The Rude Pundit: The State of the Union Is Not Going to Level With You

[meegbear]

There was one moment of President Barack Obama's 2011 State of the Union address that just stuck in the Rude Pundit's craw. Since Ronald Reagan, the annual address to Congress has included a parade of soldiers and citizens elevated for a moment from average adults to avatars of American awesomeness. The platitudinous nature of this rhetorical trick turns the State of the Union into another special episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

In the midst of discussing education, about halfway through, Obama talked about the good of community colleges, and specifically Forsyth Tech in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The President said, "One mother of two, a woman named Kathy Proctor, had worked in the furniture industry since she was 18 years old. And she told me she’s earning her degree in biotechnology now, at 55 years old, not just because the furniture jobs are gone, but because she wants to inspire her children to pursue their dreams, too. As Kathy said, 'I hope it tells them to never give up.'" The TV cameras showed a gentle-looking woman with glasses who was thrilled to be there.

Goddamnit, the Rude Pundit thought. What a fucking lie. This ain't "and they all lived happily ever after" kind of shit. Proctor's gonna get out of Forsyth Tech with an associate's degree in biotech and, more likely than not, two years of college debt. Even the school's own website says that the starting salary for someone with that degree in the field is $25,000-31,000 a year, and that's in an area of the country where there's an assload of biotech firms to work for. And that's if she finds a job. Unemployment in the region hovers around the 10% mark (9.3% in Winston-Salem). The city of Winston-Salem, by the way, faces a $26 million budget gap over the next five years. The state of North Carolina faces a $3.7 billion budget gap for the next fiscal year, and education is on the chopping block.

In other words, after losing her job and probably her health insurance, after doing the right thing and getting more education and retraining, Proctor is still a 55 year-old woman facing the worst job market in decades. If she finds a job, it'll pay shit wages and probably lack health coverage. Really, President Obama, how the fuck is this a happy-smiley-face story to make us feel good about whatever the fuck is happening with the economy?

Ultimately, that was what was so aggravating about the State of the Union speech. Other than an occasional nod to some abstract notion that "none of this will be easy. All of it will take time," President Obama gave us no sense that it would be anything but easy. He made another pep talk that patently refused to hurt anyone's feelings, that stated beliefs but left them open for compromise, that made it seem less like a "Sputnik moment," as he called it, and more like a flat-tire moment.

All the aspirational shit was fine, some of it was even encouragingly good, but why not be honest about the reasons for it? Hiring more teachers is cool 'cause teachers need respect? How about because most of the industrialized world kicked our asses in recent tests? High-speed rail is groovy because that means our nuts won't be touched by the TSA? How about it's necessary because the air transportation system is overwhelmed to the breaking point? Infrastructure spending is good because we gotta keep up with South Korea? How about because water mains break every two minutes and bridges are on the verge of collapse? Freezing spending? How about spending $500 billion, to start, on all the shit we need and employing hundreds of thousands of people? 'Cause you know how we responded to the Sputnik moment? By the government investing billions of dollars in research and building, not by cutting the deficit. "Win the future"? How about not fucking up the present even worse?

Goddamnit, Americans are stubborn assholes. Don't treat us with kid gloves. Don't tell us it's all gonna be hunky-dory. Take us to the abyss. Force us to look in the deep, dark hole. Grab our ankles and dangle us over it, get us to smell the sulfuric fumes, make us confront the possible future. Then yank us back and tell us how to fill it in and seal it.

At the end of the day, it's a State of the Union speech. People liked it, maybe because his rhetoric was Tea Party folksy. Mostly, Obama told companies that the government will keep giving them money but not really do much regulating. He blamed no one for anything, except "lobbyists" for, one supposes, being lobbyists. He asked us to do virtually nothing, again, but keep on trying, like Kathy Proctor, because, really, as this speech made sure to reaffirm, there is no alternative.

(Note: if you want to read the Rude Pundit's whiskey-fueled comments from last night, head over to his Twitter thing.)

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

[madrchsod]

1. that`s why the rude pundit is one of the best commentators in america

he does`t put up with bullshit and obama shoveled a semi full last night.

55yrs old and looking for a job...well kathy i wish you good luck. to bad everyone could get a recommendation from the president of the usa.

[Lucky 13]

3. Amen. nt

[Raster]

7. I'll second your Amen and through in a hallelujah!

Love The Rude:kick:

[obxhead]

71. I would love to know what her debt load (if any)

will be and how long it will take her to pay off with a 25K-31K a year job if she gets one.

[Lucky 13]

2. That argument is one that Bush made...

What does someone who is in their 50s do when they lose their job? Why begin a new career starting with more education of course!

