Two Speeches- One Large Stitch in Time

Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight we witnessed history. A tale as old as time- we are in a period of great turmoil, but there is an underlying sense of hope. No the hope from this evening did not come from the man elected to be our president, with his well-executed and illusory speech, but from a young, humble man who is living proof that the constructs of the American Dream are not solely based on what the government can provide. His name is Bobby Jindal; Louisiana governor, first generation Indian-American, and someone who is finally expounding conservative ideals, in a time when the principles of the party have fallen by the wayside.

I must prelude Mr. Jindal’s speech, with a summary of Barack Obama’s speech. Predictably the usual suspects were on cue. Pelosi and Biden were seated behind the president, leading the contrived ovations, with perfect synchronicity and characteristic superficiality. The key elements of the speech: the mess was inherited (exonerating the Democratic Congress of any blame), the only way to fix the mess is with the ‘recovery’ plan (in addition to the trillion in spending, it was made apparent tonight that an onslaught of governmental programs and spending are coming our way), defense will be cut (in order to put an infinitesimal amount of money back into the piggy bank, all the while endangering our country), ensuring higher-education for all those who desire to have one (mentioning civil service to those who want the hand-out), an overhaul of the public education system (emphasis on re-educating the children in order to enter them in the ‘global’ community), and of course an energy program that invokes the cap and trade theory (again something that is reminiscent of global Nazism). The president did a magnificent job of deflecting the attention off the fact that the appropriations bill he has been mulling over, was full of nearly 8,000 earmarks. Yes folks, tonight was quite a sleight of hand, and once again a huge majority of the public will probably be satisfied with the aggrandized rhetoric, failing to notice that these promises will indebt our children, produce hyper-inflation, and dismantle the Democratic Republic our founders entrusted us with.

So I digress back to Jindal, and the Republican rebuttal. Bobby Jindal has a ways to go as an orator. His speech did seem a bit contrived, but this is a man of character, a man that did not see the United States of America through the eyes of an immigrant, as a formidable oppressor, but a bastion of hope, a place where if you have the drive to succeed you can. He told the story of his parents, immigrants from India, and how without any insurance for his delivery, set up a payment plan with the hospital to rectify their balance. It was the story that we hear our grandparents tell, how they rose above, pulled themselves up by their own boot straps, and prospered in this country. Jindal’s message was a complete dichotomous shift from the message that has been resounding from the president- we NEED the help from the government, we are not capable of forging our own way anymore, personal responsibility and the preternatural desire to succeed are not enough, we must have the guiding hand of Uncle Sam to lead the way. It seems someone is finally standing up and saying that for the past 8 years, the Republican Party has disbanded from its core principles: fiscal conservatism and small government.

That rudimentary question summates the crux of the mindset of this Presidency and its followers, stealing from future generations to pay for the irresponsibility of past. Rather than indebting our future generations, Jindal called for tax cuts for the middle class (and no not welfare, wrapped up in semantics, but real tax cuts for entrepreneurs). In turn those entrepreneurs, the life-blood of the capitalist structure, would be able to keep their money, expand their businesses, thrive, and do so on their own.

Rather than painting our country as battered and weary, Jindal said the following (paraphrasing):

“The Congress has warned us that our country is facing a crisis we cannot recover from, do not let anyone tell you we cannot recover. This great country has overcome slavery, two world wars, defeated the soviets, and September 11, 2001. The American spirit has triumphed over every hardship. We have many blessings- the most abundant resources, most resilient economy, and the freest political system in the history of the world… Americans can do anything.”

The American spirit is not like that of any other nation in history. This is the greatest place on earth, the place where dreams have come true, where free men have lived without the manacle hand of sovereign rule constraining them. This freedom ladies and gentlemen, the freedom to rise above, is why we must have hope, and we must unite to save our country. Thank you Bobby Jindal, you have restored my hope for our country.