To be successful, politicians need to at least seem like they’re driving the conversation, directly engaged on the issues that matter, either contributing to successes and pointing out failures, but progressives hate the President so much, they will not permit anything except resistance.
On Tuesday evening, Democrats faced the age-old dilemma of the party out of power. In our system of government, the opposition party opposes, but opposition is not easy when faced with the pomp and circumstance of a joint address to Congress, where the President of another party strides into the chamber to thunderous applause, controlling both the narrative and the optics. President Donald Trump, in particular, chose to make this even more challenging by confronting the political reality head on in the early portion of his speech. Rather than pretend there was unity and compromise to be found, playing the old game that the parties might come together despite vast differences, he plainly stated the truth. “This is my fifth such speech to Congress, and once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud,” he said while directly addressing their side of the chamber, even pointing at them. “I could find a cure to the most devastating disease — a disease that would wipe out entire nations or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history — or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded. And these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements.” From there, he put Democrats in the unenviable position of staring glum faced and disconsolate, brandishing weird and cheap signs with words like “False,” “Musk Steals,” and “Save Medicaid,” while the President and his fellow Republicans stormed through an ambitious agenda mixed in with personal stories, some heroic, others heartbreaking. Faced with the choice of being seen expressing any public support for the President, Democrats, unwisely in my opinion, chose to oppose almost everything from the opening moments, however popular or touching. Representative Al Green took the lead by bizarrely brandishing his cane at President Trump, even before the speech really got started, while yelling largely inaudible comments I believe suggested the President didn’t really have a mandate. Though Speaker of the House Mike Johnson warned him several times that he would be escorted from the chamber if this continued, Representative Green wouldn’t be cowed (?), preferring to exit with a chaperone, continuing the same disjointed mumbling and causing a senseless interruption that proved to be emblematic of the entire evening. For his part, President Trump refused, for once, to wade into the mire, instead teeing up popular policies, such as securing the border and deporting illegal immigrants, touting his success in reducing border crossings to the lowest levels in history, something supported by either 81% of the public (deportations) or 76% (general border security), returning to the more traditional notion of two genders and banning men from women’s sports (68% and 69% respectively), making government more efficient and cutting government programs, especially freezing foreign aid (59% and 63%), ending race-based hiring and DEI programs (65%), expanding energy resources (57%), and ending the war in Ukraine (60%). Democrats, in full view of the American people, opposed each and every one, many looking like Trump himself was forcing them to suck on lemons while he spoke.
On a more personal level, they also refused to clap, stand, or cheer for even the most powerful and moving stories. These included Payton McNabb, a former volleyball player, who was smashed so hard in the face by a transgender opponent it caused traumatic brain injury. “Haley Ferguson, who benefited from the First Ladies Fostering the Future initiative and is poised to complete her education, become a teacher. And Allison Berry, who became a victim of an illicit, deepfake image produced by a peer,” to use the President’s own language. Laken Riley, whose mother and sister were in attendance, “a brilliant 22 year-old nursing student…the best in her class, admired by everybody, went out for a jog on the campus of the University of Georgia. That morning Laken was viciously attacked, assaulted, beaten, brutalized, and horrifically murdered.” There was “Alexis Nungaray from Houston,” whose mother was in attendance, a “Wonderful woman. Last June, Alexis’ 12-year-old daughter, her precious Jocelyn, walked to a nearby convenience store. She was kidnapped, tied up, assaulted for two hours under a bridge, and horrifically murdered.” The President renamed a wildlife refuge in her honor to the tears of her mother. Also in attendance was “Border Patrol agent Roberto Ortiz, great guy. In January, Roberto and another agent were patrolling by the Rio Grande near an area known as Cartel Island…When heavily armed gunmen started shooting at them, Roberto saw that his partner was totally exposed to great danger, and he leapt into action, returning fire and providing crucial seconds for his fellow agent to seek safety, and just barely.” The President continued to highlight the wife of Jonathan Diller, a “unbelievably wonderful person and a great officer, was gunned down at a traffic stop on Long Island,” and “January Littlejohn and her husband [who] discovered that their daughter’s school had secretly socially transitioned their 13-year-old little girl. Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband while encouraging their daughter to use a new name and pronouns – they/them pronouns, actually – or without telling January, who is here tonight and is now a courageous advocate against this form of child abuse.” He was also “joined tonight by a young man, Jason Hartley, who knows the weight of that call of duty. Jason’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather all wore the uniform. Jason tragically lost his dad, who was also a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, when he was just a boy and now he wants to carry on the family legacy of service. Jason is a senior in high school, a six-letter varsity athlete — a really good athlete, they say. A brilliant student with a 4.46 — that’s good — GPA and his greatest dream is to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.” President Trump immediately extended his acceptance in front of the entire world, but perhaps the most tear jerking of all was “D.J. Daniel. He is 13 years old, and he has always dreamed of becoming a police officer. But in 2018, D.J. was diagnosed with brain cancer. The doctors gave him five months, at most, to live. That was more than six years ago. Since that time, D.J. and his dad have been on a quest to make his dream come true. And D.J. has been sworn in as an honorary law enforcement officer.” The President then added an additional honor, making the brave child a Secret Service officer, complete with the Director coming out and giving him a badge.
