President Obama gave his speech last night and it was pretty much as expected and the commentary on it will, also, be pretty much as expected. The SOTU has become a bit of theater which we endure once a year – the real work of what will be done in American politics happens after the SOTU and with little reference to it. And the three main battles of 2011 will be over spending, spending and spending – and the results of these battles will go a long way towards setting the political field for 2012. But, what of America? What of our Union?
During the recent State dinner for the dictator of China, it was noted that at this event the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner hosted the man who imprisons the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner. A strange world we live in, indeed. What has started to generate a bit of controversy is the playing of an anti-American song by Lang Lang – the song, it seems, comes from a propaganda flick well known among the Chinese and that movie portrays our soldiers as little better than predatory beasts. Some have said this insult – which no American was apparently aware of as it happened – as symbolic of America’s decline. To me, it means something else – it means that the Chinese are a small minded and contemptible people; and the fact that they feel it necessary to stick pins in us like that indicates the truth of our world: America still rules it.
I don’t think that anyone who reads this blog can doubt that I consider our President to be a fool – a man entirely out of his depth. If we’re patient, skillful and ardently pray for our President, we’ll get through his Administration without too much trouble. But for all his flaws, President Obama towers above the likes of China’s “President”, Hu Jintao. Hu is just the public face of a corrupt and cruel oligarchy which has fastened itself upon the Chinese people. He and his like maintain themselves in power by a combination of brute force and bribes to a select portion of the Chinese people – the sort of people who have become the most swinish money-grubbers ever seen…people willing to tolerate anything, as long as they can make money. These are the sort of people who will be happy over the insult offered by Lang Lang.
As for us, it rolls off our backs – what American gives a hoot what the Chinese think of us? This unconcern over the opinion of the world is not arrogance, it is just a recognition that the slings and arrows are just a symptom of ultimate failure. They hate us because they are not and cannot ever be as successful as we are. Only Americans can do what Americans do. People who volunteer for arduous tasks are of a higher quality than those who don’t – and America is made up of people who are volunteers, or descendants of same. All that is best in the world has poured itself in here, and thus we became – and remain – the greatest nation in human history.
Certainly, we have our problems. We made some fabulous errors over the past century. We fell for some siren songs about how things should be done, and we’re now in quite a jam. But while the rest of the world faces absolute collapse, what we face is merely the task of getting back to work. China can fall, the United States can just have some bad times. Revolution spreads in tyrannical regimes, the United States has peaceful elections and prepares to slug it out in the realm of policies and ideas. Welfare dependent Europeans scream for more welfare from their bankrupt States, Americans steel themselves to the fact that belts are going to have to be tightened. We are just different from everyone else.
Obama said one thing last night which was very true – none of us would trade places with any other country. Meanwhile, if we opened our borders 20 million people would move here next year, and another 20 million would be lined up to get in the year after. Even now with unemployment above 9% and the economy teetering on the edge of a double dip recession, people still try to flood in to this nation. We will endure our trials, we will work out the best means out of them and then, like Americans, we will triumph over adversity.
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