That is such absolute fucking horseshit. If you get laid off at 50 and have kids to support, going back to community college is not in the realm of possibilities. In that moment of financial destruction, are people seriously suggesting they take on MORE debt to get more education to make them more attractive to a job market that is not hiring? And even if they were hiring, who do you think they will choose? A 21 year old or a 50 year old with the same training? What are people supposed to do in that 2 years they don't have income? You can't feed children on the promise of food 2 years from now. How do you get by DAY TO DAY?

It's fucking ridiculous and offensive and something that someone who is so vastly out of touch with what it means to be a struggling American would say.

He doesn't fucking get it. He's continuing to throw money at corporations that are hoarding it or outsourcing instead of creating jobs. Giving it to them while 10% of our population is without work. Giving it to them when thousands of children are going hungry. It's bullshit.

[jtown1123]

16. Excellent points all around. This is a good case for early retirement.

[SammyWinstonJack]

22. "He doesn't fucking get it." He gets it alright. CorpoRATe profits vs all else.

That's his vision of/for the future.

[Kurovski]

33. Maybe Kathy will move to India?

[WinkyDink]

58. Obama simply wanted to "SQUEEE!" over the word "biotechnology". Her past is as NOTHING compared to

her GLORIOUS job future!

BARF.

[russspeakeasy]

73. Lucky 13 nailed it..."He doesn't fucking get it".

I had such hope for this guy.

[Still a Democrat]

4. Looks like someone stayed up all night weaving some negativity n/t

[Lucky 13]

11. How about some PRAGMATISM?

It's not PRAGMATIC for a 50 year old to go back to school when laid off for all the reasons I stated above in a previous post.

It's pretty damn condescending and out of touch if you ask me

[WinkyDink]

60. TRP always speaks true. Nobody is a sacred cow to him. Sorry it bugs you.

[jaxx]

5. I think Rude wants the President to talk like he does.

:rofl:

[nxylas]

65. That'd be fun

Never happen in a million years, though. Could the FCC fine the President for using Rude language on air?

[Lindsay]

6. I'd love to see somebody follow up

with Kathy Proctor for the SOTU in a year or two and see how well things have worked out for her - or not.

But that would be looking behind, not ahead, I suppose.

[emulatorloo]

8. So Kathy Proctor should just give up? Didn't they say the school had a 97% placement rate?

I may be off on the percentage by a couple points or two.

[Lucky 13]

13. at a salary of $20-$30k

Is this the new standard we should all get used to?

And also, this job market is TIGHT. For the few jobs that we're all fighting over, who do you think will get hired: A 21 year old just out of school or a 50 year old just out of school. Odd are not good for her. Retraining is not the solution for everyone, especially those late in their careers. How about attempting to get a few of those outsourced jobs back? Get our industry and manufacturing industries going again? Instead we throw money at companies who are outsourcing in the hopes they will create more jobs... but they don't. They either hoard the money or create new jobs in India.

[Tunkamerica]

49. I'm just in there at 31.

I hope someday for my wages to be unfrozen and to make more than 30000 a yr.

[jtown1123]

17. Those schools tend to really fudge those placement numbers.

Sounds like one of those bs for profit institutions whose degrees aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Thesetypes of institutions are a huge problem.

[emulatorloo]

18. You're grasping at straws n/t

[Lucky 13]

23. What about my post above? Is that grasping at straws too?

Do you know the market for those types of jobs right now? Super fucking tight. That 97% placement rate is bullshit.

[JoeyT]

46. They're really not.

The way they manage to fudge their numbers is by claiming every employed student is a placement. It doesn't matter how you got the job or what the job is. If you just finished a degree in electrical engineering and you're a 10 hour a day for minimum wage greeter at Wal-Mart, you're a successfully placed student. If you get fired from Wal-Mart a week after they hired you, you're still a successfully placed student, even if you spend the next decade unemployed.

Seriously, how do people think all these heavily advertised fake trade schools that everyone laughs at can claim 95% placement when the unemployment rate is two to four times their non-placed students? (Depending on who you ask.) People certainly aren't hiring them for their "degree".

[Tunkamerica]

50. FTCC is a real community college.

look it up before you post bs.

[WinkyDink]

61. Of course not. But perhaps the PRESIDENT could be concerned about WHY.

[Le Taz Hot]

54. She got an endorsement from the Prez.

she'll get employment and she'll stay employed. The Party Bosses will make sure of that (good for Obama's PR, don't 'cha know). The problem is with the millions of other over-50's who don't have a glowing recommendation from the Prez.

