President Donald Trump gives credit for America being great back to the people during the State of the Union address.
“The State of our Union is strong because our people are strong,” said Trump.
Like most Americans I did not have a ticket or the option to boycott the President’s first State of the Union address. I instead tuned in from the living room to C-SPAN in order to gage how this great nation, that I love, is doing, according to the top brass.
“Americans are dreamers too,” the president said to quiet boos in another part of his speech.
One could feel the tension in the Capitol Building through the television screen. C-SPAN reported that the president’s State of the Union speech was the second longest in history at 83 minutes. It appeared as though half the room stood up every 30 seconds while the other half refrained from shouting.
The president’s address was a mix of honoring American citizens that have sacrificed or suffered, naming his accolades to date and announcing some policy direction moving forward. The Democrats in attendance sat motionless and only applauded the people on display to represent American values.
“If you work hard, if you believe in yourself, if you believe in America,” the president said, “then together we can achieve absolutely anything.”
He spent around 20 minutes on immigration and Democrat’s body language said more than his 83 minute long speech. During this portion, some boos could be heard. Mention of expanding the policies surrounding DACA did not get the Dems to move. This was probably due to the fact that the compromise was at the center of the issue.
President Trump said that the new compromise provides “dreamers” more time to achieve citizenship. The new policy, according to Trump’s speech, will include more people into the category of “dreamers” and expand protections. This will cost the Democrats the border wall that the president promised.
President Trump’s first State of the Union really seemed chuck-full of rhetoric distraction techniques. There was appeal to emotion, appeal to logic and the appeal to American ethical values according to Trump’s moral compass.
A lot of false choice rhetoric techniques were used as well. The president presented a lot of us vs. them choices going forward. More could have been done to present a unified nation.
Yes, the economy is doing better. Yes, the country is doing better. Yes, the Democrats hate giving any type of credit to the president for anything, but they made themselves look like spoiled 3-year-olds on national television. I did not see what I wanted to see during the State of the Union. I saw a government more dysfunctional than ever. I saw an unwavering governmental party that seemed to not even enjoy their small victories. I saw a political party that seems to only enjoy all or nothing triumphs, the kind of victories mostly read about in books.
The world is not black and white but a myriad of shades in between, and it most definitely is not Democrat or Republican. We the people deserve better from both sides of the aisle.
I hope that going forward the Democrats will get over themselves. I hope they will realize the unwavering hate they have for the loud-mouthed podium holder is childish, that holding the American people, their children’s future and their livelihoods hostage for policy is a mistake.
If I had to judge the State of the Union based off nothing more than the president’s address, I would say our government is divided more than ever. Going forward, the hope of our government working together looks bleak. After all, the only hope Democrats were bothered to stand for was an adopted baby named Hope, not hope for the future of our great nation.
