Charles P. Pierce on the context around President Obama's last State of the Union address to Congress:
... In 2012, the Supreme Court narrowly upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act—the healthcare reform law that had emerged from the congressional debate that had begun with [South Carolina Republican] Joe Wilson's ["You lie!"] outburst—but it did so in such a way that states could opt out of the Medicaid expansion that was central to the law's outreach to poor Americans. States with Republican governors promptly did that, and then blamed the law and the president for what resulted. In 2013, the Supreme Court essentially gutted the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Republican state legislatures thereupon threw up as many barriers to minority participation as they could think of. And did I mention that Joe Wilson got re-elected in 2014 with 62 percent of the vote? Yeah, I thought I did.
This is not even to mention the deep—and publicly expressed—commitment by the Republican congressional caucuses to stymie the president's agenda no matter what the cost to the country and its people: the sixty-odd attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act; the unprecedentedly promiscuous use of legislative choke-points like the filibuster and the anonymous hold; and the essential disrespect for the office of the president and the person elected to it twice, which was first given voice by Joe Wilson.
Despite all of that, here in 2016, the Affordable Care Act is still law, as is marriage equality, and so is the right to be gay and a soldier. Wall Street is still regulated better than it was in 2008. The president has moved the country further toward a policy to combat the climate crisis than anyone thought he could. He has moved boldly—and alone—on the issue of this country's insane attachment to its firearms. And he has redefined for all time the concept of a lame-duck president as a president with no more fcks to give. As Michael Grunwald shrewdly points out, if you listen to the Republicans on the campaign trail, they mostly complain about all the stuff that the president has managed to accomplish. [snip]
He has been as progressive a president as our stunted, money-drunk politics allows, and that's been enough. Has he disappointed me? Yes, which gives him something in common with every president of my lifetime. But, as far as I'm concerned, if the president were to stand up in the House chamber tonight and, in the course of delivering his final State of the Union, if he were to tell the Congress that the State of our Union is better than it was when he took office despite all the efforts of the congressional majority to make it worse, and if he were to explain to them that, no, he has no fcks to give about any of their sorry asses and he's going to go right back down Pennsylvania Avenue and go back to work, I would not blame him a bit. If he were to drop the mic behind the podium, that would be cool, too.In a more perfect world, we would like to see the President finish his remarks, turn around and, on behalf of the American people, smack the smug face of the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ Shooter's Party Speaker of the House Paul "Lyin'" Ryan for 7 years of nihilism in the service of plutocrats and knuckle- dragging reactionaries. We wouldn't blame him at all for that, either.
