Not So Fast, Mr. President - A Comment on the State of the Union Address

Since President Harry S. Truman’s first televised State of the Union Address, the opposing party’s refusal to clap for a President’s comment or initiative magnifies and cements party polarities.  However, during Wednesday’s State of the Union Address, the sheer disdain by the Republican Party for the President and his party was more than apparent.

Beyond that, I bring up only two observations on the speech.  First of all, the speech was clearly the product of people in love with government and government solutions.  There was no statement to eliminate a single failed government program.  Is every government program a success?  Every solution involved more spending, with a promise that fiscal responsibility will arrive in 2011.  This contradicts the Libertarian approach.

Included below, I have compiled a breakdown of key words spoken by Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.  Libertarians are interested in freedom of choice.  Notice the difference in the number of times the words “freedom”, “liberty”, and “choice” are mentioned by the two presidents – 30 for W. Bush, and 4 for Obama.  It is interesting that the current administration mentioned the “debt” and the “deficit” much more often than former.  The Republican President used the word “democracy” more often, a word we Libertarians know is not included in the Constitution even one time.  However, the Democrat used the word “create” far more often.

 I’ll end on a pleasant note.  How would the State of the Union Address sound from a Libertarian president?

In liberty,

Chuck Donovan

The Cato Institute Fact Checks the State of the Union Address

I agree with the opinions expressed by the Cato Institute in this video. - CHUCK