Let’s give them the award straight up: Worst Performance by a Minority Party at a State of the Union Address.
(Hey, it’s awards season, right?)
They broke the record. They get the prize with no runner-up for years to come.
Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi watching Trump’s speech looked like a pair of sullen six-year olds on a sugar crash the day after Halloween. Bernie Sanders looked mummified. Schumer was slumped so deeply in his chair he was almost falling through the crack.
Other Democrats, even ones who should have known better or secretly felt otherwise, sat on their hands. You could see them glancing at each other, wondering whether they were allowed to applaud or stand up. What a bunch of cowards.
It was a disgraceful display of bad manners, but even more it was incredibly stupid because “the whole world was watching.” The camera was getting them all in close-up.
Who are these ungrateful corpses, middle America must have been asking. Good question. (Can you imagine how much money Pelosi has made in the stock market since Trump was elected? What does she have to be so upset about?)
More jobs? No applause. Higher wages? No applause. Lowest black unemployment in history? Crickets. ISIS disappearing? Zzzz…
What’s wrong with these people? Don’t they know nobody loves a sorehead? You think Colin Kaepernick could be elected president?
And why were they so depressed, you may ask? Easy. Here’s what they knew and what we all know. Trump is here to stay — for the next seven years. And they’re going to have to live with it.
Reason: Trump is an upper, like Reagan and JFK. All three were cheerleaders for America and made/make us feel good. That’s what wins. And why shouldn’t it? Optimism and pessimism are largely self-fulfilling prophecies. For today’s Democrats, it’s “Unhappy Days Are Here Again!”
Oh, yes, Trump gave a terrific speech, especially in the dramatic utilization of the stories of extremely well-chosen audience members. That technique has been done a lot, but never better. Donald is our Entertainer-in-Chief. Sometimes he’s funny. This time he tugged at the heart strings. The guy with the crutch was a veritable Korean Tiny Tim — one of the most amazing figures I have ever seen, a living symbol of the fight again totalitarianism.
So what’s going to happen? I’m not sure, but there’s a strong possibility that the Democratic Party is going to split. No way can centrist Democrats go against Trump without risking certain defeat. What policies do they have to differentiate themselves that would make sense to the public?
The Democratic centrists and the far left will separate. Bernie at last will have his own party. Let’s hope he has some younger people to run with. He didn’t look healthy Tuesday night.
And to make matters worse, the Democrats get as a defender on Laura Ingraham’s show Philippe Reines, who looks more like a member of the Politburo than anybody since Gromyko and continued to sound like a sorehead.
At least the Democrats have some hope with the new Kennedy. He performed pretty well, all things considered, and was the only one to mention the R-word (Russia).
Too bad the memo is about to come out.
Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and co-founder of PJ Media. His latest book is I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn’t Already.
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