No, I didn't watch the State of the Union Address. As I said I wouldn't. A friend who knows I follow politics closely asked me why? "Don't you want to see what he has to say?" Of course not. Two reasons. One is that I can't bear watching him for more than 20 seconds without cringing and having a visceral physical reaction of disdain. And the other is that there's no point since I wouldn't believe a single word he said.
If Trump said every wonderful thing I wanted, I wouldn't believe him, that he'd follow through on it. And even if he said every repugnant thing I detested, even that -- as much as it's core to today's far-right mantra -- I wouldn't believe he'd do it. Trump has said he'd repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. He hasn't. He's said he'd ban Muslims from entertaining the country. He hasn't. He's said he'd build a wall. He hasn't. He may push some of these forward, but when he actually does, rather than talk about it, that's when it's time to focus on him. Besides, Trump saying every repugnant thing I detest is sort of a given, so why listen to hear it all confirmed? [Update: From Scott Bixby of the the Daily Beast -- "Less than 24 hours after President Trump called for ending HIV transmission by 2030, the Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit to close down supervised injection sites, which exist, in part, to prevent the sharing of contaminated needles."] In the end, I knew I could turn the news on after the fact and catch analysts talking about what he said. I can handle other people talking about Trump's words. It's the smarmy posturing and emptiness of the man himself that's unpalatable. And they'd show brief clips of the most notable parts. If short enough, like five seconds or less, I can handle that. Anything longer, and that's why God created the Mute button. As far as I can tell, Trump said nothing of importance. No particular proposals of note. Just talking to his base to tell them what they wanted to hear. And some loony refrain about how we can't have war and crazy partisan investigations if we want peace.. (Note: there's nothing "partisan" with the Special Counsel's investigations. It's run through the Trump Department of Justice, and Robert Mueller is a Republican. So is Rod Rosenstein. And the Acting Attorney General.) I did turn in to watch Stacy Abrams' speech. I didn't think it was compelling, though it was very good. Pointed, but upbeat, optimistic, and mostly positive about what the best of America is, with pretty much no snark. We had more than enough snark before that. Starting with the childishly thin-skinned Trump jumping in to start before Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi could give the Speaker's traditional announcement, that she had ‘the distinct pleasure and high honor’ to welcome the president of the United States. It was a foolishly rude thing to do, but in the end, I suspect that as much as Trump thought he was getting one over on Nancy Pelosi, I have a feeling she was utterly thrilled and relieved not to have to say that...
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|
© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2024
|