More Greetings from America

Lord Haskel

On Tuesday evening I joined many Americans watching President Obama deliver the State of the Union message.  Surprisingly it reflected many events in our political life.  The State Opening of Parliament, but in this case in the lower house.  A party political broadcast complete with an instant response from the opposition – actually two.  A party leader’s conference speech where policies are reviewed and approval or disapproval expressed by who applauds and if they are standing or sitting.  Everybody rose and applauded on three occasions.  When the President sent good wishes to the injured Congresswoman Giffords, when he congratulated the armed forces and when he spoke of how he was going to support more and better education.  As with us, an important ritual of demonstrating support.

But the similarities did not end there.  The economic content was familiar.  Reducing the financial deficit by cutting spending versus the need to boost the economy and make it more competitive through investment in innovation, energy, health and I.T.  The President spoke of the government acting as an agent of change and the opposition called on the President to create a level playing field and leave it to the private sector.  Familiar?

The President made no mention of Europe or Britain.  Congressman Ryan in his instant response gave us as a bad example.  It was China and India who were mentioned as the nations doing better than America and the ones to watch.  Again familiar?

Had this been a British leader speaking there would have been more ideas about help for the poor and unemployed.  Nor was there any mention about several States – read local authorities – being almost bankrupt and having to cut services including school hours.  The implication in this speech was that people would help themselves by better education and more initiative.  Indeed the President was proud to give examples of people and small firms that had done this.  The people he mentioned were there including the owner of the small American drilling company which had carried out the “Plan B” which released the miners in Chile.

What I found interesting was that instead of speaking about American power or greatness, the speeches were about the unique qualities of the American people and were intended to inspire people to raise their game, be confident about the future and feel good about America.  Surely no bad thing.

13 comments for “More Greetings from America

  1. Twm O'r Nant
    27/01/2011 at 12:20 pm

    His election as president one of the high points in many a political observer’s life, certainly in mine.

    I can’t see the State/Local Authority comparison for a single moment, but there it is. We have got 27 states in Europe now too.

    • Lord Haskel
      Lord Haskel
      02/02/2011 at 11:17 am

      His election was one of my high points too.

  2. Maude Elwes
    27/01/2011 at 4:00 pm

    Perhaps, it could be, that Obama didn’t want to spout about US power and greatness to people whom he has no intention of doing anything for. And giving off about US power, etc., would irk the voter further. How come he tells us we have all this power and money and influence but so many millions of us are without any reasonable health care, employment, food, sanitary living conditions, dire homelessness, etc… How come our government can fight endless wars and feed endless millions, but, ignore our own people so treacherously?

    It could be adding salt to wounds, telling the people of their governments power.

    The old adage is, ignore what a man tells you, only watch what he does. Actions count not words, for words cost nothing.

    • Senex
      28/01/2011 at 2:43 pm

      ME: On the subject of food and health care, both are related.

      Obama has come to office knowing that Congress is dominated by big business; if Christ turned the tables on business in the temple in Jerusalem

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleansing_of_the_Temple

      Who will cleanse Congress of its money changers and traders? Only the people can do this. This is in part related to the rise of the ‘Tea Party’ that sees Congress as a dominating imperial power.

      Congress has failed all by creating an environment for a banking crisis and has betrayed its people by making them all fat. Fat people get ill and people with no homes live in tent cities where all they can afford is more fat.

      http://www.iatp.org/iatp/factsheets.cfm?accountID=258&refID=89968

      You can go into most any hotel and they will offer you fruit as though it was a luxury. It is a luxury! Whilst the price of fruit continues to rise; the price of fat continues to fall. If it’s not fat its sugar, there is not much to choose between them in promoting Type 2 Diabetes.

      I want to see UK supermarkets put a big ‘Z’ on shelf price labelling to inform the buyer that the food has zero tax and is regarded as a healthy essential, not a luxury. It’s illegal to do this because it amounts to tax evasion. We drink lots of tea but have never had a US style tea party.

  3. Dave H
    27/01/2011 at 6:13 pm

    You have pinpointed the American Way – the great belief in the individual rather than the state.

    When looking at the healthcare debate, many Americans from all sides were opposed because they think that it’s up to the individual to make provision if they wish, not for the state to force it on them. The fact that many Americans can’t afford private healthcare doesn’t come into the mindset because freedom of the individual is much more important. I don’t agree with them 100% because the state can be considered a communal safety net in the general case (which I suspect is why National Insurance in the UK has that name).

    However, what we have in the UK is the problem that too many people are entangled in that net and can’t get out and worse, don’t want to leave the security. Meanwhile, those holding the net are getting tired, and the ropes are fraying.

