State of Dysfunction

Tonight, Americans who tune in to the State of the Union will watch the work of a rhetorical master with a flair for illusion. President Barack Obama will take to the floor of the Capitol in hopes of laying the groundwork for a political debate on his terms–one where he stands on emotional appeals, populism, and class warfare, not the shaky ground of his crumbling record. And looking right back at him will be the U.S. Senate, which has for the past 1,000 days failed to pass a budget–a total shirking of their fundamental duty to be diligent stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars.

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The President will thus rely on the power of his words. With flourish, he will tell the story of America through a progressive’s eyes–one where “fairness” takes on a new meaning, where America’s core values are brushed aside, and where the truth about a failed presidency is forgotten in the shadows of his country’s collective memory. The President will speak from the high ground of his vaulted office. The question is whether the elevation conferred by his office will allow him to escape the soaring deficits, depths of unemployment, or miles of job-killing regulation that his Administration has wrought. Before considering the President’s record, first consider his message–that economic populism is the core of America’s principles, that the federal government should be the guarantor of equal outcomes and that “fairness” of achievement should be decided by legions of bureaucrats in Washington. It is a theme that the President unveiled in a speech last month in Osawatomie, Kansas, and it’s one he plans to return to tonight. This vision is at the root of the President’s progressive ideal. It is not, however, the ideology on which our country was founded. The Heritage Foundation’s Matthew Spalding, vice president of American Studies and director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics, explains:

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