Turn Off the Political Theater
Democrat President Joe Biden delivered his first “State of the Union” (SOTU) address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. Technically, the address is not considered a SOTU in a president’s first year, but it acts in the same manner: political theater.
I did not watch it nor had a desire to watch it. And it’s not just because it was Biden delivering the address. I’ve never cared for the pomp and circumstance of the annual event and never cared to watch it, regardless of whether or not I supported the president delivering the address. It’s just theater exemplified by the parade of Congressmen and Senators on both sides of the aisle scampering to shake the president’s hand and get their faces on camera.
I agree with America’s third President Thomas Jefferson who warned that the circus of an in-person speech to Congress creates a monarchy in a letter to Martin Van Buren in 1824. Jefferson wrote “…the pompous cavalcade to the state house on the meeting of Congress, the formal speech from the throne, the procession of Congress in a body to re-echo the speech in an answer….”
Maybe a better approach to the SOTU would be to randomly pick an American citizen, say a farmer or factory worker or small business owner, to deliver a speech to Congress and address the real state of the union rather than the fluff and pandering from the political clowns.
The U.S. Constitution under Article II, Section 3, Clause 1 does state that the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient,” but it was most often delivered as a written statement to Congress until President Woodrow Wilson started the trend of in-person speeches in 1913.
Certainly, it is important for the American public to know what new massive spending programs, paid with by your money, are on the horizon. However, tuning into this façade each year gives credence to the political class that they’re important people when they’re not. Americans waiting with bated breath to hear from their “leaders,” or more aptly their “masters,” is the problem, and it’s never been more evident than what we’ve witnessed over the last year under the COVID-19 tyranny.
Take earlier this week when Biden declared on Tuesday that “starting today, if you’re fully vaccinated, and you’re outdoors and not in a big crowd, you no longer need to wear a mask…. If you’re vaccinated, you can do more things, more safely, both outdoors as well as indoors.”
Oh, what a gracious gesture from our king. If we take part in the government’s medical experiment, we can take off our mask only when outdoors among small groups as long as those groups signed up to be guinea pigs along with you.
And what was the “conservative” response to this? U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he was “glad” Biden “finally acknowledged what has been obvious for a long time, which is that wearing a mask outside is silly and not remotely justified by the science.”
A laughably spineless response from a politician who likes to consider himself a hero of the Constitution. Cruz gives credence to the idea that we all must listen to the “leaders” to know when we get to have our freedoms. I’ve got news for you Ted, if you’re waiting for a president, or corrupt and unconstitutional bureaucracies, to give you your freedom, then you’re never free.
You can’t blame Biden, though. He’s just following the advice of Republicans. He held out “freedoms,” no matter how little it was, as “another great reason to get vaccinated.”
In what has been a personal disappointment to me, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has pushed that narrative. He said on Fox News last week that Biden should “take his mask off and burn it” to promote getting the vaccine. Yes, even the son of the champion of liberty Ron Paul thinks your freedom is determined by your willingness to obey the government.
So, here’s some advice. Stop listening to the politicians and their “advice.” They don’t run your lives. Stop enslaving yourselves to them. You get to decide whether or not to take a vaccine, you get to decide whether or not you wear a mask (yes, even inside) and you get to decide how to live your life.
Think free, live free, be free!
Content syndicated from TheLibertyLoft.com with permission.