    I think the ideal position is somewhere mid-Atlantic, but closer to the US side than ours at the moment.

    • Maude Elwes
      28/01/2011 at 12:15 pm

      @DaveH: Well, I don’t see any American who is without health care saying it is their great belief in the ‘American way’ that stops them getting health care.

      As a person who lived for awhile under the American system of health insurance I can tell you it is the single worst system in the civilised world. For quite simply, you are not covered when you need it, ever. And it costs you a thousand dollars for a sore throat to be looked at. If we go to that system or even near it we will be the biggest fools on the planet.

      The cost per month for even Kaiserpermanente, which is the cheapest, is exorbitant. And if you have to have treatment for a year, the next year the rates are raised far beyond the average mans reach. You end up with only part care or none at all. I had friends who had to sell their three homes, which came to millions of dollars, to cover cancer surgery for their elderly mother.

      Add to that, the insane tests, prescription charges and on and on. As well, the tax levels there are as high, if not higher than here anyway. State tax, Federal tax, City tax. Unless of course you are a politician, they get it on the NHS American style. Bethesda for free for life.

      40 million in the US have no health insurance and the tax they pay for their personal income is outrageous. It’s the equivalent to our Pet insurance policies in this country. If you have ever had pet insurance and needed to use it, then you know the result. US health insurance is the same. Don’t use it or you lose it!

      Politics is ruining our NHS system here and it is deliberately badly managed. And we have the best system in the world, paid for collectively. Now, because of overwhelming immigration and globalisation, the big business want in, to rob us blind. It’s already well on its way, kept silent of course. But they are here and the planned GP’s taking over is fueling that thinking further. Big mistake.

      The US system is akin to the undeveloped world, they leave them to die in the street. I remember NYC in the winter with the dead on the streets over the heat grids. I remember the amputees naked in the snow under their rain coat in wheelchairs.

      You may be able to sell that idea to the unknowing in our government, who think the shares they will have growing will make them fatter than they are now, but, when it comes to their own families, they will be mortified by what really is the American health care system.

      All they have to do is speak to well paid journalists, who had to return to the UK after many years in Washington, DC, or the US in general, with diabetic children or sick wives. They are not even covered there for child birth. They couldn’t take any more of it and they were all well covered.

      The average citizen here would never stand for it, and neither should they.

      • Dave H
        31/01/2011 at 7:49 pm

        I never said I agreed with it 🙂 I did once ask a US friend about the reaction to the healthcare issue over there and that is how it was explained to me. Another ex-pat friend once remarked on how he was paying more for health insurance there than he did national insurance over here and had less coverage to boot.

        It is a good example of what happens when Capitalism goes completely unchecked and you move into the land of the corporate state where individuals have less actual freedoms. The big established players have the markets sewn up between them and in reality the government can do little even if it wanted to. We are heading the same way, regardless of who’s in No.10.

  4. Senex
    27/01/2011 at 8:41 pm

    You can view the speech here:

    http://c-span.org/Events/State-of-the-Union-Address/10737419121/

    In virtual reality

  5. Gareth Howell
    29/01/2011 at 10:45 am

    When the President sent good wishes to the injured Congresswoman Giffords

    I chose to watch the Tucson memorial sermon, to get me up to date with the splendid Obama’s style, rather than the State of the Union address.

    His methods of delivery are immaculate; his research for the occasion extraordinary. All those present, including the husband of Rep Gabby, were deeply moved by the occasion.

    I was too, half a world away.

    They needed counselling and they got it.
    Their private grief, and hopes for recovery
    will continue unabated.

  6. ZAROVE
    31/01/2011 at 4:42 am

    Dave I quiet agree, and once upon a Time Britain was not so much entranced by the Promises of Socialism, or of Social Democracy. As much as some posters may come in and remind us all how terrible the Past was and abotu workers rights and how those laws came to be to protect us ad nauseum, the simple fact is that there was greater Freedom in the Victorian Era in many respects than there is today.

    There really is something to Individualism that works well, and while I also agree with you that Individualism needs t be tempered, I also agree that there needs to be a generous helping added to our own society back home.

    Living in America nowadays myself I notice that there are benefits and faults to the American ideal. One of those Faults is not Individual responsibility.

    Tim, I don’t see how Obama’s election was really a Highpoint, and hope you don’t mean because he’s the First Black President. That is inconsequential to his performance. Quiet frankly he has been Mediocre, but gotten by on his Historic significance as well as memories of the great promises he made that half the Country rejected.

    he’s not really a great leader, and far too left wing for most Americans, as well as not too keen on actually doing the Job.

