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Vote for Us, the Adults in the Room
For many Americans, President Trump’s actions; the things his administration has accomplished, are worthy of reelection. But it’s his tone, his Twitter feed, his words, that leave much to be desired. It isn’t presidential and it makes one long for a more dignified period in American politics.
The Democratic Party can’t run easily against President Trump’s record, the economy is too good, his peace through strength foreign policy is proving remarkably effective. And so, if they want to convince Americans to hop ship, in my estimation, they have to prove to voters that they can be the adults in the room and bring decorum back to politics.
Which is what made this move from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi so dumbfounding last night during the State of the Union:
.@SpeakerPelosi tears up of State of the Union speech.#SOTU #SOTU2020 pic.twitter.com/sIpi4G7KsL
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 5, 2020
What is accomplished by this? Theoretically, it’s red meat for the progressive Trump-hating base, though I’ve seen few progressives really thrilled by her actions. So we’re just left with the fact that the level of pettiness between Trump and his opponents is even:
There’s just this amazing cognitive dissonance where Trump can be as outrageous as he wants, but when Pelosi rips up a speech, half of the pundits and commentators on my TL who bask in Trump’s antics scream about decorum. Oh, NOW you don’t like spectacle? Are you not entertained?
— Brooke Rogers 🌻 (@bkerogers) February 5, 2020
And that’s fine, but all things being equal on childishness, why would voters choose a Democratic nominee over a President with a successful first term?
Published in General
I do not long for the “dignified period” if it means we sit there silently while Democrats insult us and abuse us. We’ve sat here silently taking the Democrats’ abuse for as long as I’ve been politically aware, and I’m over half a century old. People who qualify every positive statement about the President by first signalling how much they dislike him come off as double-minded and untrustworthy to me. And the above isn’t even positive. It’s “best of two bad options” again.
A former President once said “Punch back twice as hard.” But y’all loved him because he was so “dignified.”
Well, we’re punching back twice as hard, doing what that guy with the lovely pants-creases said. Maybe “dignified” doesn’t actually move the ball down the field.
@bethanymandel, you’re conflating “citizens” and “voters.” Heck, you’re conflating “living people” and “voters. That’s not the way the Democrat plans work.
That said, this observation is pertinent and, I think, very hopeful:
Bethany,
I think Nancy made a very bad unforced error. To anyone but her narrow extreme base, she comes off at best as a petulant child throwing a tantrum. At worst like a sick harpy that can’t stand the good things that are finally happening in the USA under Trump.
To anyone remotely objective, it was a great speech and a great performance by Trump. Nancy was just sour grapes and looked it.
Regards,
Jim
Not all of us “long for a more dignified period,” not if it means going back to the usual politicians who talk for an hour without saying anything or say one thing to get elected and then do another. Some of you need to get this through your heads: The brashness, the “tone” as you put it, all of it, are exactly what the country needed at this moment in history. And whether you like it or not, Trump is the only person who could have done what he’s doing.
I and a lot of others are pretty sick and tired of the way some of you talk down to us. You can no longer avoid admitting that the achievements of this man are remarkable, but you just can’t stop yourselves from adding “Oh but his TWEETS! Oh his TONE! See? I noticed that, so I’m not one of THOSE people” Nobody wants to hear it. And I for one do not want to see it on the Main Feed. That was the best SOTU speech in history. But you just can’t leave it at that. You have to pour cold water all over it. Why don’t you go write a fan letter to Mitt Romney or something instead of writing this.
But it’s his tone, his Twitter feed, his words, that leave much to be desired.
No. Its the fact he’s a brawler from Queen’s New York who starts to clean up the mess that the “dignified” crowd let slide because it wasn’t “dignified” to deal with it. It wasn’t “dignified” to appear in person at the March for Life; it wasn’t “dignified” to appear with Rush Limbaugh; it wasn’t “dignified” to mention that the slaughter of innocent children in the womb is the mark of a depraved, “undignified” culture that is neo-pagan behind closed doors.
