As expected, last night’s big address sounded more like a campaign stump speech than an honest assessment of the state of our union. Both President Obama and Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who delivered the Republican rebuttal, offered nothing more than platitudes and sound bites that would appease their respective bases. On radio this morning, Glenn decided to offer his own evaluation - but instead rattling off hyperbolic rhetoric, Glenn decided to focus on the 'real' state of the union.
So what is the state of our union? Not according to the President, his party, or the Republicans. What is the state of our union? Not those who lied, passed blame to everyone else, but just according to a man – a man like any other man; a man who has no power; a man who is a husband, a father, a brother, a son, a neighbor, a citizen – the state of the union from that perspective.
From my perspective – as somebody who is just looking at it, trying to do his best, trying to figure out what is happening in the world, what is happening to our country, just sharing the truth as I understand it – the state of the union is sorry.
If you happen to be a lying politician with an agenda for power, the state of the union's never been better. Or if you're one of the elite, if you're one of the well-connected, the cronies pulling the strings of the lying politicians so you too can gain even more power, then the state of your union is fabulous. If you fit in one of those two categories, the state of the union is exactly where you want it to be…
Based on the reaction from the press to that nightmarish address from Caesar, you know that we have a complicit media. The politicians know, the crony capitalists know they've got a complicit media, and they're at our beck and call. The media will spring into action for you if anyone – even if they are normally on your side, even if they are a friend – if they step out of line, if they say even one thing remotely contradictory, that complicit media will attack like a pack of rabid wolves…
We've witnessed that now in action. Look at what they've just done to venture capitalist Tom Perkins. A guy from San Francisco. A man who voted for Jerry Brown. It doesn't get any more extreme left than Jerry Brown. He considers Jerry Brown a friend. He voted for him for the governor of California. He said he'll vote for him again. He's a man who's close to Al Gore, considers him a friend. I don't know Tom Perkins at all, but just based on those two pieces of information, he's obviously a liberal. And I don't think Tom and I are going to be having dinner anytime soon. But actually I would like to shake that man's hand because Tom dared to step out of line, just for a minute. Just to warn about the consequences of demonizing people who have become successful, and he experienced the wrath of hellfire raining down on him. The media tore into him… His own company, one he helped create, tore into him.
A few months ago a friend and a supporter of this president, somebody who campaigned, somebody who helped raise funds for him to get reelected, Paula Deen, was nearly exiled from our civilization, was literally put down on the ground, put to her knees. I'm surprised somebody didn't step on her throat and actually put a brand on her forehead ‘Racist’ because she admitted using a word in jest years ago. And no one who participated in stoking up the flames of her branding iron has ever mentioned that, ‘Oh, by the way, has anybody noticed the fact that the president of the United States is black and she supported, she helped raise money, she helped elect him? He's black? How is she a racist?’
What kind of game is going on? Don't you see the insanity? It's madness! The state of the union is insanity! It makes no sense. The state of the union is dark and dismal, and it needs to reconnect with reality. The state of our union is upside down.
If you're over 30, you might remember a song, and I am positive – because I've done this with Muse before – that this group is going to hate me for even ever listening to them… But it is appropriate now. If you just change a couple of words, it is so appropriate. The band was called Supertramp. The song was “The Logical Song.” Let me just quote the lyrics:
When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
a miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily,
joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible,
logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
clinical, intellectual, cynical.
There are times when all the world's asleep,
the questions run too deep
for such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
but please tell me who I am.
Now watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radical,
liberal, fanatical, criminal.
Won't you sign up your name, we'd like to feel you're
acceptable, respecable, presentable, a vegtable!
At night, when all the world's asleep,
the questions run so deep
for such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
but please tell me who I am.
Now, that's what Supertramp thought then… but I think you change that one word and it applies today. The Glenn Beck version would be:
Watch what you say or we'll be calling you a radical, conservative, fanatical, criminal.
I know it sounds absurd, but please, dear listener, please, dear friend, who has been with me on this journey for how many years now. Some of you have been with me since I was in Connecticut. Some remember listening to me when I was in Phoenix, and I was an awful morning deejay. Could you please tell me who I am? Can you please tell me who we are? Are we the people who are going to let the media force us to cower in a corner someplace? Are we a people that are going to let the president and his elitist friends, his allies, his union thugs – and if it's not them, it will be the Republicans and their business thugs – are we going to let them reshape the image of America in their image? Are we the people who are going to allow them to send our children off to be taught how to be sensible, logical, responsible, practical, and accept that the debate is over, that the science is settled – sit down, shut up?
I'm not the president of the United States. I am still the guy I was in 1999 when I couldn't afford my rent. I am a guy who, somehow or another, found that ladder that doesn't exist and crawled beyond who I always was taught I am. And there are those who are still trying to force me down and tell me that I'm not educated enough. I didn't get their certificates. I didn't pass through their gates. I didn't do it their way and so I'm nothing. I'm nothing more than a hoax. I don't really exist. I'm an aberration. I'm a radical. But I refuse to be a vegetable. I know it sounds absurd, but please tell me who we are.
Front page image courtesy of the AP
