President Donald Trump gave his second State of the Union address Tuesday. In a speech full of lies, contradictions and an insincere commitment to unity, the only saving grace was the sarcastic clapping of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after it ended.
In isolation, some of Trump’s statements would have created a bridge to the other side of the aisle.
“We must reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution, and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and the common good,” Trump said during the address.
But Trump exists in a swamp of his own making. According to a Washington Post article, in 2018 Trump averaged 15 false claims per day. As a pathological liar, he said lie after lie after lie. He lied about immigration, he lied about the economy, he lied about health care. But what he didn’t say also left a sour impact on the nation.
Trump never took any blame for the divisiveness in Washington, never took any blame for the partial federal government shutdown and never even cited the shutdown in his hour-long speech. If you believe Trump is dedicated to ending bipartisanship, ask him why he spends his days with so much “executive time” scheduled in.
Trump claimed on no logical grounds that “there cannot be war and investigation,” echoing the State of the Union address President Richard Nixon gave less than a year before his resignation.
“The time has come to bring that investigation and the other investigations of this matter to an end,” Nixon said in 1974.
Moreover, in a moment meant to discuss the plague of bullying that exists in America, Trump seemed to make it about himself. He featured a student who shared the president’s last name and was bullied because of it.
No student should ever be bullied, and we sympathize with this student. But many children are bullied for their appearance, race, creed, sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Not once did Trump say the word “diversity.”
In the Democratic response, Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives and 2018 nominee for governor, brought something Trump couldn’t — the voice of a lower-middle-class person of color. Abrams brought up issues that truly affect Americans, such as student debt and climate change.
Trump has managed to take over the Republican party, while the Democrats remain a plethora of individuals. Democrats come from diverse backgrounds and speak to the issues facing all Americans, as demonstrated by Abrams’ speech.
The Republican party’s ideology is a deep, monotone red that is clouded and dominated by Trump and his 140-character rants. The Democrats are colored with many hues of blues, some very liberal and some more moderate.
Yet nothing Trump said could have ever spoken to those who believe he is a demagogue and a racist. He has lost the respect of too many Americans to be a truly representative figure. It is highly improbable, if not impossible, that Trump becomes something other than a standard bearer of divisiveness.
