I want to add a few thoughts to Scott’s post on the State of the Union, with which I agree.
I don’t know whether last night’s speech was the longest SOTU ever, but it had to be the most combative. The fact that President Trump can keep it up for nearly two hours is impressive, but I have to think most viewers had turned in by the time he finished. Trump started where we expected him to, by touting his domestic accomplishments on the economy. If anything, that part of the speech was too short. He didn’t get to foreign policy until near the end, which made sense.
The speech was massively patriotic. Trump referred several times to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, but most of the patriotic bits involved people in the audience. Trump does those shout-outs better than anyone, and they were highly effective last night. The speech was largely about patriotism and the Democrats are not patriotic, so they looked forlorn and left out. His welcoming the Olympic hockey team was just one element of the patriotic theme; it worked fine, but didn’t surprise anyone.
A number of Democrats boycotted the SOTU, which strikes me as a bad idea unless they all do it. With quite a few of their number missing, the Democrats looked like a sad rump minority. Their lack of enthusiasm, time after time, for people and events that all Americans should cheer was notable.
In this regard, the high point came when Trump asked all those present who agree that the government’s duty is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens, to stand up. The Republicans all stood and cheered, while Democrats remained sitting. The ovation went on for around a minute, while Trump repeatedly gestured toward the seated Democrats. The point was made: the Democrats do, in fact, prioritize illegal aliens over Americans. It is remarkable that they don’t even try to pretend the opposite.
To me, the main takeaway from last night is that Trump is not going to take the midterms lying down. Again and again, he went straight after the Democrats, calling them out on one issue after another. I don’t think we have seen anything like Trump’s combativeness in a SOTU before. Like most observers, I think the Democrats will take the House in November. But Trump put them on notice that they won’t take it without a fight, and further, that they won’t take it if the voters are paying attention to what has been accomplished in the first year of his second term.