He’s not perfect and I think the Federal Reserve has more to do with the economic conditions than is often acknowledged but he hits the right people where it hurts and its glorious. But definitely not dignified.
Roman Emperors are dignified; gladiators are not. Especially when the Republic is coming down around your ears.
Who is Brooke Rogers?
I don’t care about Pelosi ripping up the paper, nor do I care about Trump twitter.
That, plus what Ted Cruz pointed out on Hannity after the speech:
Time for those hissing Democrats’ opponents to name them and shame them.
I remember JFK’s approach to running for President in 1960. It was something like this:
JFK, being the challenger, didn’t need to personally tear down his opponent. The “We can do better” statement resonated with the slight recession at the time. Too bad modern Democrats can’t do this today.
The Decorum ship has sailed out of the harbor and sunk in the deepest depths of the ocean. It is never coming back.
I kinda like it that way. Everyone is much more honest about it now. I am a clinger to my guns and religion and looked down upon by certain segments, but at least they are telling it to my face. I think the Democrats, on a national level, are godless, power-hungry, globalists who will do anything, and I mean ANYTHING (including sacrificing American citizens/service members or the economy etc) in pursuit of power and control. I fell no need to be particularly decorous in my response to them. Now, I generally think the high road is the better road to take, such as shake hands and display common professional courtesy. But the underlying worldview of the Democrats is so destructive that it should be stopped, reversed, or slowed by nearly any means necessary short of violence. Crass, boorish behavior is inconsequential to that aim in my view.
DrewInWisconsin, Oaf (View Comment):
Maybe “dignified” doesn’t actually move the ball down the field.
Absolutely Agree! As we say on Football Saturday Down South when our favorite SEC team gets a first down:
“MOVE THOSE CHAINS!”
And Trump is doing that. I want him to run up the score so that the Dems have a heck of a time coming back as our destructors!
Yeah, I am sick of being called a racist or a nazi. Policy positions mean Republicans “want to throw Granny off a cliff”. Any disagreement with Obama means you are a racist. “The Republican health plan is die quickly”
There has been nothing “dignified” about our politics for a while. Trump may be “ugly” in his tone. But really, if the “dignified” people of the past had shown some spine, Trump would never have been elected.
Vec,
It’s like night and day. This Democratic Party has literally nothing to offer the American People. They just viciously smear everyone with their woke nostrums. Every event is an opportunity for the Dems to twist into some stock lefty narrative. Their rhetoric ranges from irrelevant, to boring, to sickening.
Regards,
Jim
“Acting presidential” means following the constitution. That’s it. You don’t have to “reach across the aisle” to parasites who hate our country and want to set the constitution on fire. We have nothing in common with them.
“A more dignified period in politics” requires at least some basic agreement on American principals. Republicans still believe in those principals. Democrats do not.
That’s easy. If she doesn’t like him she has to be a New York based media person. Nuanced and “dignified” political effetes provide endless opportunities for the commentariat to pontificate and wordsmith and churn out bland commentary. Undignified Queens real estate developers do not. Just ask Ant Man, Bloomberg.
Hear Hear
That’s getting to be more and more true. I think that while the radical Democrats are now a Jacobin or Bolshevik faction, there may be enough Democrat voters who, if given a face saving way to pretend it all never happened, would like a way out. Whether that is going to be enough, I don’t know. Whether Trump will be able to buy enough time, I don’t know.
We’re staring two separate potential catastrophes in the face: TINVOWOOT, and the debt crisis.
But that “dignified period” in American politics. When was that? The Eisenhower administration? Maybe Woodrow Wilson’s attempted fascist takeover, or Roosevelt’s dignified trashing of the Constitution?
I wrote a post about how the Democratic presidents since WW2 weren’t presidential by Bethany’s definition. But let’s look just at the last two. Clinton raped women and had sex with a subordinate. He lied under oath. Obama lied repeatedly about ObamaCare, used an obscenity to describe Tea Party people, and used the Intelligence Agencies to spy on his opponents (and on the Trump campaign). In light of this recent behavior, Trump’s tweets are not a matter of major concern to me.
