SOTU 2018
To quote Ben Shapiro, "On Tuesday evening, Democrats proved that they’re no longer “progressives” or even the loyal opposition. They’re merely one thing: the anti-Trump party." They proved they're everything they claimed to hate about Republicans, only worse. While Trump was more Presidential than Obama in any of his speeches.
History
Democrats claimed that Republicans treated Obama poorly during his administration. Yet, at no point did the Republicans behave as poorly as the Democrats did at the 2018 State of the Union.
Republicans treated Obama well in 2010 (his first State of the Union), despite him being a flaming douchebag to Republicans and misrepresenting them and their interests for the prior year. Republicans were anti-Obama, certainly. But they didn’t sit through his State of the Union addresses: they cheered when they agreed, and they sat when they disagreed. Democrats couldn't muster that civility -- with many boycotting the speech, and the rest, unilaterally refusing to clap at things they agreed with. One walking out. Many insulting and misrepresenting what he said afterwards. It was like watching a bunch of Jr. High School mean girls, raging against the Prom Queen for beating them out.
To make matters worse, they used that PR distraction to do a dump of their FEC numbers. (Federal Election Committee report on how they were doing financially). Which is no surprise, since they were dismal -- their donations and support seems to be half of Republicans (when they're normally double), and drying up. They took out loans and are on the verge of insolvency. Not good.
Their message of uncivil grousing and hypocritical hating of hate (in the name of tolerance), might carry well on the coasts and with extreme partisans, but the zen message of no message, is not playing well with donors or most of America.
Right now the Dems only message has been, we hate Trump and oppose the office of the President.
Trump can offer 3x more DACA recipients amnesty than Obama did, in trade for something Dems admitted was a problem a few years ago — dems oppose that.
Trump can weight a tax break for the bottom, and companies responded with bonuses and salary increases for over 3M people, and Dems opposed/mocked that too. (After trumpeting $40 differences, $1,000+ bonuses are considered crumbs to them)
Trump did what Dems said was impossible, and brought back some manufacturing jobs, and investment into America, bring minority employment up, and they hate that too. Really.
He wants to increase infrastructure spending, which the dems have whined about for 20 years. Dems hate that.
He started talking about family leave, and has a plan to get it. Dems didn't jump on the opportunity, but scoffed at the suggestion.
Things they claim to support, they hate, if Trump does it. Things they claim to hate, like how much less civil and more partisan things got under Obama — they behave worse about. And not get the irony. They set the new bar, even lower than ever before, and will be shocked and outraged when that becomes the new normal. Their extreme message comes across as not just anti-Trump, it’s anti-America.
The blue collar groups became woke to it, and it lost dems the election. Now even more minorities are waking up as well. Certainly, the purple states and independents are starting to break more away from the dems. This is not boding well for Dems: their choice is their extremist ideology, or their funding and elections (which would require moderation), and they’re choosing the former.
I don’t necessarily like that Trump’s tariff on solar panels or washing machines, is forcing Chinese companies to open manufacturing in the U.S. (even if it is tit-for-tat isolationism). I’m not a fan of across the board increases in military spending right now. The wall, isn’t where I’d put my resources (it’s mostly symbolic). I don’t think he’s responsible for as much as he’s taking credit for (just like Obama). So it’s not all “rah rah” to me. But a slightly balanced human being can at least feign support for causes they wanted progress on, even if they don’t have to applaud for everything.
Irrational partisan will hate even getting things they want, if it was the other side that gave it to them. America is seeing that personified in the DNC.
What is their message? What do they want? Trump is a deal maker... if dems said, “we’ll give you X for Y”, Trump would probably screw over the right to make the deal. But they can’t work with anyone that doesn’t 100% buy into their dogma. So their message is “never, ever, work with Trump”... which isn’t a message at all. Trump just plays them, like he did with the shutdown. And Dems still think they’re the smartest people in the room? Puhlease.
I warned that Dems needed to keep their powder dry, not overplay their hands. But they keep sensationalizing any bait Trump throws their way, and they keep getting played. They can’t restrain themselves. All they had to do last night was lead by example, and be the more gracious party, and they would have won. But that was beyond them.
Democrats showed they hate Trump so much, that they’d rather hurt Americans, than see him do anything good. And that message is not playing well anywhere but on the extremist coasts.
Democrats have lost 75% of Governors, they’ve lost most statehouses. In studies, they’ve gone further left, than the right has gone right. They purged all the blue dogs, moderates and conservative democrats over the last couple decades. Their strategy of 100% for or against the DNC (and that being more important than America, re-election, moderation), has gutted them in most purple states. And their funding is following.
They gained some of the urban elites on the coasts, and they are losing the rest of the country. And still, they think it’s all the other guys fault? Their clues keep calling, but they won’t answer the phone, or read their texts.
A few people think because I dislike the Dems moves since the Pelosi/Waters/Reid/Schumer extremist ascension, that I’m partisan Republican. It’s laughably overly-simplistic. I want a vibrant democracy, with both sides fighting for different aspects of American prosperity, and something closer to both sides moderates fighting over nuances in the middle — not petty team red/blue bullshit, fighting over the extremes. But we can’t get back to a healthy democracy until the media and left can admit they might have had something to do with making us sick (dividing the nation and polarizing us in the first place). And that until they put Americas interests above their party, we’re going to get more of the same.
Last night, Dems proved they’re not ready to grow up yet. And last nights donation announcement they tried to bury, seems to hint that voters and donors have noticed.
The pendulum needs to swing. So Dems will get their turn again. The problem is their standards set the bar for how they will be treated when they do. And I think they confuse a dislike with Trump’s style, with a dislike with Trump’s results. I’m not sure that’s how it’ll play with the electorate. And I’m pretty sure that America has been trying to use a megaphone to say that they don’t like Democrats style any more than his. But Dems are tone-deaf to it.
