State of the Union

Tuberville called her a housewife. She isn't one; she's a United States Senator. But it tells you what he really thinks.

 

Tuberville is an indiot.

 

Hm. Not sure what an "indiot" is but Tuberville is definitely one.

 

The Story that Britt told about the Mexican cartel using a 12 year old for sex trafficking until she was 16 and blamed Biden for it, all happened in Mexico before Biden was even President. LOL hilarious!

Anecdote from Sen. Katie Britt’s criticism of Biden’s border policies appears to be from before he was president
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/09/politics/katie-britt-biden-border-policies-anecdote/index.html

 

I never thought the State of the Union address should be a political speech. Calling out tRUMP and the Republicans was just not good. I would say that if he were Republican and calling out a former Democrat president or the Democrat Party. And heckling the president of the United States while he is giving the address should have required the Sergeant at Arms to escort those idiots out. I voted for Biden. I won't vote for him again. I will more than likely go third party. Depending on who the Libertarians nominate, right now I'm leaning toward Robert Kennedy, Jr. I supported Nikki Haley for the GOP nomination.

 

Katie Britt is much smarter than that. She came across as a complete imbecile. The only thing that didn't distinguish her as a southern redneck was her accent, she didn't have one. My guess is this will be Trump's pick for VP.

 

Perhaps if they stop shouting, interrupting, and being overall asses, that would be the case.

 

Perhaps. But she did herself no favors, and her handlers bungled it, too. Trump doesn't like that in others. (Only in himself.)

I'm guessing Noem, but I've been known to be wrong.

 

Oh, okay, Steele, you want Trump to get another term then. Gotcha.

As for politicizing the State of the Union address, it has ALWAYS been political. Didn't you see MTG's getup?

 

I really disagree with this sentiment, although it is in some sense a reasonable one.

In a broad sense, how can these two guys be the nominees? (Your point.) But it's more complicated than that. The devil's in the details.

A sitting president who one the presidency and wants to run again has been turned away by his party once: Franklin Pierce. He's the list. When the Democrats nominated Joe Biden in 2020, they were making him the nominee in 2024. If Biden had at any time come across as a 1-term president, he would have been blown out in 2020.

Should he have stepped aside at some point earlier than now? Perhaps. But it's way, way too late now. The only person who has the funding and organization to be able to step in is the one already running alongside him.

And what's to object to? The only issues Republicans can seem to raise that are actually true are that he's old and that the border, Gaza, and Ukraine are a bummer. That's a pretty weak list. And note that they absolutely refuse to do anything about the latter three.

I get opposing Biden on policy or political grounds; no problem. But not because he hasn't done the job or can't do the job. Not so.

What is much more baffling is Trump's hold on the Republican Party. He fluked into a win in 2016 and has been a losing proposition since. I understand why they want a conservative, of course--it's who they are. But why do they stay with this guy? My theory: it's about race. There are a lot of people in MAGA who are just furious at anything that threatens White supremacy. (And male, and straight, too.) Trump has said and done things along those lines like no one else--things conventional thinking concluded would sink him. Instead, they love him for it.

Democrats have no choice. Republicans want no other choice.

 

All true. But I think that Trump's cult status no longer has, or requires, any rational explanation. Donald Trump just "is" and his worshippers (for that is what MAGA comprises) deem serving him a moral good beyond any other. How this came to be I really don't know but I don't worship any idol of the sort and never have. A warning to Mr. Trump, though. Idols die easily and sometimes breathtakingly quickly.

 

As an aside, sometime after Trump is gone some talented person could write a tragic opera about the man. I'm not making a joke here. Whatever else Trump may be, he is a force in our national life. He engineered a meteoric, even unparalleled, rise to power and has since suffered the consequences of his own character flaws. He cannot escape himself and at some level, I suspect he is aware of the fact and terrified by it. At this point, Donald Trump has lost control. I'm far from certain whether Trump controls his MAGA followers or they control him. Are they making him dance?

 

All good points. I think his age, rather his perceived age induced cognitive decline, is a massive issue for many. Most people know there is a “machine” that operates around the President with many decisions being made at various levels. The difference is we always “know” that the elected leader is engaged at the appropriate levels, understands the issues as best as anyone in the world can, and is prepared to intervene for the best interests of the people when needed. I have been indifferent to President Biden and have largely not watched any pro or con things about him. I don’t want to think ill of or have to worry about my President. When I see President Biden speak I genuinely worry about his health in ways I have never had to worry about for previous Presidents and I think that political system realities you speak about have resulted in an elderly man being the only option for their party even when it isn’t in the best interest of the individual or the nation. If this is what is captured on camera, I wonder what is happening behind the scenes? I don’t care about “gaffes,” people make momentary mistakes all the time. Calling Egypt Mexico without noticing, calling Gaza Ukraine multiple times without noticing, isn’t a “gaffe,” it is confusion. For the sake of our country I hope our President is engaged and has the capacity to do the job and it isn’t the unelected “machine” operating on autopilot that resulted in the “achievements” you mention. Were they achieved because of the President or despite him?

As for your theory about Trump and race, it discounts the many minorities that support him. I know people that fiercely identify with their race, that support Trump because of X reason. Race is a part of it for sure for some, but somehow all of the people that choose Trump latch onto the one thing they like about him and prioritize that over everything else that would normally or logically prevent him from receiving their vote.

 

Regarding how we got "stuck" with these two to choose from, I agree with everything everyone has said. I think in addition there's a large percentage of the voter base that pays little attention to politics. They only pay much attention a few months before the actual election date.

 

Mel Brooks? Well, maybe, but Trump is a tragic figure in the classic sense, the way Macbeth is a tragic figure. There comes a point in tragedy where the protagonist either loses his control over events or realizes that any control he ever had was illusory. The Fates take over and he's trapped ever more closely until he is destroyed.

A tragic figure need not be attractive or virtuous. In fact, since by definition he loses all in the end through the consequences of his own acts he probably isn't virtuous.

When you think about it, for sheer monstrousness Trump isn't even in the same league as Bush II. If Trump has blood on his hands GWB bathed in blood daily for oil business profits. For morality or political rectitude, Trump is bad news but no worse than John F. Kennedy. JFK's great virtue is that he was comparatively young and attractive, yet Kennedy appointed his own brother as U.S. Attorney General! (And, if the stories are true, that's not ALL he shared with his brother.) Yet neither Bush II nor JFK are tragic because the Fates left them alone and unpunished.

I make no defense of Donald Trump. He is fully entitled to every minute of prison time and dollar of fines levied against him and for attempting to subvert the 2020 election, I think he should find the end of a rope. But all that said, Trump would make for an interesting opera while JFK and Bush II would not.

 

And there is another, much darker side to Trump as Tragedy. WHY were JFK and Bush II spared? Perhaps because they were scions of the Establishment in a way that Donald Trump was not and could never be. The Fates seem to favor the well-connected.