[somone]

9. It was a bunch of risk-averse, well calibrated triangulated bullshit

following the path of least resistance as usual.

[asjr]

10. The Power of Negative Thinking.

[Kurovski]

34. It's the power of not thinking at all that might concern you.

[jtown1123]

12. Wonderful, bravo, keep them coming.

[sufrommich]

14. Kathy Proctor should have just spent her time bitching on the

internet, that would show them.

[ladjf]

28. The truth is, imo, Kathy Proctor didn't have any good choices in

her quest for prosperity. Just not enough personal resources.

[WinkyDink]

63. Not really the point.

[South End Liberal]

15. It read more like a campaign speech than SOTU speech

The country is not in a warm and fuzzy place right now, so why all of the sugar coating?

The state of the union speech is supposed to be about the condition of our country, and I would have like to hear about all of the following:

Why is our country still spending billions each month on 2 unnecessary wars we cannot possibly win? War spending is a huge contributor to our national debt, yet neither side of the aisle wants to put it "on the budget." You cannot address the massive debt our country faces if you ignore military spending for these wars.

Why did the president ignore the 800 pound foreclosure gorilla in the room? States such as mine here in Florida are having our economies and housing markets destroyed by the scams pulled by banks gone wild, who made questionable loans to people who could not afford the mortgages, who bundled those loans up via MERS into investment packages they misrepresented and sold, who are now foreclosing on those homes using questional and sometimes faked documents. Where is the call for investigations, Mr. President? Why aren't banks being held accountable? The law firms participating in these foreclosures by "creating" documents for the banks' foreclosures when they are missing or never existed?

WHERE IS THE CALL FOR TIGHTER REGULATION OF THESE BANKS SO THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN?

A long list of states are struggling with their debt loads, cutting programs for the poor & elderly and laying off cops & firemen. What about that, Mr. President? Want to comment on the debt burden the taxpayers are facing at a state and local level? No?

By the way, why was the Patriot Act not mentioned? Various parts are up for renewal... how can our union be in a warm and fuzzy place if our government is spying on us via Patriot Act provisions? Why didn't I hear support for net neutrality? (Comcast got your tongue?)

I would rather have heard a frank, honest talk about the real problems we as a nation are facing instead of what we got.

[murray hill farm]

21. Welcome to DU

Great post!!!

[leftstreet]

36. +1

Nicely stated

:thumbsup:

Welcome to DU!

[Hell Hath No Fury]

19. The question not asked:

Why are all the furniture jobs gone?? This woman worked for most of her life in a good, well-paying job that has now disappeared. Why? Did the business close? Did it move out of the country taking good jobs with it?

I wish Kathy Proctor nothing but the best, and I hope her future is bright and well-paying.

But a woman of 55 trying to find a job in this economy does not leave me hopeful. :(

[Lucky 13]

24. Move along... nothing to see here...

It absolutely ignores the huge elephant in the room. Where did those jobs go? It's not like furniture is a dying industry. It's not like furniture is being replace by some ultra high tech alternative.

So, Mr. President, WHERE DID THOSE JOBS GO AND WHY???????

[Hell Hath No Fury]

26. "It absolutely ignores the huge elephant in the room. "

Any bigger and that elephant won't even FIT in the room!

[gratuitous]

29. Oh, nobody buys furniture anymore; didn't you know?

We all go to IKEA.

But I'm sure the job market for newly-minted 55-year-old (and in two years, 57-year-old) associate degree holders is hot, Hot, HOT!

[Ignis]

37. ^^^ This.

It's not enough to paint a rosy picture of the future. We'll never learn unless we turn the lens to explore how the fuck we got into this mess in the first place.

Ah, who am I kidding? It's roulette capitalism for as far out as the eye can see.

[JVS]

53. Because we all buy shitty furniture from Ikea that's made in Southeast Asian sweatshops.

[Gregorian]

20. I totally agree. No fire Obama. I said it in the beginning, and still say it.

Dean liked the speech. I thought it was tailored to smooth out the rough edges. To lull. And I didn't believe what I heard.

I also think Obama is the same guy I voted for. The intelligent man with great vision. But he is hogtied and sandbagged by opponents. I think it's that simple. I can't fault Obama, except for his lack of fire. That's why I wanted Kucinich. But nobody wants to hear it. And everyone thinks he couldn't survive the hostile environment. So this is what we ended up with. I wanted fight and fire. After all, that's what republicans have.

[defendandprotect]

31. You mean Obama didn't willing pick DLC/Rahm..or the tons of Wall Streeters?

Or choose to push charter schools and destroy public education?

