I watched the president’s speech from the Oval Office last night, not because I am a conservative masochist, but because I am of the belief that it is always prudent to know what the enemy is doing.

The fact that I believe that my own president is “the enemy” has occurred only after his consistent, repeated betrayals of the American people, and their safety and sovereignty. I will not waste anyone’s time listing those betrayals. Anyone with more than a few functioning brain cells, who has been paying genuine attention to the state of our republic and the world, has become all too familiar with them.

But I digress. Let’s look at the content of last night’s speech for a moment, keeping in mind that numbers can sometimes speak volumes.

3 — the number of times this president has addressed the nation from the Oval Office on matters of national importance. Extrapolate that 3 over seven years and one should begin to realize just how important this president believes it is to address the American citizenry about our concerns, fears and confusions (the latter of which is entirely understandable considering the dichotomy between this president’s words and his actions). Compare that number 3 with the number of golf games the president has played, or the number of vacations he and his family have enjoyed, or the number of times he has spoken on foreign soil listing, with relish, America’s past and present perceived “crimes against humanity,” and one begins to paint an accurate portrait of the man’s priorities, both personal and official.

72 seconds — the amount of time in last night’s speech the president devoted to addressing the fact that fourteen innocent American citizens were murdered, twenty-one innocent American citizens were injured by two bloodthirsty barbarians, and the details of the ensuing investigation.

148 seconds — the amount of time in last night’s speech that the president devoted to the demand that Americans must respect the Muslim religion and refrain from practicing anti-Muslim “discrimination” (a full 20% of the speech).

Numbers can indeed speak volumes regarding priorities, presidential or otherwise.

The President of the United States, and those closest to him in his administration, as their first reaction to the massacre in San Bernardino, immediately embraced the idea that this “event” can serve as a major catalyst in disarming the American citizenry and regulating citizens’ speech. Where this administration is concerned, not allowing a “good crisis” to go to waste inevitably trumps the very lives and liberties of the American people. The barbarians at the gate, and the destruction and loss of life that they bring with them, are declared secondary to the need to press forward with a leftist political agenda.

Of all of the crimes, lies, unconstitutional policy actions, and treasonous behaviors committed by this president and his closest advisers, this one may well be the worst — that a large number of innocent American citizens, doing nothing more than celebrating the Christmas season, were gunned down by two radicalized murderers, and our leadership’s gut response was not anger, grief, mourning, or the need for retribution, but instead the need to satisfy overt political ambition and a burning desire to declare major portions (namely, the First and Second Amendments) of the U.S. Constitution no longer relevant.

We are being told that stricter gun laws need to be passed by Congress and that the Justice Department needs to prosecute any American whose speech might be interpreted as “anti-Muslim” that edges toward violence.

Gun violence is a terrible thing, and hate speech is despicable as well, but curbing the constitutional rights of American citizens, through threats of federal prosecution, under the guise of promoting public safety or non-discrimination, is not the solution to either problem.

Let’s look at the numbers again: Our Founders placed the sanctity of free speech (and four other guaranteed rights), and the right to keep and bear arms, first and second in their list of constitutional amendments specifically because they believed those rights to be the most sacrosanct. This administration, in its constant efforts to render the U.S. Constitution impotent, if not irrelevant, has consistently taken aim at those two preeminent amendments.

Step back and imagine what the reaction to the massacre in San Bernardino would have been thirty years ago when Ronald Reagan occupied the White House. No politics would have been involved in the tragedy’s aftermath. The president would have appeared on national television the very night of the tragedy, urging calm, reminding us of our proud heritage, and unifying the citizenry in a shared commitment to battle radical Islam wherever it threatens our people, our sovereignty, or our national security. And that statement would have been followed by action, rather than empty, self-serving, gratuitous rhetoric.

The bone-deep evil that is the Obama administration has never been more accurately portrayed than in its response to the tragedy in San Bernardino. When political correctness, and the realization of a political agenda, are the hyper-focus of those in leadership positions, and the blood and death of innocent citizens is merely an inconvenient distraction or a means to a political end, the heart of this country’s leadership no longer has anything to do with a reverence for life and liberty … and everything to do with an insatiable thirst for political power.