The Donald Trump Show

So what was Donald Trump's speech to Congress last night like?  Well, I didn't see the whole thing, but I saw the lowlights.  He bashed the Democrats for their approach to the economy, he compared himself to George Washington, he talked about how his beautiful tariffs will lead to prosperity, and he once again advocated annexation of Greenland.  In short, it was like a typical Trump rally speech.

Quite frankly, the idiotic references to the economy were the most memorable lines from the speech.  Of course - Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress and pledge to make the world safe for democracy; Franklin Roosevelt spoke to Congress in "the unusual posture" of sitting to lay out his post-World War II vision after the Yalta summit; John F. Kennedy announced to Congress that he was challenging the nation to put a man on the moon and have him returned safely to Earth; Trump complained about egg prices and blamed it on Biden.  Of course.  

it was a Trump rally speech because the event actually was a Trump rally. Democrats were a captive audience to MAGA Republicans' applause, struggling to found ways to protest, from wearing colors symbolizing resistance to Trump or for standing with Ukraine, which worked in the context of decorum in the House chamber but seemed awkward to some pundits.  The most effective protest came from Representative Al Green (D-TX), who yelled out that Trump had no mandate to cut Medicaid and was summarily removed from the chamber while Republicans mockingly chanted "USA! USA!" at Green as he was being led out.  (As far back as 1996, a British journalist covering the Atlanta Olympics compared the chant of the initials of the United States' official name to chants of "Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!" in Germany in the 1930s.  The comparison seemed all the more apt last night.)

There was one bright side to what happened to Representative Green; only he was removed from the chamber, and not the entire congressional Democratic caucus.  If that had happened, the Democrats wouldn't have just been taken out of the House chamber, they would have been . . . taken out . . . permanently.  Fortunately, dissent against Der Amerikanischer Führer is not yet a capital crime.

The most effective counterpoint to Trump came not during the speech but after it, when one of the newest Democrats in the Senate, Elissa Slotkin (above), who proved to be a steely, strong tigress behind her dimpled-little-sister exterior.  Senator Slotkin gave a brief yet pointed response for the Democratic Party in her takedown of Elon Musk's reckless evisceration of the federal bureaucracy and Trump's plan to decimate the middle class as well as her forceful objection to Trump's caving to Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine.  Senator Slotkin said she was glad Ronald Reagan was President in the 1980s and not Donald Trump, otherwise the United States would have lost the Cold War.

Aside from late-middle-age progressives who spent the eighties in college demonstrating against Reagan's Central America policy and nuclear arms buildup, most people should find favor in Senator Slotkin's remarks.  A former CIA operative and U.S. House member,  Slotkin proved to be an effective messenger for the Democrats.  It also helped that she is a national-security expert and also the junior senator from Michigan, a state that has produced so many legendary businessmen in the auto industry - the Chevrolet brothers, the Dodge brothers, David Dunbar Buick, Henry Ford, Walter Chrysler - whose surnames became trusted brands, something the current White House occupant has tried to make of his own surname . . . in vain.

In a party struggling for leaders and leadership, Elissa Slotkin appears to have provided just that.  She's probably the second most effective speaker the Democrats have.  Only Tim Ryan is better, but, of course, he's a hasbeen (for now).

Other Democrats gave effective responses to Trump's the media, like when party chair Ken Martin said that Elon Musk and his DOGE boys could go to hell, or when Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas called Trump a nightmare she was hoping to wake up from, or when Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts called upon Trump to resign.  But not everyone saw individual Democrats taking to reporters.  They all did see Trump's speech.  However, I wouldn't say now that the Democrats aren't fighting back at all or aren't fighting back enough, as Chris Cuomo suggested . . . though the less said about Chris Cuomo, the better.  In fact, Chris's attempt at an even-handed view of Trump and his disgraced brother Andrew's decision to run for mayor of New York City signify the most spectacular drop in credibility and prestige by any political dynasty in American history (the falls of the Kennedys and the Bushes were more gradual).

One other thing.  As late as 2022, whenever you saw President Biden address Congress, you'd see two women - one black, the other Italian, both from California - sitting behind him in their respective capacities as Vice President and Speaker of the House.  Now, Trump is back, and the two people sitting behind him are both white males of Anglo-Saxon origin from the nation's midsection.

Not so inspiring . . . unless you're a red-state MAGA-maniac.