Thoughts on the State of the Union Address

First and foremost, I love Barack Obama so much it’s disgusting. He’s just a superb guy who I feel like believes a lot in the people of America, not just the country itself.

And, for the record, these are just my thoughts. I’ve done ZERO special research for this. I literally just watched the address and read people’s tweets about it and now I’m giving my reflection.

As you may have heard, Joe Biden is a true sight to behold. He has perfected his way of looking totally entranced by a speaker and it’s truly amazing. You can really feel what he feels while he listens. And don’t get me started on that pearly white smile. How can you disagree with anything that makes this man happy? I will never understand.

I have a lot of thoughts about John Boehner, mostly revolving around the fact that he’s an asshole. He also looks like a basset hound, perpetually sad and bored. He looked like he was working on his plot to overtake Obama’s presidency through the whole speech, only clapping when he realized everyone else was. And trust me, I hate standing ovations as much as the next person, but how many times did Joe Biden stand up while Boehner remained unmoved? I’m not sure the exact number, but it was quite a few.

There are few things I appreciate more than digs at people who don’t support the ACA, especially when they acknowledge the ridiculous amount of time Congress spent voting to repeal it and continuously failing. That happened during the SOTU so I was very pleased.

Obviously I’m also really hopeful about the policies that the president talked about. Raising minimum wage over $10 would be super awesome if it actually happens! So will an improved immigration system! Better student loans! Marriage equality! Access for women to reproductive health care! I can imagine people are criticizing the speech for being too focused on aspirations instead of hard set plans, especially since Obama has a terrible reputation for not getting anything done. But if you don’t think a lot of that has to do with an uncooperative Congress, I don’t know what to say to you. (Remember that ridiculous amount of votes to repeal Obamacare I talked about? Yeah.) Even so, he said this year he’s going to do everything in his power to get things done, even without help from Congress.

Overall, I just really like federal-level political events. I like bonding with other people who care about politics as much as I do. I like hearing hopeful messages of what our country might be if we work toward a goal. I like hearing concrete plans to achieve that goal. So the 2014 State of the Union gets an A+ for being everything I could dream of.

Stay rad, pals.