Or make back room deals with Big Pharma and the private Health Care Industry?

Or give billions from the stimulus to corporate contracts?

Obama must be sleepwalking?

[Gregorian]

32. Yeah, I guess it's hard to defend.

It's just that I have a pretty good bs detector, and Obama has never come close to setting it off.

I just don't know. Weak, that's how it feels. I want fire. I was never enthusiastic about him.

[defendandprotect]

39. If that's true ....

then I think you need your BS detector set waaaay higher --

in fact, I think we all do because very few Americans have reacted

with sufficient urgency and power to counteract this rise of the right

through political violence over more than 50 years -- and this

capitalistic crime wave!

[Gregorian]

41. That's right.

I expected a revolution when the war on drugs began. Boy was I disappointed.

My bs detector is set at Bush/Palin/Bachmann. That is way too low. Outrage, and being American seem to be two separate planes of reality. When one looks at what benefits Europeans get for their tax dollars, aside from security cams in London, there should be people in the streets over here, protesting. Warm frogs, and getting warmer.

I think you're absolutely correct.

[tomp]

55. time for a re-calibration of your meter. nt

[HughBeaumont]

25. K & R.

I pretty much have an entire journal filled with agreement to this. It appears the Conservative in Chief has bought into the "bootstraps" rhetoric to go with his belief in "Trickle On". Or, he pretty much always believed it and didn't let us in on it.

[ladjf]

27. Reagan was a "feel good" President who inspired Americans

while the Feds were writing bad checks. The deficit tripled during Raygun's watch. What could one expect from a President who seriously consulted with a fortune teller prior to a major meeting with the Russian Premier?

[defendandprotect]

30. +1000% --

[PassingFair]

35. The whole speech reminded me of Bush's "uniquely American" moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIjo-dWE1Jg

[Urban Prairie]

38. Excuse me for being rude to the rude pundit

But if someone is THAT interested and politically curious enough to sit and watch President Obama give his SOTU speech last night, that MUST mean that they have at least a passing interest in politics and current events.

Why does President Obama need to make a speech that is nearly all doom and gloom? Should he commit the equivalent of political suicide just to make people like the rude pundit happy? At least he isn't prefabricating and laying the groundwork for treasonous and truly criminal lies that affected people's lives and health on a GLOBAL SCALE prior to making a SOTU speech like the previous Chimp administration had.

There are NO excuses, IMO, outside of being unable to afford or lacking sufficient time to browse the internet, for being ignorant of the problems and politically devisive issues we Americans face in the 21st century, not with all of the information available within a few clicks of a mouse and some keystrokes.

NONE.

[sendero]

64. All the happy talk..

... is just fine. It is, at some level, his JOB.

However, his JOB is also doing something about it, and on that score he is batting 100/1000.

[Disintermedia8]

40. That's some deep analysis. My simple analysis is this

the word foreclosure was never mentioned. Personally, I do not benefit from any further analysis, i.e. spin.

[nashville_brook]

42. k and r -- loved The Rude One's twitter feed last nite!

[chatnoir]

47. Esp loved the Bachmann ones...

"Watching Bachmann speak is like watching Jerry Lewis play Hannibal Lecter."

"Why is Bachmann talking to the person sitting next to me? Wait, no one's sitting next to me. So very scared."

:7

[Poboy]

43. Recommend.

[whatchamacallit]

44. RP has it right. (nt) K&R

[DeSwiss]

45. "....but why not be honest about the reasons for it?"

- Meegbear! Are you effing kidding!?!?!? We can't handle that much TRUTH!

So. That. Will. Never. Happen.

K&R

Let somebody else fix it while I grab a salad

Sad lot that we are as a species, not everyone is a moral pig. Millions of individuals, some governments even, are unnerved by what is happening. In America the best among us are outraged, and protest that officialdom has failed us. Unfortunately, we are officialdom, indirectly as that may be. Because we are mankind and mankind is all inclusive, organically and forever --­ forever having turned out to be rather shorter than we thought. If officialdom has failed us, it is because we have failed ourselves, and in many respects, our official governments provide us with a collective excuse not to act personally.

Mainly though, aware Americans are watching and waiting for someone else to make an important move. Guts are nonexistent in Americans these days, programmed out of us during the posh captivity of the "cheap oil fiesta" that drove our grotesque and brief civilization. Still, if ever there were a time to show some guts, it's now. Not by protesting ­ -- which has become a security state supervised liberal pussy sport -- but by giving up the material life, the consumer life. Damned near all of it. Including all those leftie and alternative books from Amazon -- sitting on our asses reading and drinking green tea just because we can afford to is just another type of inaction and consumerism. It's the only real act of protest possible by the prisoners of our consumption driven monolith. True, you'll be just one iPodless and carless little guy throwing a single stone at the United States of Jabba the Hutt.

