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After the President ended his State of the Union address to congress and the nation, Speaker Pelosi - in what can only be described as a fit of rage, stood up in front of the entire world and ripped up her copy of it. That moment was worth its weight in gold in terms of the President’s re-election campaign.
Of course - that half of the country that hates the President as much as (or more than) Speaker Pelosi does, believes she did the right thing. How in heaven’s name can anyone with a conscience applaud anything the President says or does.
He has alienated our allies, befriended our adversaries… he is destroying the environment, enriching the ‘one perecenters’, taking away health coverage from millions of Americans, destroying a woman’s right to control her own body, vilifying Muslim and Hispanic immigrants, emboldening right wing racists and bigots, hurting public education, coarsening civil discourse… and has the morals of an alley cat to boot! (Did I leave anything out?)
Add to all of this his attempt to extort a foreign leader into smearing a potential political rival in the next election, and no other President in history deserved to be impeached and removed from office more than does Donald J. Trump! (That he will not be removed must have added to Speaker Pelosi’s rage.)
So if you are a Democrat or a ‘Never Trumper’ Republican this is exactly how you think. You might not only agree with what Speaker Pelosi did, you might even say it didn’t express nearly enough how you feel about the President!
If, however, you are a conservative Republican most of the above is either something you strongly support, not true, exaggerated, or a misrepresentation of the President’s record. For conservatives, much of that address was a triumph of conservative values – both political and social. I am not going to go into detail about that. I have discussed why conservatives love his policies many times. Point being - there are many reasons for that.
But what if you are a patriotic Independent? My guess is that you did not like what you Speaker Pelosi did last night. Although I lean strongly to political conservatism, I consider myself Independent and have voted for both liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans over the years… based on criteria that are also beyond the scope of this post.
What was so terrible about ripping up the President’s address? For one thing it is unseemly to insult the President in public like that no matter how you feel about him. That the President does things like that all the time, does not man one has to stoop to his level. Especially some who is 3rdin line to the Presidency.
The address did sound more like a campaign speech than an address about how well the country is doing. But one might argue that anytime a President talks about how well the country is doing under their watch - it too is a campaign speech. Although perhaps the President has taken this to a new level. But is that a reason to express such rage?! Not in my book.
What about the fact that he gave bombastic conservative talk show host, Rush Limbaugh - the arch enemy of political liberalism - the Presidential Medal of Freedom? I can certainly see how a liberal Democrat would be offended by that. But Limbaugh is a hero of the right and a dying man. When the First Lady gave him that award during the address it got a standing ovation from Conservative Republicans. Is that a reason to express such rage? Again, not in my book.
But what really upset me about what Speaker Pelosi did last night is how all those other deserving souls who the President honored must feel about it. They were all so deserving of those honors that even Speaker Pelosi applauded at least some of them at the time. How for example must 100 year old Charles Mcgee, the last surviving member of the Tuskegee Airmen feel about what she did?
The Tuskegee Airmen were black fighter pilots who served in all black units at a time when the US military was segregated. Despite the ongoing racism of that time - many black soldiers served with valor – in many cases dying for their country - despite . McGee flew 130 combat missions during WWII. After which he went on to serve in both the Korean and Viet Nam war.
Earlier in the day the President promoted McGee to Brigadier General at age 100. When he made that announcement during his address, McGee got a standing ovation from everyone. Rightly so.
And Pelosi had the nerve to rip that address up on national television?! She might feel justified in doing so based on all the above-mentioned ways in which she sees the President. But when she ripped up that address, she also ripped up the tribute McGee got – right along with all the other deserving people the President saluted that night.
For me that is beyond disgusting. There are certainly other ways to express one’s contempt for the President. This was exactly the wrong way to do it. One might even say it was very ‘Trumpian’ of her. She got right into the gutter with him.
The political fallout of that moment will surely benefit the President. The image of Speaker Pelosi tearing up that address will get a lot of replays on his campaign ads. What she did will fire up Trump’s base more than ever. I don’t think most American voters want to see that - even those that plan to vote against Trump in the election.
If the election were held today, Speaker Pelosi’s 2 second moment of rage would surely give Trump the winning edge when added to the unparalleled prosperity we are going through under the President’s watch. A prosperity that will not go unnoticed by Independent swing voters. Who tend to see things more objectively than partisan politicians.
I believe that Speaker Pelosi will regret doing what she did last night. She may have actually assured a Trump victory come November. For which Trump loyalists should thank her. Maybe even give her a standing ovation.