At the risk of alienating even more people who apparently were only my friends if I shared the same level of unbridled anger at the current adminstration, I’ll confess I at least attempted to watch the spectacle that unfolded last night in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol. You know, that tourist attraction that hundreds of visitors literally took a sh-t in five winters ago.
And I’ll further confess that as the night droned on, ultimately becoming far and away the longest-lasting State of the Union address in recorded history, I passed out cold. Hey, if he can get away with “resting his eyes” during actual ceremonies he’s supposedly in charge of, so can I.
But unlike so many who somehow drew a line in the sand and justified why they would ignore him completely and took to social media to castigate and shame anyone who might, I actually forced myself to watch the whole damn thing this morning. Along with the official Democratic response that newly anointed Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger offered up, and the unofficial “People’s State of the Union” that emerged as half-hearted counterprogramming to the actual SOTU.
Per the main event itself, it unfolded exactly how it was predicted. A firehose of fact-checkable lies and numerous reality show moments with invited guests–perhaps the biggest reason why it blew away Bill Clinton’s old record for filibustering. Both CNN and The Associated Press deployed tag-teams of detail-oriented reporters to do the heavy lifting on the former. Color me surprised; after all, it was a Trump stump, super-sized though it was. I know enough to know his team literally creates numbers out of thin air, not merely the statistically impossible percentage drops in certain costs. At least this time he qualified his “gas under $2 a gallon” contention by noting it was a one-off observation in Iowa. I’m pretty sure the bovine population is most appreciative of that.
And as to the latter, sprinkling human props among the ruling elite to allow for emotional moments and photo ops is a tried-and-true tactic that has been used by every president delivering a State of the Union that I can personally recall, going back to Richard Nixon. I’ll at least allow that Connor Hellebuyck was a slightly more popular choice to receive a medal than was Rush Limbaugh at the most recent Capitol-based Trump stump. Obviously, Trump hasn’t been following how Hellebuyck’s Winnipeg Jets have been faring this season, so this trinket was clearly not awarded for his body of work.
As for the responses, admittedly Spanberger was playing with one hand tied behind her back time-wise, clocking in at a puny 13 minutes, and being delayed into late fringe time at that. She hit all the obvious points and was serviceable while doing so. But not a single example or anecdote was even teed up to underscore her appeal to reality that underscored her speech. Just what the ASSOCIATED PRESS further reported:
She structured her speech around a series of direct questions: “Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family? Is the president working to keep Americans safe, both at home and abroad? Is the president working for you?” She contrasted those questions with what she described as the reality under Trump, saying he “has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities, where they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who aspire to be Americans.” She added that Trump seeks to “pit us against one another” while “enriching himself, his family, his friends.” “This is not what our founders envisioned. Not by a long shot,” said Spanberger. “So I’ll ask again: Is the president working for you? We all know the answer is no.”
The “we” that she’s referenced is unfortunately far more splintered and segmented than those she was playing to as a lead-out. Her more likely audience was probably switching streams after being treated to the National Mall-based event that featured a series of far less impressive speakers who are at least elected officials. THE INDEPENDENT’s Graig Graziosi ticked off the headliners in a preview piece from yesterday morning:
The event, which begins at 8 p.m. EST February 24, will include appearances by at least a dozen Congressional Democrats. Liberal media personalities Joy Reid and Katie Phang will host the event. Senators Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, and Chris Murphy, as well as Representatives Yassamin Ansari, Veronica Escobar, and Pramila Jayapal are among the lawmakers attending.
“Donald Trump has made a mockery of the State of the Union speech,” Murphy said in a press conference announcing the event. “Democrats have no obligation to reward him with an audience as he lies and attacks people who disagree with him.” Murphy went on to say that “showing up for this speech puts a veneer of legitimacy on the corruption and lawlessness that has defined [Trump’s] second term.”
The event provde to be as uninspired and as much of an afterthought as was the TURNING POINT USA halftime show. At least Murphy didn’t come out lip-synching in denim shorts.
Yet Murphy has not even hinted at becoming a candidate for higher office, and didn’t exactly advance his cause with his predictable remarks last night. This in the wake of how the current leader in the Democratic clubhouse, topping out at a whopping 24 per cent of potential voters per an Echelon Insights poll whose results were detailed yesterday morning by NEWSWEEK’s Anna Commander. But that was conducted before Newsom stuck his foot in his mouth–which naturally the CALIFORNIA POST’s Annie Gaus was prompt to point out:
Newsom is firing back at critics who’ve accused him of racism over comments about his low SAT scores in an onstage chat with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens — with an expletive-filled rant online….“You didn’t give a s–t about the President of the United States of America posting an ape video of President [Barack] Obama or calling African nations s—holes — but you’re going to call me racist for talking about my lifelong struggle with dyslexia?” Newsom fumed on X. “Spare me your fake f–ing outrage.
And this on the heels of what MEDIAITE’s Michael Luciano yesterday dropped about someone already embroiled in what has turned out to be an exceptionally competitive battle for her current political life:
The Senate campaign of Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) is intensifying hostilities with disfavored reporters, according to Semafor. In a report published on Tuesday, the outlet said that in separate incidents this month, Crockett’s campaign called the police on CNN reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere and escorted Atlantic reporter Elaine Godfrey off the premises at a campaign rally.
Yeah, I suppose doing whatever one can to keep CNN from reporting would seem to be in line with how some more prominent politicans act. Panic much, Jazz?
When the supposed adults in the room are offering little more than drab and tepid counterpoints to the braggadacio and bloviating of the fat farting fascist, and even their more prominent and theoretically electable standardbearers can’t read the very room they aspire to commandeer assuming they even choose to sit in it at all–missing a golden opportunity to introduce something or someone novel and provocative into the discourse yet again00it’s enough to give anyone who cares enough a whopper of a migraine. And since I’m prone to them in the first place, you can only imagine where I’m netting out this morning.
Thankful that I made the choice that I did that at least resulted in my body’s natural reaction, and grateful it provoked a deep enough sleep to at least stop my head from pounding. That’s about as much praise that I’m capable of giving Mr. Trump, but it’s way more than his supposed competitors merit.
Until next time…