Obama's State of the Union Was Meant to Divide Not Unite

If you were looking for something new during President Obama's State of the Union address last week, you hopefully weren't holding your breath. While it was delivered with some of the best oratorical skills of any President, the actual substance of his address was thin and the promises regurgitated.

The President began by praising the military for capturing Osama Bin Laden, a smart move and one the entire country - especially Navy SEAL Team Six, which executed the mission - should be proud of. He then went on to use the military's "team" approach as an example for the rest of us: "At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they [the military] exceed all expectations. They're not consumed with personal ambition. They don't obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand."

While it was smart for Obama to try and compare his political fortunes to those of the military, the comparison is faulty, even if it is just a metaphor to serve his political purposes. The country is deeply divided on its path, while the military undertakes clearly-articulated orders. Our government is built on the democratic process, not a top-down command structure. That's the difference he seems to have ignored.

But Obama sees himself as commander who has put forth his plan and expects us all to line up behind it. From green energy to taxes on the rich, he appears to want us to faithfully execute his vision. Never mind that while our military can claim plenty of successes (but rarely mentions them), Obama has lost most of his fights. And those that he won - like Obamacare - were not even worth mentioning on Tuesday night. That made it so much harder to see him as the leader behind whom the rest of the nation will march.

A unity message - of which this was some version - was more believable in 2008, when Obama made it a hallmark of his campaign, since he didn't have a record to run on. At that time, there was very little class warfare rhetoric in his stump speeches. Sure, one meeting with a voter who famously came to be known as Joe the Plumber revealed the President's views on how "spreading the wealth around" is good, but wealth redistribution wasn't the defining issue it has become for Obama this time around.

The crux of what the President was pushing last week was designed to divide, not unite, and was peppered with class warfare, which breeds envy and sows discord. While the message of everyone paying his or her fair share sounds fair on its face, it means that in order to get income equality some must be punished for having amassed wealth. More specifically, successful capitalists Mitt Romney - who has taken a beating for his Bain Capital career - should be taxed at a much higher rate, even though they already contribute plenty to our tax rolls.

Tuesday night kicked off the campaign season in the most political of ways. So when the President talks about coming together with a speech that pulls people apart, bookended by praise for the military, be wary. As Obama himself said, "Simple recognition won't usher in a new era of cooperation. What comes of this moment is up to us." The "us" includes the President, not just the voters who he expects to fall in line with his one-sided battle plan for the nation.