Angelo Codevilla’s recent assessment strikes me as correct:
I recall when GW Bush was getting hit badly and he said nothing. I used to wish he would at least say something. @jager
Liberal Democrats only have one role to play, give a growing budget to the long term politically powerful bureaucracy. They do not even have to act like adults because we’re allowing our schools to produce the next winning coalition. We have a little less than 5 years to defend the Republic. One thing we must do as soon as humanly possible is radically change our schools so kids have to actually get educated.
The problem is more difficult than most because the solution is to radically decentralized public education making all of it as if private, like the rest of the economy that actually functions, the way New Zealand did to take it’s schools from the bottom of the industrialized world to the top.
I’ve gotten to the “[expletive] ’em if they can’t take a joke” point, myself. Willing to play nice to avoid unnecessary unpleasantness, but barring a miracle, I doubt the USA as presently constituted will outlive me by much. I think @bethanymandel has young kids. This can’t be easy for her. She and her family would be well advised to have an exit strategy with several contingencies for where to go.
True, but it’s exactly what is needed to fight back against the left.
I think since Trump came on the scene, the left has had to get meaner and more vicious in response to him. By doing so, they’re showing themselves for what they really are: a party with no new ideas, nothing but disdain for ordinary Amercians, and a hatred of anything successful they don’t approve of.
Pelosi’s shredding of Trump’s SOTU speech was the culmination of the Democrat’s long descent into looney leftism. I would love to see a newly-elected Republican House censure her. Or better yet, refuse to seat her . . .
This! This says it all.
Caligula? Nero? Otho? Vitellius? Thanks, I’ll take Trump.
This. It’s inexplicable to me that they pander more and more to tinier slices of victim groups. Why?! Warren wants a “trans child” as an education advisor? Huh? One of these days they’ll end up with a constituency which is comprised of Lesbians, then only blind lesbians, then only blind Muslim lesbians in a wheelchair. Good luck with that, Dems. Good luck.
Yes, it may at times. Just as we learn as children to ignore taunts, “sticks and stones” and all that.
In politics and in diplomacy, it is even more important to not respond to insults. The single question to be asked of Pres. Trump: what is your job? I do not believe tweeter in chief is in there.
So the dems call Mitt Romney a racist and a bigot. Likely the most decent man to ever run for the presidency. He did not lose the election because he failed to taunt the liberal media which was 97.4% behind Pres. Obama. He lost because he could not make a case to the citizens.
So those democrats who hate you and abuse you? Next time you see them, give them a hug.
Well said. Trump’s willingness to mock the opposition is one of his best attributes. At last! Someone who gives as good as he gets, on our behalf. I would consider registering as a republican some day if they would ever stand up for themselves, and I have no confidence in that. I look forward to his second term, and will miss him when he’s gone.
I’ll take Tweeticus Rex over Pelosula the Heinous any day!
Rubbish. We learned as children not to “name call” or lie about others. We learned the golden rule do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The democrats did not learn most of the lessons we were taught as children.
In politics and diplomacy it may be advantageous to ignore an insult, but that is not a Universal Law. It does not apply in all situations. The prior Republican strategy was to always ignore bad behavior. That is just not a usable strategy. There is a point where people have had enough, their patience has been exhausted.
There are a lot of ways to respond to insults rather than ignoring them. You can fight back against lies and smears and remain dignified. If the so called “Adults” have been willing to stand up to the garbage in a classy way things might be different. The Republican base has been told for years that they are racist, evil, Nazi’s… all the proper politicians had to do was anything. They chose to do nothing. They ignored the warnings, Newt was leading the polls for a while just because he was willing to fight back.
Being an Adult is not synonymous with being polite or proper. I know plenty of Adults who are neither.
Or to go back to one of my favorite bits: being “good” is not the same as being “nice.” Sometimes in order to do good, you have to not be nice.