The Only (non) SOTU Take-Away
No worries - it's not a "policy"!
By now, everybody and his ugly twin brother has written about Trump’s non-SOTU “Congressional Joint Meeting” address. Anyone with a keen sense for the obvious can note that the cornucopia of posts, columns, and punditry fall evenly along the Great Political Divide: “Trump-Masterful, Great Leader” vs “Cheeto Man Insults the World!”
Yeah whatever.
While personally prone to occasional partisan parsing, any reader looking for Poly Sci ‘Accolades/Condemnation’ here will be sorely disappointed. My take, simply put: With a few exceptions for drama, the Highs and Lows averaged out to Wait ‘n See, with a sharp eye for discernment. That alone is a difficult task. I’ll also leave the microscopic policy analysis and pie charts to others with those special skills.
That having been scribbled and for venting purposes only, I’ll promptly contradict myself with this unoriginal observation cum take-away: as a group, Democrats suck.
While interesting debates about the pragmatic political philosophy of Ds and Rs abound, this Address wasn’t any of those. The overall conduct of Democrats witnessed on national TV Tuesday night was USDA Choice Deplorable (h/t HRC). That all their adolescent “demonstrations” were pre-planned inserts “stupid” and “disgusting” to modify “Deplorable”. The fact that all 50 (D) Senators had earlier voted to defeat a procedure to keep men out of women’s sports boggles any reasonable mind and challenges one’s vocabulary of insults. From a purely political perspective, this flies in the face of polling that showed overwhelming public support for the prohibition. There is no factual, adult argument that irrefutably challenges the common sense reality of the measure. But the Ds did it anyway.
And there they were: Beneficiaries of the 19th Amendment, in their 8-year-old ill-fitting pink outfits reminiscent of the farcical 2017 Pussyhat Women’s March; the Black-For-BLM Goth garb, all holding their Forest Gump ping-pong paddle signs to virtue signal their displeasure with He Who Must Be Hated; small signs for small people with small minds. Not to be outdone, some of all sexes were festooned in blue and yellow to show their misinformed and misguided solidarity with Ukraine’s former-comic-turned-president Zelensky’s internationally embarrassing Oval experience as well as their love of another never-ending war.
Historical decorum and comity be damned. Such niceties are only in vogue during D-dominated affairs. Al Green (D), a grumpy codger waving his cane prop, refusing to “uphold and maintain decorum in the House” (‘sit down and shut up’) could be chalked up to staged black comedy (no pun intended). After being escorted from the chamber, NBC was happy to give the triggered Green a national platform for his sputtering rants and raves .
Disagreements are basic to Human Nature. Without them, where would Debating Clubs, Personal Evaluation Meetings, or visits with the mother-in-law be? But even strongly held differences cannot explain or excuse the entire body of Democrats’ unequivocally rude, tone-deaf, indefensible refusal simply to applaud in recognition a cancer-surviving child’s life-long dream appointment as a “Special Secret Service Agent”. The video captured what had to be the emotional moment of the night while it also captured the despicable sight of the tolerant Ds sitting on their hands or playing with their cell phones.
It takes a special kind of concentrated malevolence to participate in such a display, at a special depth of revulsion knowing it was all planned in advance and not one D could find the individual strength, empathy or principle to reject such a vile notion, stand and applaud despite the sycophant herd around him. Or her! At the borders, wouldn’t you think something as natural as maternal instinct would move just one of the females to stand? Nope. The fact that it didn’t speaks ear-splitting volumes about the character of Democrats as persons and party. How any thinking, reasonable person can voluntarily remain in conjunction with such people is impossible to comprehend.
At this point, some are compelled to say, “Yeah, but Republicans…”". Spare me. Equivocation isn’t spoken here.
Saints don’t go into politics; demons do.
BW
That was pretty much my take as well. I can't stand to listen to Trump for long, or any politician for that matter, but from the little I watched, the Democrats stole the show, by proving to the nation once again that they are childish assholes. My first thought was, "grow the fuck up, you bunch of clowns". Can you imagine the type of voter they are trying to attract by acting like this or voluntarily spending time with any of them?
I'm also very much in the wait and see mode when it comes to Trump, time will tell how well any of this works or how much is just for show.
I watched the whole speech (Trump's). This proves I don't have a life. Amazing to me how Trump, a man older than me, can stand up and speak for 1:45:00 and not miss a beat. His timing was perfect. Whoever wrote his speech did a good job, but the add-ons stole the show. The kid in the cop uniform was brilliant! Then, making the kid a real cop. The kid hugs the Fed, who gives him the badge. Priceless theater. Then, the cop kid gives the wanna-be West Pointer a high five when Trump tells the West Point wanna-be that he's been accepted at West Point. No wonder the Democrats were grumpy. They don't know how to put on a show like this. Pocahontas clapping for more dead Ukrainians was an image I won't forget.
Trump hardly ever looked at the Democrats. He was literally giving them the cold shoulder.
The kid cop reminded me of Bill Veek when he had the midget bat for the St. Louis Browns. Eddie Gaedel was only 3' 7" tall. He walked on four pitches. It was his only at-bat in the major leagues. The crowd loved it.
Trump is a showman like Bill Veek, and he does it well. BTW, Bill Veek was the last non-billionaire to buy a baseball team (Milwaukee Brewers). He soon had to sell it as the player's salaries shot up with free agency.