Somehow, not a single one of these stories elicited so much as feigned applause from Democrats and President Trump being President Trump, repeatedly called them out on it, pointing directly at them throughout. This has led Democrat friendly outlets to proclaim the speech was divisive, perhaps the most divisive in history. As CNN’s Stephen Collinson described it, “Modern America’s political chasm never looked so bleak. President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday night adopted the customs of a familiar annual political observance. But they failed to bridge the chasm of misunderstanding and contempt cleaving the country down the middle.” He went on to claim that the night as a whole “exemplified broken national unity as the president embarks on a second term that millions believe will usher in a new American golden age and millions more fear will destroy the country they love.” This might be true – from the perspective of Democrats and hardened progressives, those President Trump himself repeatedly addressed during the speech and used as a foil for his agenda, but if the reaction polls are any indication, the general public had a much different view, one that suggests a level of unity we haven’t seen in decades. As Newsweek reported, “Donald Trump’s Congress Speech Was a Huge Hit With Americans.” They continued to cite the rather stunning results of a CBS News / YouGov survey, not exactly a Trump-friendly outlet, where an incredible 76% said they approved of the address compared to only 23% disapproval. This included 74% who said he was both “presidential” and “entertaining,” 71% who were inspired, 68% who felt hopeful, 63% who believe he spent “a lot” of time talking about issues they personally cared about, 54% who said it made them feel “proud.” There were even 62% who responded specifically to his criticisms of President Joe Biden and Democrats as “unifying.” On the issues, the numbers were even better if that is to be believed. Trump’s policy proposals and achievements scored equally high or higher than the poll cited earlier, even on controversial topics like tariffs. On federal spending and waste, 77% approved, on immigration, 77%, ending the war in Ukraine, 73%, and imposing tariffs, 65%. Not surprisingly, Republican commentators were far more enthused than Mr. Collinson. David Strom, writing for HotAir.com, claimed, “I am assigned the role of being the dour critic of speeches and debates, but this time I can’t find a bad thing to say about Donald Trump’s speech last night. Not one damn thing. It was quite literally the best speech before Congress ever, and that is saying a lot. I watched all Reagan’s SOTU speeches, and they were great. But Trump really took these speeches to a new level by avoiding the ‘laundry list’ approach to SOTU speeches and instead leaned into a different Reagan innovation: telling the American story through focusing on ordinary Americans and what brings us together.”
Mr. Collinson, meanwhile, was honest enough to note that Democrats are in a bind, lacking any power to change the current situation. “This wasn’t officially a State of the Union address, so Trump didn’t offer the classic line from a president’s annual report. But on the evidence of Tuesday night’s primetime show, the state of MAGA is dominant. The state of Democrats, meanwhile, is impotent. Some of the opposition party’s top figures didn’t even bother to show up. Those who did mostly sat stone-faced, rigid and silent in their seats.” MSNBC went further and claimed this was a strategic blunder. Symone Sanders and Michael Steele discussed the fall out right after the speech, “This is an indictment, in my opinion, on the Democratic leadership…The visuals are not taking back the House in 2026,” Ms. Sanders opined. “I don’t know who thought up the bingo signs, but they should be fired,” Mr. Steele replied. They aren’t wrong, but they are misinterpreting the underlying political reality in my opinion. In politics, the last thing any leader or party wants to do is appear powerless and impotent, even when they are. To be successful, politicians need to at least seem like they’re driving the conversation, directly engaged on the issues that matter, either contributing to successes and pointing out failures. The average person might not follow each and every vote, but they have a general sense of who is in the game, who is advancing their goals and interests, and who is not. Of course, these goals and interests are constantly changing, leading Teddy Roosevelt to describe politics as a kaleidoscope, what you see at what moment, what matters one moment, and the battles you can win in that moment, are constantly shifting. The key, in his view, was to wait for the kaleidoscope to change to a more favorable position to strike; an argument you might lose one day, becomes one you can win the next. Democrats, however, have adopted a self-styled resistance approach, full-on opposing everything Donald Trump says and does, however popular at the moment. Given they have no power, they cannot change the moment on their own, and are making themselves merely victims of it. President Trump’s joint address made this reality plain in a way perhaps nothing else could, because the gathered powers that be on both sides were all sitting right there for the entire country to see. Perhaps even worse, Democrats who might understand the situation in principle and chart a different course in practice are beholden to a base whose loathing of the President is so intense, they will allow nothing except resistance. If they had stood up and cheered – even for a child brain cancer survivor – they would have been pilloried by their own voters, and at least so far, no one has the courage to stand up to these voters. This is the fundamental political bind they are in, and there’s no current way out, caught between the rock that is President Trump, or the ancient sea monster Scylla from Greek mythology that birthed the expression, and the hard place that is their own voters, the whirlpool Charybdis, save to hope for some catastrophe they can capitalize on or some ancient hero like Odysseus to navigate them through in age when heroes are in shorter supply. Rarely, does one speech say this so clearly, but rarely is one politician as underrated as Donald Trump.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 