  7. Twm O'r Nant
    31/01/2011 at 10:19 am

    Tim, I don’t see how Obama’s election was really a Highpoint, and hope you don’t mean because he’s the First Black President.

    I think rather more because he is a first generation and ethnic black African president, not just black, (bless ’em all, and, quite by chance with plenty of Muslims in his family too, Christian evangelist that he is, even so.

    Zarove is really downgrading the facts for the sake of it.

    Yes a highpoint in all our political lives.
    The equality of all mankind.

  8. ZAROVE
    31/01/2011 at 6:14 pm

    Tim, you ought to know better. Simple electing a man of African extraction doesn’t elevate anyone to the status of Equals, and quiet frankly I’m rather tired of hearing about Equality as most who talk abotu it then go abotu making people inferior to other people because their views are no longer part of the Politically Correct way of doing things.

    Who cares that Obama is of African decent? His policies, not his ancestry, are what, in Theory, should matter.

    Quiet Frankly his Policies are lacking. America’s Economy is still sluggish and he has completely mismanaged his Military Obligations.

    I also find myself morally opposed to several of his positions abotu Society.

    Equality? Just because he’s an African? Come off it, that sort of talk is nonsense. This is Politics, and his decisions matter more.

    I’d rather a Good president than one that speaks to some need to show Ethnic Equality. I simply do not care about his race or Ethnic Background, he is a poor President who excells only at speaking.

    Eventhere though, he doens’t write his own speeches, he may as well be an Actor.

  9. ZAROVE
    31/01/2011 at 7:02 pm

    One last. He is not a Christian Evangelist. he is a Politician, not a Minister.

    If you meant Evangelical, he’ snot that either. While Obama is a Christian, he is a Liberal Christian whose beliefs accord more with the United Methodist or Episcopal Church USA than with the Southern Baptists or the National Association of Evangelicals.

    he has little in common with the Conservative Churches, really, in terms of his Outlook, and would be best described as a Liberal Christian whose beliefs are reflected in, and complimentary to, his Political ideals.

    All that said, given America’s Emphasis on personal Achievement an he Theory being about what he does not his Faith or his Family, I would also say that I do not care what Religion he is or what his Family members are, I’m still interested n what he does.

    If we focus only on what he represents and fawn over him as he has African Ancestry and discuss his Muslim Family, we miss the Plot entirely that he’s suppose to be the President of the United States of America, and his Policies, as well as how he manages the various Agencies under his Authority, matters far more.

    I’m not downgrading him for the sake of it, I’m saying he’s not done anything of material good that’s really noteworthy in his Two years as President, and the Policies he supports I oppose.

    Heck, the man could BE a Muslim for all I care, or a Jew, or a Mormon, or an Evangelical Christian, or an Atheist, and I’d not care. I’d not care if he were three feet tall and Purple. None of that is suppose to matter, and to me it doesn’t. What does matter are the Policies, and right now America’s unemployment stands at about 9%, about 20% of workers are Underemployed, prices continue to rise, people can’t find jobs who seek them, and people still suffer.

    Obama is fighting two wars, and has scarcely personally overseen any of the actual decisions regarding it, whilst being too vague to his Soldiers. He is a soaring advocate of making taxpayers pay for Abortion, while mist in America oppose this and a majority are even pro-life. He allowed the Oil Spill to go on for two or three Months in the Gulf, he has expanded the National Debt, and he has continued to expand Government past the point where we need it. His Obamacare legislation was massively unpopular as Americans don’t’ wan tot be forced to buy Insurance. Beyond that he has failed to really address most of the Values held by a Majority of Americans and simply flowed his Progressive stance, tough this may change now that the Midterms have replaced Congress and sent a clear signal. I expect Obama to run to the Centre much like Bill Clinton did.

    His soaring Rhetoric, and ability to deliver it (though as I said someone else writes it) means nothing next to these facts. He really isn’t a Great president and no one can cite any major accomplishments he has actually achieved as his own Initiative, or anything he’s done to warrant such praise. If a White Man from Wisconsin held the same political beliefs as Obama, and did exactly the same things, no one would think I’m downgrading him for the sake of it for saying this, though because he’s African it shouldn’t matter that he’s basically done little of note?

    That is not Equality, that’s feeding into our need to elevate Minorities to make us feel better.

    Equality means treating everyone the same way, and I will treat them thus. Anyone who holds Obama’s Policies will be pretty well seen the same way by me, and anyone with his lacklustre performance record will be spoken of the same way.

    Muslim Family and African Ancestry don’t change these things.

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