Dems Stoop to Trump’s Level

I watched as much of Donald Trump’s State of the Union address as I could stomach, which is to say about 20 minutes of it. I caught up by reading about it this morning.

My overall take is that Trump was Trump, which is to say that he revealed yet again what a — to use a word applied to him by conservative columnist Bret Stephens — loathsome human being he is. As per usual he stayed on script for a while and then indulged his grievances and his penchant for self-aggrandizement, distortion, lies and wild evidence-free accusations. He taunted his opponents like a middle-school bully and here and there he was just cruel. Trump has trashed the honor and dignity of the presidency. I could go on, but what’s the point? He’s an awful person and a horrible president. If you agree with me you don’t need more evidence and if you don’t agree with me nothing I can write here is going to change your mind.

But while Trump was just more of the same — I can’t be disappointed in a man I have no respect for to begin with — the Democrats did not do themselves proud either. The flat-out nutty Rep. Al Green did his usual grandstanding at the outset, shouting and raising a sign to draw attention to himself while he was escorted from the floor of the House. Hard-left Rep. Rashida Tlaib wore a pin that said “Fuck ICE.”

When Trump, the most corrupt president in American history, started to go on about how he was fighting corruption, some Democrats shouted out, “You’re corrupt!” The fact that they were right doesn’t excuse the outburst.

And then of course some Democrats boycotted the speech, symbolically turning their backs on Trump. While that was better than the childish displays of some Democrats who were there just to grandstand, I didn’t much like that either. It seems to me that showing up for the State of the Union is part of the job. Sit and listen. Take notes if you want. And then afterwords tell your constituents what you thought. That’s what adults do.

It’s important to remember that it wasn’t always like this. In 2009, Republican Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted “You lie!” at Pres. Barack Obama as he explained that his health care proposal would not cover illegal immigrants. Democrats and even some Republicans were beside themselves. Ultimately, Wilson was chastised by the House in a formal vote and apologized to Obama.

Now a single outburst of “You lie!” seems kind of quaint compared to the way Trump and some hard-left Democrats act.

Aside from the fact that these Democrats are complicit with Trump in driving down the dignity of their offices and the decorum of their institutions, it’s just bad politics. Nobody here in the middle likes this kind of behavior from either side.

I suppose liberal Democrats do it because it’s the kind of thing that appeals to the zealots in their base. There’s this view — I hear it all the time in Madison — that Trump represents an “existential” threat to democracy (liberals love the word “existential”) and that since our backs are against the wall we need to “fight fire with fire.” People who say this kind of thing identify themselves as part of “the resistance”. I suppose they imagine themselves sitting in cafes wearing black turtlenecks and berets, drinking little cups of strong coffee and plotting to blow up bridges.

It’s all very dramatic. But the people who need persuading are not much into drama. They just want the people they elect to act like adults, to be serious and to take their problems seriously. They’ll vote for Democrats in the fall not because they love Democrats but because they don’t like Trump.

But at some point people might actually want to vote FOR something. That something won’t be the kind of antics that appeal to the hard-left activist class or the true believer MAGA crowd. It might be a return to dignity and decorum, maturity and some plain human decency.

Right now neither side is supplying much of any of that.