Feels like it’s still the best of times and the worst of times
Mary Lyon, On The Left -- World News Trust
Feb. 25, 2009 -- Feels like it’s still the best of times and the worst of times. If the
night of President Obama’s first major speech to a joint session of
Congress proved anything, it confirmed that America chose the better of
two directions last November. Nothing could underscore that more
glaringly than the comparison of Obama’s remarks to those that
followed, by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, so reminiscent of a
miserable period that thankfully just ended.
Speeches are symbolic. The words pack a punch, certainly, but the ideas
behind them and the style in which they’re delivered count hugely as
well. The people presenting them make a difference, too. You need all
three elements working in harmony -- stirring language articulating
transcendent ideas, offered by speakers who inspire confidence and
optimism. So the night of this year’s twist on a State of the Union
speech was a stark study in contrasts.
At first, all I could think of once President Obama concluded his
remarks was that his first speech to Congress was directed at the loyal
opposition: “Beat THAT.” Obama’s was a “ballpark” speech. As in “hit
one out of the…” It was straightforward, uplifting, and offered a
sense of relief -- that a cooler head and steadier hands are at the
helm. My fellow Americans, we chose well -- for a change.
And what a change indeed. We’re in the worst fix ever, at least as far
as I can think back, as a woman of five decades. The previous
most-memorable lines from such a prominent public address involved a
fallacious laundry list of so-called WMDs that were surely being
amassed at that very moment to obliterate us, and how we should all be
sorely afraid -- and then, vindictive as hell. Obama said it during the
campaign trail and he might as well have repeated it on this occasion --
“not this time.”
How refreshing is this after eight years of semi-coherence, arrogance,
and an undercurrent of broadly embroidered manipulation and mendacity?
This speech had a wealth of memorable lines. Exhorting America’s youth
not to drop out of school because “it’s not just quitting on yourself,
it’s quitting on your country.” An urgent insistence that health care
reform “cannot wait, must not wait, and will not wait another year.”
There was Obama’s candid admission that it’s hard to swallow the idea
of helping the banks right now -- “I get it.” Best of all was what our
battered, humiliated, divided, disgraced nation needed most to hear:
“we will rebuild, we will recover.” These are statements we can cling
to, like so many available lifeboats as the ship is sinking. I’ve heard
many a speech with stirring lines before, but somehow I feel better
after hearing these. Somehow, from Obama, I’m inclined to believe it.
Manna in the desert after eight years of desolation. This was a
President who leveled with us, not in an imposing or distant or smug
way from some lofty perch that would never allow him to understand how
it is for those of us positioned far below. Eight years ago, someone
crowed that the adults were back in charge. Eight years later, at last,
the grown-ups finally got here and sent the miscreant juveniles back to
their rooms. Better late than never. Amazingly, Obama remained
magnanimous and inclusive to the not-so-loyal opposition, even joking
with them about reaching a consensus in the midst of one unanimous
applause line, while gently needling them about the mess that he
inherited (from them). Hey, GOP, you’re getting off easy. Be grateful
that I’M not president.
I’m guessing the Obama speech, uplifting, encouraging, reassuring, and
thoughtful, also served to make America grateful that Bobby Jindal is
not president, either. Jindal, offering the Republican response, did
not “beat THAT.” Not even close. His speech illustrated glaringly how
impoverished the whole conservative mindset is, in these trying times
that call for much, much more. I couldn’t help feeling that what Jindal
was mainly after was to position himself as the Republican frontrunner
for 2012. All that other stuff seemed beside the point.
Astoundingly, here’s a guy who dared to point to the way Katrina was
handled by the federal government as the reason why we should continue
to downgrade government (well, of course, when you’re dead set on
assembling a “government” that’s underfunded, staffed by boobs, and
therefore guaranteed to fail)? This was the guy who wanted to make sure
you knew that while Obama had one parent born in another land, he had
two. This was the guy already anxious to reimpose the same tired
tax-cuts-are-our-salvation and we-don’t-need-no-stinking-regulations bunk that has already failed so miserably.
Times are nasty. Reality is harsh. People are hurting. Our country has
been driven into a ditch by the weasels Governor Jindal evidently
dreams of emulating. I feel a lot better knowing that his policy
preferences are in the minority, now seated in ever-shrinking, sulking
groups of Sore Losermen busily conspiring to impede any views but their
own. I feel relieved knowing it’s not the Republican mindset that’s
still got its cold, greedy, myopic death-grip around our throats. I
feel encouraged after watching the audience reactions -- from Obama
voters and McCain supporters alike -- that clearly resonated with the
Obama assertions far more powerfully throughout his speech.
For Jindal on the other hand, not so much. He didn’t close the deal.
Because he can’t. For his side, as most of us recognize by now, there
is no deal. The lights are still on but the home’s been foreclosed. And
America knows it. Jindal’s rhetoric did not soar -- no help symbolically
to lift us up above our troubles. His smile and demeanor seemed
contrived, artificial, polished only for an empty sales pitch and
nothing deeper. Even more shallow and wooden were the ideas he pushed,
just as knee-jerk as in the speeches every year following the September
11th attacks, and by Jove he even hauled out the old reliable GOP
fall-back reference of 9/11 itself. What’s a Republican speech without
a 9/11 nudge, after all? Jindal was playing the hits alright -- from the
same stale kind of playlist as that radio station you once liked
listening to as a kid, that you’ve long since outgrown.
The differences couldn’t have been more clear on this particular night.
We chose well last November. The tale of these two speeches, from these
two different sides and two different worldviews spoke for themselves.
If the response we saw from Jindal represents the kind of leadership
we’ll get from the Republicans in the years ahead, then I feel even
more confident for our country’s future as we work our way back to
safety and sanity together. Because it means they and their unworkable
ideas will be left sulking on the sidelines for years to come.
Mary Lyon
is a veteran broadcaster and five-time Golden Mike Award winner, who
has anchored, reported, and written for the Associated Press Radio
Network, NBC Radio "The Source," and many Los Angeles-area stations
including KRTH-FM/AM, KLOS-FM, KFWB-AM, and KTLA-TV, and occasional
media analyst for ABC Radio News. She began her career as a liberal
activist with the Student Coalition for Humphrey/Muskie in 1968, and
helped spearhead a regional campaign, The Power 18," to win the right
to vote for 18-year-olds. She remains an advocate for liberal causes,
responsibility and accountability in media, environmental education and
support of the arts for children, and green living. In addition to
World News Trust, Mary writes for Huffington Post, OpEdNews, Democrats.us, WeDemocrats.org's "We! The People" webzine. Mary is also a parenting
expert, having written and llustrated the book "The Frazzled Working
Woman's Practical Guide to Motherhood.