Stand Up, GOP, But Not With Democrats

You may have heard - President Obama will deliver the State of the Union address Tuesday night. It's all the buzz.

The best part? The irony it all presents. First, as the new Congress was gaveled in, we learned of the push in the Senate to change the filibuster rules, now that the Democrats are in a lesser majority. A push made by the Democrats. Then we learned of the unbelievably silly idea of the intermingling of the parties in the audience for the address. Really? Are we in junior high school now with forced make-nice gestures? And then the President's team released excerpts of the upcoming speech to Obama supporters under the shield of Organizing for America via the Internet. A tidbit to supporters, you see, doled out by a hyper-partisan organization, really the campaign organization of the president, to call for unity.

Irony, much?

I confess - I like my politics partisan. Especially when the other party is calling the shots. I want elected officials to go to Washington to stand up for my party's principles. I don't want the sham of kumbuya - that we all can just hug it out and get along. Get along on your own time, is what I say. While in committee meetings, while presenting legislation, while giving press conferences, while releasing videos and policy papers, I want to see complete and utter partisanship. I want my party's elected politicians to speak for me.

Got that?

Political rhetoric has been rough from the beginning. To blame a horrific attack on political rhetoric is a convenient way for the liberal left to try to stifle the speech of the opposition. Now the First Lady will sit with the intern from Rep Giffords' staff who is credited with saving her life. What about the other heroes of that day? Or is the elected politician most newsworthy? According to press coverage, yes. There is something that is not right about all this. Yes, a bit more civility with each other would be good but after eight years of non-stop nasty against George W. Bush and even a movie filmed using real footage of him during an assassination scene. There were lots of signs showing target marks on Bush's head and Hitler references during the anti-war demonstrations. The liberal left was cool with all that disgusting action.

Now, the Republicans hold a big majority in the House and a larger number of Senate seats. During the State of the Union address it is traditional for the President's party to jump up and applaud to support his agenda. This is a challenge for Democrats this year. In order to camouflage the smaller numbers of Democrats that will be present, the bright idea was hatched for the mingling of everyone in the seating arrangements. How convenient. Democrats presented it as a show of unity after the Arizona attacks. This is disgusting and opportunistic at a very basic level.

I hope the Republicans will not fall for this political stunt. Stick with tradition. Let America see what the GOP stands for - it is not the Obama agenda.