But assuming you're still capable of any kind of life after the stellazine mind conditioning we've all been administered for past 40 years, I've got folding cash that says you will own your life in a way that seemed previously impossible. Hanging onto or chasing the bling is over with anyway, as dead as the economy. The Olive Garden and Circuit City are still open, true, but only because the hair and nails still grow on Jabba's corpse. Would somebody please quit pretending he's alive and yank the feeding tube?

Scoffers abound, those lurching, undead cud chewers whose best lick is: "Aw, if things were really that bad somebody would be doing something about it." Asked who that somebody might be, they usually come up with "the government." Or science or the stupidest of all, the Free Market Solution. In other words, they haven't the slightest fucking notion other than that there is some great governmental or commercial force that governs their destiny ­ -- one so vast that, like god, they don't have to understand it, just swear by it and trust it, even if they don't know exactly what the hell it is. What it is of course is good old fashioned pillage. But Even Alaric the Goth limited pillage to three days ­ with an extra day of rape thrown in if it had been a particularly good siege.

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2008/02/nine-billion-li.html">~Joe Bageant, Nine Billion Little Feet

[Lorien]

48. That "keep trying" aspirational bullshit reminds me of Bush praising a woman

who was struggling with three shitty part time jobs as being part of what's "great" about America. More "Austerity for thee but not for me"happy horseshit; we're supposed to feel "noble" for struggling, and that should be enough.

[mmonk]

62. "Uniquely American", isn't it?

[Enthusiast]

51. KICKED and RECOMMENDED

And, President Obama, if we are in such horrible fucking shape stop embracing the policies that got us there. Start by leaving Afghanistan tomorrow.

[Hubert Flottz]

52. How in the fuck can one afford the gasoline to get to college?

The RP for Prez!

[mmonk]

56. Now that's an assessment that was more in tune with my thoughts.

[WinkyDink]

57. "not just because the furniture jobs are gone..." It is Obama's GLIBNESS, his OFF-HANDEDNESS, in

speaking these tragic words, what they actually MEAN for an industry, for workers, for the state---FOR THAT WOMAN SITTING BEFORE HIM---that makes me all too aware of his lack of empathy, his essential coldness, his techno-geekiness, if you will (I think he idolizes Gates and Jobs).

As much as Obama declares, "I get it"? I seriously doubt it.

And "Our Sputnik Moment"?? WTH conjured up THIS one? Why not "Our Trans-Continental Railroad Moment"? Or "Our Erie Canal Moment"?

How's THIS one, Mr. President: "Our Still-in-Afghanistan-and-Making-the-Wealthy-Wealthier-While-People-Like-This-Woman-Lose-Their-Jobs-and-I-Fete-Hu Moment"?

[florida08]

59. yes it was folksy with no content

Never mentioned the level of poverty in this country or the huge wealth inequality. Reminded me of McCain saying those jobs aren't coming back so head over to your community college. Win the future by going further into debt. The one thing I did like was calling for end of subsidizing oil companies..yeah that will happen.

[russspeakeasy]

74. I expected him to wink when he said that.

[nxylas]

66. Here's where I part company with the Rude one

Goddamnit, Americans are stubborn assholes. Don't treat us with kid gloves. Don't tell us it's all gonna be hunky-dory. Take us to the abyss. Force us to look in the deep, dark hole. Grab our ankles and dangle us over it, get us to smell the sulfuric fumes, make us confront the possible future. Then yank us back and tell us how to fill it in and seal it.

I think heads would explode if any President, particularly one like Obama who has armies of pundits combing his every speech looking for things to be outraged about, were to actually tell the truth in a SOTU address. Particularly if he were to even hint that America might not be the best country in the history of the world and top of every league table. Suggest that other countries might do some things better? Then you must be an America-hating terrorist sympathiser.

[xchrom]

67. it's a crying shame that america has lost so much of it's good furniture making

jobs. those were good jobs.

even baker furniture makes some it's stuff offshore now -- and that is america's premier funiture maker along with henredon -- which is also producing off shore.

we were a nation known for making good furniture once upon a time. it was part of our culture --

[Overseas]

68. K&R ! //nt

[Javaman]

69. I love the rude. We now live in an illusion. nt

[theFrankFactor]

70. Obama, if only he were a Liberal. Oh well, I see somehow "Democrats" love him.

He makes me puke.

[jonnyblitz]

72. he makes me wanna hurl as well. nt