The sorry state of our political disunion

Obama's State of the Union (SOTU) speech was emblematic of where we are as a nation.

If you watched House Speaker Paul Ryan sitting cold as ice and not applauding, you saw the face of futility for a better future as long as a Democrat is President and Republicans control Congress.

The gulf between the two political factions is just too deep. There is now a narrative that Democrats and Republicans cannot be on the same page. According to a recent study they cannot even date or marry each other!

Obama's speech was an appeal for unity but I saw many people - who should have been excited about his speech - texting! We are a nation of rude.

He certainly got buzz from Democrats for the accomplishments of the past seven years. But when you saw the Republicans grim and rejecting Obama's mention of gay marriage I realized that many of the 'accomplishments” he mentioned were seen as bad policy by Republicans.

Senator Marco Rubio looked downright dismissive when Obama mentioned climate change and Ryan turned his head and smiled as if to say, 'here we go again.”

Besides inventorying the accomplishments of eight years, Obama was painting a big picture of the mega trends facing the U.S. and the world. These trends, especially economic, are daunting.

He succeeded in laying out what the world and the U.S look like. But his solutions, like free education and affordable college, seem not to sit well with Republicans. His speech was great for Democrats. I doubt if in this polarized time that he convinced any Republicans to his cause.

In Iowa he scored well with Democrats and probably also many Independents.

I could not believe that Speaker Ryan could not applaud Obama's support for Social Security. That seemed ridiculous and could really harm the GOP. Because I guarantee that in Iowa Social Security is a third rail. If the GOP does not come out in favor of supporting it, it could become a huge issue next November. Of course that assumes that there is still a Democratic Party in this state. In the last election they went into anaphylactic shock.

Obama's Sputnik and U.S. space program 'can do” was a powerful and upbeat score. He made a strong case with cancer research for big government. It was disgraceful to see Senator Grassley not applaud cancer research. Congressman Steve King even boycotted the event and left his seat empty. He was at home praying to God for a better president according to the e-mail I got this morning. Mean spirited and ugly. Hard to believe Iowa has sunk so low into partisan division.

Unless Republicans can applaud achievements of the U.S. and Democrats applaud Republicans when they do good things, the United States is doomed. The State of the Union speech was a chilling example of where we may sink.

'People call us, not Moscow or Beijing, when they need help,” Obama said. That was a true and quotable moment. His statement that the United States of America is the strongest nation on Earth and the American military the best was indisputable and we should support that narrative.

His language on ISIS was the strongest we have heard from him. He laid out the steps including bombings of ISIS that have been taken and he condemned bombing civilians and 'making the desert glow” as sound policy.

As I mentioned, I got an e-mail from Steve King the morning after the speech saying he boycotted the event to go pray to God for a better president. If that's the GOP policy proposal for 2016 we may be disappointed. I know that God does not sit up at night waiting to hear from King.

That's because God told me a few years ago in a dream (it was a dream I think), 'Steffen my son. I created the universe including the Earth and all its critters. I gave humans intelligence to manage that facility. I do not do janitorial work to clean it up when humans screw things up. I do not personally intervene because I am really busy trying to keep that whole ‘universe' thing I created functioning. Those darn planets and pieces of rock keep trying to crash into each other and it all is so cool I have to keep it going for a while longer.”

The SOTU was a powerful speech and it connected with what all the polls show, which is that Americans are tired of the deep divisiveness and want our politicians to trust and work with each other. Americans do want compromise and cooperation according to all polls. Obama made a good case for such unity. I fear that it is just a dream.

' Steffen Schmidt is professor of political science at Iowa State University and CEO of SEAS LLC consulting. Comments: steffenschmidt2005@gmail.com