Last night’s State of the Union events are a perfect microcosm for America over the last few years. In case you missed it, Donald Trump snubbed Nancy Pelosi’s attempt to shake his hand at the start of the event. At the end of the address, Pelosi tore up a paper copy of the speech. Trump never turned around to acknowledge her at the conclusion (or the Vice President, for that matter).
All in all, it makes for some good entertainment. The fiery Pelosi taking another shot at the impeached President in what could be his last State of the Union. The President denying his adversary a civil greeting. In a vacuum, you could chalk it all up to gamesmanship. But we don’t live in a vacuum.
What has become troublesome is the way these events are consumed by the public. This is in part due to the media and the way in which these stories are reported. But at the end of the day, it is up to each individual American to draw their own conclusions and form their own opinions, hopefully based on fact, though facts are subjective these days.
We live in a reality of false equivalencies.
In 2012, Mitt Romney was running against President Obama in the election. In trying to explain gender equity, he stated that he had “binders full of women” whom he had worked with or employed.
That statement cost him the election. That’s all it took. Objectify women in a way that makes them a statistic, and Americans will kick you to the curb.
No longer.
Nancy Pelosi ripped up a few pieces of paper.
The right-wing spin machine equated this to dishonoring a military family and a Tuskegee airman who were in the audience.
Never mind that Trump villified immigrants in his speech. Never mind that Trump said he had an “ironclad” promise with the American people to protect pre-existing conditions despite continued legal and legislative attempts to repeal the very laws that offer those protections. Never mind that he cheaped the Presidential Medal of Freedom by bestowing it upon a far-right wing talk show host who has a history of demeaning women and using racist rhetoric. She tore up a piece of paper, and that means she hates America.
The Trump era has become dangerous not because of the President himself, but because of the supporters who seem to have traded any level of decency and integrity for the artificial feeling of “winning.”
Romney had binders full of women. Republicans turned on him.
Trump:
- Openly mocked a handicapped person
- Bragged about grabbing women by the pussy. (The TV personality he said this to lost his job simply for engaging in the conversation. Republicans then elected Trump President)
- Created a travel ban targeting specific races and religions, leaving out the nation responsible for 9/11, Saudi Arabia.
- Called white supremacists “fine people.”
- Called for Russia, on video, to find Hillary’s email.
- Said he “loved Wikileaks.”
- Mocked a Gold Star family, and attacked them repeatedly.
- Intimidated a witness, Ambassador Yovanovitch, WHILE SHE WAS TESTIFYING, and after he and his administration created false pretense to remove her from her position, despite him having the authority to remove her without disparaging her.
- Attacked almost all news outlets as “Fake News,” with the exception of Fox, the only channel his supporters are allowed to believe, lest they be excommunicated from the cult.
- Sided with Vladamir Putin’s assessment of the 2016 election interference over his own intelligence agencies
- Put forth and sided with a Supreme Court justice candidate that, at a minimum, was credibly accused of sexual assault.
- Openly mocked the woman who had allegedly been sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh.
- Supported a Republican Senate candidate accused of pedophilia. That candidate lost, by the way. In Alabama.
- For some reason, blatantly lied about the crowd size at his inauguration.
- Presided over the longest shutdown in American history.
- Allowed Saudi Arabia to suffer no consequences after they murdered a US-based journalist.
- Needlessly attacked John McCain and Jon Dingell after they had passed away.
- Called African nations “shithole countries.”
- Separated immigrant families and locked children up on the border.
- Created a conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in America.
- Lost a court case which found him guilty of fraudulently using charity money.
- Lost a court case which found the university he founded guilty of fraud.
- Had multiple members of his campaign or administration were convicted of crimes and jailed for campaign finance violations or fraud.
- Asked a foreign nation to aid him in his election.
- Peddled a conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, even though his own intelligence agencies have debunked that theory.
And his supporters are unwavering. For what? A Tax break? What would cause a portion of Americans to sell their souls and abandon their integrity? What benefit is so great that it justifies electing a self-serving, racist womanizer?
I don’t see one.
Nancy Pelosi tore up some paper. She hates America.
Mitt Romney had binder full of women. He lost an election by a landslide.
Donald Trump has been consistently dishonest and divisive and thrown any inkling of decency, empathy or integrity to the wind.
And his support solidifies. This is the America we live in.
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