The SOTU was a solid speech. It had several good lines and had the appropriate guests in the audience. It was workmanlike, a list of accomplishments and goals emphasizing his superlative record on the economy. And the poll numbers after the speech were good, very good. Especially with Independents.
What it wasn’t was risk-taking, adventurous, or really acerbic. It was playing hard defense. But the real story lies underneath the words. Perhaps not only in the obvious points of the event, but in the nuances can we find some hints as to what was operating below the surface.
First, Nancy. Her whole paper-shuffling shtick was a decided disrespect to the president. It is reminiscent of old Hollywood stories of Steve McQueen and Monty Clift stealing scenes from fellow actors by a gesture here, a look there. She is back in a driver’s seat and she wants everyone to know it. But, the mere act of advertising it like that betrays an inner anxiety as to her position. Hit by the new socialist radicals on one side and her old guard on the other, no wonder Nancy felt the need to show off a bit. If only in a warning and simultaneous nod to the crazies.
Speaking of the white-suited harridans, have you ever seen a collection of more waspish crones in your life? And AOC? She again mars whatever benefits of nature God gifted her with by a nasty girl disposition and eyes so full of twisted fervor Charlie Manson would have shrieked in terror at even a momentary glance from them. We’re talking adolescent mega-wretch here, the dumbest character in “Mean Girls.”
It was also quaint and pathetic that some of them were wearing ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) buttons. The ERA was a Bolshie man-hating proposed constitutional amendment of the 60s/70s that was put down by Phyllis Schlafly and her team during that benighted period. It failed to get the required number of state approvals and died. But apparently some have forgotten that. So, now we’ll all get out our bell bottoms, Bay City Rollers 45s, and start the ball rolling for it again, eh?
Our guys were all in fine fitness and trying hard not to look bored. Ted Cruz is still sporting his Wolverine beard. Tom Cotton shaved his off. Mike Pence is looking more like Race Bannon every day and only four of nine high court members showed up. The designated survivor was Secretary of Energy Rick Perry who, if he was smart, was watching an old movie on Amazon Prime.
The president, taking our enlightened counsel, went for the serious schmaltz factor on the invited props…er…um…I mean guests. The D-Day guys were good. The family of the victims murdered by an illegal alien were better. As was the border agent. The brave police officer from Pittsburgh and the former prisoners were nice. Buzz Aldrin was an appropriate touch on this 50th anniversary of Apollo Eleven. But the best was the little girl who survived cancer. Even this cynical snob, who is also the father of three daughters, choked up on cue.
His best runs of the SOTU centered on three themes: a border wall, the NY and VA infanticide bills, and the Holocaust survivor. His “Say No to Socialism” line wasn’t bad either. Though that he would even have to say it bodes ill for this country in the coming years.
Trump is never better when calling attention to the rank hypocrisy of the Dems. His calling out of “the political class” who live behind “walls, gates, and guards” while they advocate open borders for everyone else was classic. Not only him, but any politician is better when they can personalize an issue. He didn’t mention a possible national emergency measure and his tone for the evening was conciliatory in general. I’m betting he doesn’t call one. It may be too much drama in too short a time.
His strong condemnation of the Herodian Coalition and their infant-murdering proposals was absolutely first rate. You know, you get the feeling that before he ran for president he was a typical Manhattan pro-choicer. But, as he has got the feel for the job and more so for his opposition, he realized just what and who they are. In a real conversion on the issue, as opposed to the fake conversion on it of Bush the Elder, he has come into his own as a leader of the pro-life movement. The sight of seated silence from a vast number of Dems, with special loathing for his words no doubt coming from the pale coven, when the president mentioned this barbaric legislation was very instructive. It goes very far to graphically illustrate the ever-widening cultural and political chasm this nation faces.
Think about it. A good portion, probably a majority, of one of the two major political parties in the United States of America actually advocates casually killing a child minutes before it could be born a healthy baby. This is past pro-choice. This is pro-slaughter.
I think the president achieved the rhetorical high point of the SOTU when he related the story of the Holocaust survivor in the audience who, as a little boy, was put in a cattle car to go to what he thought was another concentration camp and probable death. He and his father watched out of the container as soldiers approached. Then, his father exclaimed, “It’s the Americans!” To me, that moment, that small experience, encapsulates what this nation has been to the world for over a century.
It was the Americans at the Argonne, the Americans at Omaha Beach, the Americans in Korea and Vietnam, the Americans in Kuwait, the Americans always leading the way when freedom was in danger. I wish the president would have run with the line and theme like that. But, that’s just me nitpicking.
Didn’t watch the Dem response because I wanted to keep my dinner down. So you’ll have to seek another analysis of that certain sanctimonious twaddle.
I think Spencer Tracy said acting is showing up on time, knowing your lines, and not bumping into the furniture. Trump passed on all counts. Now, let’s see if he can pull off in action what he said well enough last night.
