republicans are out of momentum but democrats are not seizing the moment
some observations about the state of the union speech:
trump didn’t mention ice directly once
the ’trump accounts’ for 25 million children was a v rare mention of actual policy, but isn’t new
not a single one of the 6 times trump said ‘i will’ was about anything except bluster at iran or giving out medals
trump called for congress to pass a bill barring granting commercial drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants
he called for a ban on ’large wall street investment firms’ from ‘buying up in the thousands single family homes’
he asked congress to pass legislation ensuring that violent and repeat offenders are put behind bars and stay there
he also called for passing the ‘stop insider trading act’ saying:
‘i wasn’t sure if anybody even on this side was going to applaud for that.’
he claimed credit for the ’largest tax cuts in american history’
he hand-waved about tech companies building their own power plants to avoid energy prices from continuing to rise
he called for a non-specific ban on gender affirming care for minors after citing an audience member
it was the only mention of trans people i spotted
in summary:
trump and the republicans have nothing new of substance to offer the american people
the old reliable republican punching bags of trans people and undocumented immigrants are getting boring for the base
consider that this was the longest state of the union speech on record, and yet there was /so/ little substance
however, the democrat’s response was equally uninspiring:
jeffries called for democrats to just quietly sit and listen & especially not to hold signs, and they mostly did
jeffries referred to anything but sitting silently as an ‘unforced error’
al green was ejected for holding a sign saying ‘black people aren’t apes’
republicans ‘verbally confronted’ al green and tried to wrench the sign from him before he was escorted out
ilhan omar and rashida tlaib called out ‘you have killed americans’ among other things
gil cisneros, gwen moore, and lois frankel also verbally expressed displeasure
norma torres briefly held up a sign with the faces of alex pretti and renee good
virginia governor abigail spanberger gave the formal rebuttal to the state of the union this year
she is the second career member of the same intel org to deliver the rebuttal this term (2/2 so far)
the other being elissa slotkin, who mentioned her former affiliation in the second paragraph of her rebuttal
one might wonder why this keeps being the specific brand of patriotism the democrats wish to have speak for them
she posed the questions
is the president working to make life affordable for you and your family
is the president working to keep americans safe - both at home and abroad
is the president working for you
she highlighted:
that the tariffs have cost american families more than $1700 each and trump plans more
that the ‘one big beautiful bill’ is shuttering rural health clinics
she added that the bill is also driving up housing and energy costs and cutting food programs for kids
she focused on the issue with ice and other federal law enforcement as being ‘poorly trained’
she mentioned the warrantless arrests & detentions, pulling mothers and babies apart, detaining children
and killing citizens in the streets (and all while masking their faces)
she pointed out ways that ‘[the president is not working for you]’:
the president enriching himself, his family and his friends
the jeff files being less than transparently released
the crypto scams (trump coin, etc.)
etc.
she claimed that:
she is working with the legislature to ’lower costs and make [virginia] more affordable’ (w/ zero specifics)
that ‘democrats across the country are laser-focused on affordability’ (also w/ zero specifics)
her campaign earned votes from ‘democrats, republicans, independents, and everyone in-between’
she said voters ‘didn’t need to be constrained by a party or political affiliation’
given the lack of any outreach to the left & the direct outreach to the right i only see one way to read this
clearly dems think that republicans are confused, that they are silly people who call themselves republican
just out of habit - if /only/ they would realize they /could/ vote dem everything could go back to normal
in summary:
if one looks v closely one might notice an even more stark absence of policy than trump provided; impressive really
republicans have v little to offer the american people - somehow democrats have even less - how is that possible?
it seems like dems are sticking with the same pitch as the last election with harris, ‘we aren’t trump’