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It is painful for those of us who remember earlier and better times to watch what is happening to America. Institutions, ideals, and hopes crumble as America slides toward mediocrity and worse. The late-comer country that rose like a rocket from a backwoods frontier to the envy of the world has run out of fuel and is now in descent.

 

The meteoric rise to greatness and prosperity can be described in one word — freedom. Quite simply, people free to pursue their own interests as they defined them produced the greatest economic miracle the world has ever seen. It also produced the most compassionate people in the world with a capacity to exercise that compassion.

 

The spirit that rose up from the bottom has now been replaced with a command and control mentality from the top. The Founders provided a framework that protected people from government. It was effective for about two centuries. Now that remarkable document, The Constitution, is considered a roadblock to progress.

 

The US has become just another State characterized by criminality in government. The boundaries that contained the evil have been broken. And with it, the predatory behavior has destroyed the spirit and initiative of what once were the freest and most prosperous people in the world. Not surprisingly, the country deteriorates. 

 

One of the great newspapers of the world used to be The New York Times. It is no more. It has become an adjunct of the Progressive movement in this country. Its definition of “all the news to print” has a different meaning than it did fifty years ago. The following editorial, pertaining to President Obama’s State of the Union speech, is merely the latest example of the nonsense that appears on these pages. My commentary is inserted.

 

Every winter since 2009, President Obama has stood at the podium of the House and pleaded for the cooperation of Congress. For the last three State of the Union speeches, he has largely been ignored. That has left a growing trail of unfinished business: background checks for gun buyers, immigration reform, a higher minimum wage, tax fairness, universal preschool.

For the first couple of years, there was no opposition. The Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency. Obama got whatever he wanted, unless his ideas were even too radical for his fellow party members. What he wanted and what they delivered so scared the American public that they revolted and gave Republicans control of the House. The public did not do so in order to advance Obama’s agenda but to stop or derail it. Although the elitists at the NY Times may not understand, many in this country oppose the litany of “unfinished business” they list in the last sentence above.

This year was different. Mr. Obama’s speech on Tuesday night acknowledged the obvious: Congress has become a dead end for most of the big, muscular uses of government to redress income inequality and improve the economy for all, because of implacable Republican opposition. As a result, the remainder of Mr. Obama’s presidency will be largely devoted to a series of smaller actions that the White House can perform on its own.

“America does not stand still, and neither will I,” he said. “So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Taking the offensive by veering around Congress isn’t new for the administration, but it is more important than ever. As the president forcefully described, inequality has deepened and upward mobility has stalled. If Republicans in Congress stymie the public’s needs and desires, Mr. Obama should employ every tool in his box to bypass those barriers. The multistate tour that he plans in the coming days will give him a chance to be even more critical of Congress than he was in the House chamber.