The Constitution requires the
president to make an annual State of the Union address. One wonders if the
framers new it would turn into a political pep rally, lathering up partisan
party politics as well as populist fervor.

There’s likely no way they
would have known that presidents would almost follow a script for 40 years.

Richard Nixon said the end of
U.S. dependence on foreign oil was only a few years away. Jerry Ford, Jimmy
Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush said
the same things. Barack Obama said it, too, during his address on Jan. 25.

Each president, at least those
since Reagan and through this week’s Obama speech, has said that the government
is too large, too intrusive and too expensive. They’ve been correct about that,
but none of them have done anything to change the facts.

Indeed, the debt has increased
every year no matter who was in the White House and no matter which incumbent
big government party had control of Congress.

In the mid 1990s, Bill Clinton
said the days of big government were over. Right, Bill. Then why is the
government more intrusive now? Why is the national debt $14 trillion? Why does
a president, Barack Obama, who argued against raising the debt ceiling when he
was a senator want Congress to raise the limit now that he’s the chief
executive?

While there’s cause to blame
politicians for the fiscal irresponsibility that’s eroded confidence and
credibility in the American system, another culprit exists.

A comment attributed to P.T.
Barnum goes: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

When it comes to politics, the
sucker is the American voting public for believing there’s actually a
functional difference between the Republican and Democratic parties. The
above-mentioned facts show there’s no difference. Ongoing wars reveal the same
truth.

Not only do people fail to see
what is, they don’t realize they have helped fuse the two parties into one
ruling elite.

Walter Williams, an economics
professor at George Mason University, makes the point in a recent column: ”Can
Our Union Be Saved?” (The column can be found at www.creators.com/conservative/walter-williams/can-our-union-be-saved.html)

“Americans who detest our
country and those who love our country are hell-bent, wittingly or unwittingly,
on destroying it,” he wrote.

The problem, he said, is that
federal tax revenues have averaged 18 percent of the GDP for the past 30 years
while federal spending approaches 30 percent of our GDP.

“To put this in perspective:
Defense spending is called discretionary and totals $685 billion. Our deficit
is $1.4 trillion. Defense spending could be entirely eliminated and we'd still
have a massive deficit. Any congressman unwilling to make cuts in entitlement
spending is not to be taken seriously about sparing our nation from economic
collapse,” Williams wrote.

He cites Social Security and
Medicare as part of the problem, but said seniors aren’t the only segment of
the population who want their so-called entitlements left alone. There are
corporate handouts such as farm subsidies, the Export-Import Bank, the Small
Business Association and a variety of departments that spend as if there was no
debt about which to worry.

“Everyone,” Williams wrote,
“who receives government largesse and special favors deems his needs as vital,
deserving, proper and in the national interest. It is entirely unreasonable to
expect a politician to honor and obey our Constitution and in the process
commit political suicide.”

That, he says, is the national
dilemma, and that those who want to prevent a nationwide economic collapse
would be better advised to convince the general population of the wisdom of the
Constitution rather than wasting their breath on politicians who only want
power and reelection.

In 1944, Judge Learned Hand
said: “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no
constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court
can even do much to help it.”

It’s time for the people to
regain liberty in their hearts.