anything, then accusing the other side of not cooperating on anything. Frankly, if Obama’s managing to irritate a slew of Democrats, then Republicans ought to take that as a sign that the man’s trying to come to the center of the aisle. Some efforts on their part would be appreciated.

In the end, it seems to me that we’re in a tight spot right now, and that any fingers that start pointing really deserve to be broken off and jammed through a wood chipper. Politicians should be tucking their heads down and busily working as hard as they can to come together and come up with good ideas and get this fixed.

Any of my fellow Republicans out there care to make a defense of the party? I’m all eyes.