After the “shellacking,” what will President Obama have to say about the State of our Union? He gives his annual report tonight.
President Reagan made Americans feel proud of our country. President Obama makes Americans feel obliged to defend our country (from him). In his inauguration speech, his stated vision was to “remake America.” Since then, we’ve gotten a glimpse of what he wants to make us into — and Americans rejected his view of America this last election.
While his messaging since then gives the appearance that he gets what Americans want, his policies and agenda have yet to change. People are more savvy now and won’t be fooled by a cloak of rhetoric that covers the old agenda of big-government-by-regulation, disrespecting American Exceptionalism, promoting sexual identity politics, or empty words about “reducing abortion.”
President Obama will face a new Congress and public, both who are extremely sensitive to Constitutional limits and fearful of government spending. Americans are unified, and ready for politicians to cut spending, reduce government, and quit vilifying political opponents — three items, by the way, of which the opposite mark President Obama’s career and his last State of the Union, when he pushed ObamaCare and unfairly criticized the Supreme Court justices sitting in front of him.
President Obama has an advantage this year in that it is no secret what Americans want and what the majority in Congress recognize is their mandate. But like Reagan, his audience will not trust without verifying.
President Obama will have to prove through his actions that he will reduce government spending, promote and defend America to the outside world, stop funding abortion, and respect the Constitution and our religious heritage.