The Worst of the State of the Union Address
by Tibor R. Machan

As far as I can tell, the worst idea in President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address went like this: "That's what most Americans want -- for all of us in this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their aspirations."  Dead wrong!

That is what a population of infants might want, from their parents and nannies.  What most Americans probably want--and I didn’t ask them all, so this is just an educated guess--is for the government--i.e., those in “this chamber”--to do as the Declaration of Independence declared, namely, to diligently and vigilantly secure the protection of their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of their happiness. Notice, it is not to secure their happiness but to secure their right to its pursuit, which is to say their liberty to go about pursuing the various goals they deem worthwhile to aim for.

That a supposed constitutional scholar would fail to heed the Declaration of Independence, which as Lincoln taught us so clearly, is the instrument for interpreting the U. S. Constitution--especially the Bill of Rights--is scandalous and very scary (at least while he holds the office of president of the United States).
I can only regain some of my optimism about the future of this country if I focus on the fact that not very long from now Obama is going to be gone from The White House.  I cannot imagine anyone being more disloyal to the American political tradition, not Mrs. Clinton, not John Kerry, not Mitt Romney, no one.  The imperial presidency never had anyone so devoted to that corrupt idea as Obama clearly appears to be.

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