No, I am not some “Debbie Downer,” nor do I bet against America. However, last week’s State of the Union address was political cherry-picking for 77 minutes of carefully chosen bloviating. There are so many polls now showing that the American people do not believe the state of our union is strong.

Now, if you are a progressive socialist, and ascribe to Marxist ideology, you were completely thrilled with Biden’s SOTU address. However, if you prefer individual liberty, rights, and freedom, you have grave concerns if Biden is granted “four more years.” I will reserve confirming Biden as the Democratic party nominee until after their convention in Chicago.

The American people are struggling to make ends meet, and no amount of wealth redistribution policies will reduce that impact. Going after credit card companies sounds very appealing, but it does not solve the problem of massive credit card debt for Americans. Then again, Biden can just wave his magic wand and make their debt go away. He has already done that with college student loan debt – unconstitutionally — and put the onus on the American taxpayer.

Listening intently to Biden’s address, it appears that the answer to everything is more government intervention and control. Inflation, which went from 1.4 percent to 9.1 percent under Biden, still remains above 3 percent. But instead of addressing his policies which caused that increase, Biden blames corporations for higher prices. What is his answer? Raise taxes on corporations to mask the failure of his policies. It is a good thing that I have never consumed alcohol, and do not play drinking games, because many of you were floored based upon how many times we heard Biden say “Pay your fair share.”

It seems that paying your fair share applies to everyone else except Biden’s son, Hunter, who has been indicted on charges of tax evasion. Yeah, you cannot make this stuff up.

America is no longer energy-independent. Biden has undermined our energy sector, primarily our oil and natural gas industry. He began his Thursday evening rant talking about Ukraine, not America. If you want to defeat Putin, restore our natural gas industry enabling them to export more of that resource. Instead, Biden put a moratorium on NATGAS exports. The American people see what is happening at the pump.

The State of our Union is not strong when Biden supports a policy of undermining our national sovereignty. He does not need to sign a border bill to rectify the situation. He can reverse the 90-plus Executive Orders he signed to open our borders to millions of illegal immigrants, including a disturbing amount of single military-age males. Sadly, Biden could not even properly pronounce the name of Laken Riley, a young Georgia coed who was brutally murdered by one of Biden’s “newcomers.”

I found it very telling that Biden did not address the state of our military or our national security. At this time, due again to Biden’s failures, we have the smallest active-duty military since 1940. Our US Marine Corps is now at World War I levels, less than 200,000. We have more illegal immigrant “gotaways” in America than active-duty military strength. Since Biden’s cultural Marxist ideological agenda has infected our military, not to mention incessant strategic blunders, we are not making recruitment and retention goals. So just reduce the end-strength numbers? That’s the leftist response to decimating our military capability and capacity. But, hey, they know proper pronouns.

The world is on fire, due to a weak president. Hamas is empowered because Biden empowered Iran. China is on the march, advancing, and Biden prefers to target parents as domestic terrorists, jail Catholic pro-life supporters, and denigrate so-called “Christian Nationalists.” Biden is more concerned with political opponents than those who threaten America, even tolerating supporters of an Islamic terrorist organization, all for political gain.

No, the state of our union is not strong, and our streets are more violent. Criminals commit crimes because they are criminals. It is what they do. They will use any instrument to enact crime. The answer to so-called “gun violence” is not to disarm legal, law-abiding American citizens, such as myself, who own semi-automatic rifles. Suppose we have a federal government that is not interested in protecting us from criminals and terrorist infiltration, as they defund police. In that case, the Second Amendment exists for us to be “a well-regulated militia being necessary for the security of a Free State.”

Biden started very divisive in his address, and that atmosphere only intensified throughout the evening. He began talking about protecting a foreign nation and the desire to codify dismembering our unborn as a means of birth control up to the time of birth. That is extreme.

The State of our Union will never be strong as long as we allow those who seek to control our life, liberty, and property to rule over us, rather than govern. I would recommend that Joe Biden and his leftist acolytes, as well as his puppet masters, read the Declaration of Independence. That would have been the perfect response to Biden’s address, making it relevant to our Republic today.

Steadfast and Loyal.

This article first appeared at Townhall.com.