When actions do not match words, we tend to sit uncomfortably with the words and actions that do not meet each other’s realities. Only a small margin of people tolerate friends who tell them what they want to hear and then watch them act so differently and out of line with the words they just said. If we can so easily recognize an untrue friend, then why is there an overwhelming base of Americans who are so quick to celebrate these same characteristics in the individual who represents you and your integrity?
President Trump stood before the American people last week and addressed the world during the State of the Union speech. Trump has a way of deviating from his writer’s speech and interjecting on himself, but during his speech, he uncharacteristically presented himself in an overall professional manner that Americans deserve from the President of the United States.
Whether you agree with his normal politics is not in question, but rather how this professional speech aligns with the reality of his administrations work over the course of the last year.
In President Trump’s speech, he sought to unify the American people with his clichés and to call for unity behind the strength of our union and for our love for one another despite any difference we may hold. However, his actions over the past year have been contrary to that as he perpetrated and continues to perpetrate divisiveness among the American people.
He showed compassion when he mentioned his utmost concern for those who fell victim to natural disasters this past year, including Puerto Rico, even as he mocked them in the wake of their hardships only three months ago.
He spoke of nationalism for the United States under one flag against those who seem to harm our democracy while being hesitant to condemn those who raise another flag out of hate. Trump also refused to place sanctions on the country and meddled in the most prestigious election on the Earth.
He promised to keep American jobs safe, but has invested in a dying coal industry and has crippled the progressiveness of the American people and our jobs by having tariffs placed on the future of energy. The future is in renewable energy, and while coal may have a few more years of life left, it will not be long before other countries take our jobs to become more progressive nations than us.
Listening to the State of the Union speech delivered by President Trump at surface level was appropriate and professional. However, when we start to dig and listen to the words for ourselves we see a reality out of line with the polished words of a speech. We see inconsistency, ineffectiveness and intolerable actions when compared to the words we hear.
Speeches are proven to be powerful have been illustrated by great speakers like Martin Luther King, Jr., Adolf Hitler and Billy Graham. These men knew how to connect with their base, not only through their words, but through their actions. Its alarming to hear a speech from our president that elicits chants of “USA, USA, USA” from grown men in professional and powerful positions. If we will not allow our peers and friends to speak and act in an unaligned manner, then we should hold our president and his administration to the same, if not higher, standards.
