SOTU: a Late Review
Although many found the State of the Union address by our President uplifting and timely, I was less impressed with the content of the speech. I heard one talking head on MSNBC note that the President eloquently said nothing of substance. So, unimpressed with content I’ve not blogged about the SOTU. I do want to encourage the Congress to always sit in ‘mixed’ company as it helped the rest of us get through the speech with fewer standing ovations that make these things go on forever. I don’t think that was a show of unity or civility. It was a stunt that provided a good impact, but they are back to their usual selves: power over problem solving. I digress.
Snow days here in northeast Oklahoma have given me time to catch up on my RSS news feed and reading. I saw this from Religion Dispatches this morning while reviewing what I’ve missed these past two weeks. It is an interesting review of the SOTU.
State of the Union Stuck in that Olde-Time Semi-Niebuhrianism
The State of the Union is (Not) Sinful
by Ira Chernus | Religion Dispatches | January 26 2011As commentators quickly dubbed the president’s optimistic, future-oriented SOTU rhetoric “Reaganesque,” I thought of Gary Wills’ clever term for The Gipper’s version of American exceptionalism: “original sinlessness.” Obama seemed to be offering his own version: Other nations are racked by inescapable conflict, trapped in the endless echoes of age-old struggles; we are blessed by a unique ability—indeed destiny—to be free of conflict, to be free of the past, to “believe in the same dream that says this is a country where anything’s possible.”
Anything? Really? You can almost hear the pantheon of European Christian theologians groaning from their graves in disbelief.