President Russo delivers January 2015 State of the Union Address (with GOP response)
WASHINGTON DC, USA - At 6:00 PM EDT on January 31st, 2015, President Patrick Russo gave his first State of the Union in the chamber of the House of Representatives.
The speech was livestreamed by C-SPAN Twitch, and yielded a full server of attendance. The speech was approximately a half hour long, and touched basis on multiple different subjects - ranging from internal White House tensions, to military development. This analysis will break down each segment of his speech and discuss the events prior which relate to it.
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A) "Our public image on the global scale was frayed and tattered due to indecisiveness in numerous international coalitions."
This may refer to the representation which the United States had in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during the Somalia affair, in which President James Clements was expected to act as a delegate for the USA. Because Clements - and his deputy representative - were both absent at a crucial international meeting discussing NATO's relations with Somalia and other third world countries in the Middle East/Africa area, they were not part of a discussion in which NATO decided to declare war on Somalia.
Briefly following that, NATO was incapable of following through with any military action against Somalia, as the United States and other countries either could not provide military support, or were reluctant to. This later resulted in further tensions which led to the subsequent withdrawal of the United States from membership in NATO (which was overruled by an AmericanPatron mandate).
Since then, the Russo administration has not encountered numerous international crises or concerns with other countries, although it has steadfastly focused on war with Somalia - which can now be backed due to the presence of a sufficiently supplied military. Although Russo's comment that his foreign policy will "[keep] us out of wars which are incited for reasons irrelevant to the welfare of our nation" seems to be somewhat hypocritical, the White House believes that Somalia has continuously caused harm to the United States and proven as difficult an opponent as Saddam Hussein.
B) "A month ago, Washington was a hub for criminal activity, with shootings and unregulated chaos that resulted in dozens of deaths and tragedies."
It is true that crime rates were much higher during preceding administrations, but the Russo administration has not been at top performance during its time either. Due to poor security efforts by the Secret Service and the rest of the law enforcement agencies in Washington, Vice President Terence Walsh was assassinated by a rogue Italian soldier - and it is the only confirmed assassination to have occurred in the history of the United States.
However, President Russo seems to refer to the recruitment levels of the Metropolitan Police and other agencies - which have skyrocketed since he appointed new chiefs to these departments. Hopefully, in the future, they can prevent further assassinations from occurring.
C) "The Supreme Court is, for the first time in over fifty weeks, filled"
Reminiscient of the song from Frozen, "for the first time in forever" Russo appointed Chief Justice Cbooty, alongside Associate Justices Epidemiology, Stefan Kovac, James Clements, and Timothy Wellesley to the Supreme Court. In the month since their appointments, numerous lawsuits have been brought before the court, the majority of which were peaceably resolved.
The United States also currently has two Federal Judges - a surprisingly low number - but the Russo administration claims that it is "capable of maintaining the level of crime that occurs in DC". Indeed, almost no cases have been brought before the Federal Courts, and they hopefully will never need to be.
D) "We have reached the highest amount of growth, in the shortest amount of time, for the armed forces in over a year."
According to poll results from the Pew Research Center, 23% of Americans believe that military readiness is the most pressing concern for the entire country. During the speech, President Russo proudly boasted that "in one month alone, because of our willingness to act rather than scheme, we went from having zero personnel, to over forty-five active and on-duty soldiers, ready to respond at a moment’s notice." That is forty-five more personnel than the United States had previously, and approximately 200% of the size of the military at any given point in time. This may have helped in President Russo's current 75% approval rating and 60% approval rating weighted against all presidents overall.
E) "I will be calling on Congress in the following days to perpetuate these long standing principles and declare war on the Federal Republic of Somalia."
After reminding the American people of the ideologies of freedom of speech, expression, and the ability to defend liberty, Russo stated blankly that he will request Congress to declare war on Somalia - which has and still is, a large international nuisance to countries worldwide. In retrospect, it was somewhat obvious that the United States would be flexing its military muscles at some point in time - the Department of Defense had set itself on DEFCON 2 (and is now on DEFCON 3) as a reaction to terroristic threats and attempted attacks by Somalia mere days ago at our nation's capital.
Russo did not give a date as to when Congress would be expected to finish voting upon the declaration of war, but it will certainly be one of the priorities on the President's February agenda.
F) "Instead of having disputes, pointless arguments, and festering hostilities in the White House, we have informed and experienced men and women working together to move America forward."
It is strongly suspected that Russo is referring to the somewhat personal affair in which he (and current Secretary of Defense Jennifer Hartson) resigned from their positions and attempted to impeach former President James Clements on charges of coercion. This resulted in the White House undergoing a "severe state of lethargy" (quote from Russo's inauguration speech), and bitter relations between Russo and Clements - until the former generously appointed him to the Supreme Court.
This may also, however, refer to the recent resignation of Chief of Staff Kenneth O'Donnell (Haloluver), who has been replaced by ShadowRaven99, the former Deputy Chief of Staff. Although there has been no public indication that O'Donnell's presence had somehow agitated the Cabinet, it is peculiar that the resignation of the highest member of the Cabinet slipped under the radar and that Russo did not publicly congratulate O'Donnell on his time as Chief of Staff and the general White House manager.
G) "The past few months have been the most heavily documented since the inception of our country. The economy of our media outlets has grown to be several times its previous size."
Under President Clements, the main American news outlets were C-SPAN, and Associated Press (which is more internationally focused regardless). Since that time, private citizens have created CNN, the Tonight Show, (your beloved) POLITICO, and numerous other small political pundit shows featuring analysts from across the continent.
Russo states that he wants to in a way, "ride the wave" of media creation, and encourage unemployed citizens to spur the private business industry by becoming media outlet owners. Russo wants to maximize the "information being outsourced to Americans", and to perhaps simultaneously develop a small business-centered economy. This addresses the 28% of Americans who believe that unemployment is the largest problem facing the country.
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Russo stated, "The era of discord has met its end, and the State of the Union is strong." Although the Republican Party is traditionally expected to give a rebuttal which opposes the ideas discussed in the State of the Union, RNC member Calvin Wilson (featured in the article on Terence Walsh's assassination) did not seem to provide any strong opposition to the President's statement.
Wilson's response was featured on the C-SPAN stream, which measured a total of two minutes. Wilson stated that he would have Congress "spur growth in the private sector", which currently seems to focus on the United States news industry.
Wilson even further stated that though he approves of Secy. Exercist's work on Washington DC, he thinks "the sky is the limit" - without providing information as to what "the sky" is, or ideas which would help reach the limit.
Wilson also stated that the Republicans will go "step by step with the President in combating terrorists", in referral to the awaited declaration of war against Somalia. It does not appear as if the Republican Party will be acting in strong defiance or resistance to the President's agenda.
POLITICO White House, Capitol Hill (updated 7:48 PM EDT, 2015/1/31)