Robin Smith, former Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party and congressional candidate.The “state of our union is stronger” was President Barack Obama’s assessment in his annual address last week.
That word “stronger” is much less definitive than terms used by presidents past such as Clinton, Bush, Carter and Reagan who declared our nation “strong,” “sound,” and in Harry Truman’s words, “good.”
The realities, rather than the rhetoric, prove a fellow Tennessean’s view of our country’s standing. President Andrew Johnson declared: “Candor compels me to declare that at this time there is no union as our fathers understood the term, and as they meant it to be understood by us.”
The soaring promises delivered last week by the president were all rooted in expanding government through more spending and programs, not economic growth.
We still have a high level of unemployment and Americans need to be at their best, creating and pursuing personal opportunity. The prospects for the former are high, and the path to the latter were not found in the State of the Union address.