Ingraham: The great disrupter becomes the great unifier
Despite the swamp's commitment to holding him back, President Trump finds common ground during his State of the Union speech.
As the president has discovered, being a disrupter has its personal downsides. Whether it’s the border wall or troop withdrawals from Syria and Afghanistan, the Swamp is committed to holding him back. The antagonism he continues to face from his political opponents is vicious.
But as we saw Tuesday night during President Trump's State of the Union address, when they are calmly confronted with clarity, they’re often flummoxed. Trump has co-opted some of their big issues — fair trade, criminal justice reform, and opposition to endless military interventionism, to name a few. So, on Tuesday night, Trump tried to find common cause. The president did something no one expected -- he attempted to unify the country. He was even magnanimous towards his most hostile critics, giving the "Ghost Gals" — the throng of white-suited lefties -- their due.
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The president accomplished something that his enemies may have missed. While they were clearly chanting "U-S-A" as a celebration of themselves, Trump got them to take up the refrain usually reserved for his rallies. For a moment, even the Democrats experienced what so many Americans around the country have experienced at a Trump rally — a sense of vibrant community. A patriotic chanting together, something positive. Our country.
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But the good feelings didn’t last long. NPR repaid the president’s magnanimity with a phony fact check, where they insisted that the number of women in Congress was "almost entirely because of Democrats -- not Trump’s party." Speaker Pelosi attempted to make the same insipid point. But the president never said we have more Republican women serving in Congress than anytime before. He only saluted the fact that there were more women serving.
The president may not have united Congress Tuesday night, but he unified the American people by pulling off the mask of some of these naysayers, the negatitivity purveyors of the Democratic party during the State of the Union. Many saw, perhaps for the first time, the reality of what the left represents.
I guess some people can’t even take a compliment.
It doesn’t matter. The American people saw the president trying to reach out. They also saw a side of him that often gets lost — the caring, grandfatherly, tender side of Donald Trump. He saluted our World War II Veterans, Holocaust survivors, and Buzz Aldrin. It was a thoroughly American evening where people felt good about the country and the regular folks reveled in our heroes -- some old, some new.
Once or twice the president even managed to get both sides of the aisle to rise in support of a legislative agenda item that some people laughed at a few years ago, like paid family leave. Chuck Schumer even jumped to his feet!
When it was over the left was grasping for something, anything, to criticize. They sounded so ridiculous; it was just dishonest, what they were doing.
What the State of Union did was remind the American people of how much good this president has done over the last two years — not only economically, but on the foreign policy front and for the cause of life. The speech vividly revealed the contrast between his vibrant policies and the pale, colorless agenda of the left. They are now the party of infanticide, open borders, drug legalization, racializing politics, banning cars and socialism.
The president may not have united Congress Tuesday night, but he unified the American people by pulling off the mask of some of these naysayers, the negativity purveyors of the Democratic party during the State of the Union. Many saw, perhaps for the first time, the reality of what the left represents and how opposed they are to the common sense and good policies Trump has brought to Washington.
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The petulance and nastiness that Democrats displayed last night will be remembered into 2020 — so will Donald Trump’s confident kindness. But don’t worry, the Dems were hard at work trying to repair their reputations on Wednesday. The chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, chalked up a big win for his party. He eliminated the “So help me, God” line from the hearing’s swearing-in, until a Republican colleague insisted that he put it back in.
Heck of a job, Jerry! You all go knock yourself, trying to eat away at the fabric of America. I think most of the country would rather celebrate our traditions, as Donald Trump did during the State of the Union Tuesday night.
Adapted from Laura Ingraham's monologue from "The Ingraham Angle" on February 6, 2019.
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