By Karen Rubin, News & Photo Features
It was the longest State of the Union (mainly because of Trump constantly applauding himself and keeping applause going), but not, as Trump has repeatedly fabricated, the most watched in history (it was 9th, well behind Obama, Bush and Clinton). The lies and misstatements and frankly hollow clichés (he used “America” or “American” 86 times) were massive, but here I want to take note of what wasn’t in Trump’s speech:
Women. I mean, what could Trump, credibly accused by more than 20 women of sexual assault, who bribed a porn star to shut up just weeks before the 2016 election, who actively campaigned for Roy Moore who was accused of sexual assault on teenagers as young as 14, actually say (except perhaps, “I’m sorry, I committed heinous offenses including disgracing my wife and child, not to mention paid blackmail and committed campaign fraud to hide my sexual liaison with Stormy Daniels just days before the election so effectively gave credence to the Christopher Steele dossier which suggested I could be blackmailed by Russia”)?
He even attacked women Senators who deserve the dignity and respect of their office, like Elizabeth Warren (“Pocohantas”) and Kirsten Gillibrand (suggesting she begged for campaign money and would have done anything to get it). And where is Mitch McConnell to stand against such disrespect for a co-equal branch of government? Oh yes, he and Speaker Ryan have flushed checks-and-balances down the toilet, not failing to hold Trump, who is contemptible, in contempt for failing to implement the Russia sanctions passed by overwhelming majority of both houses.
If he had mentioned women, he would have had to own up to being the first sitting “president” to address the Pro-Life conference, who forcefully lobbied for Congress to pass a no-holds-barred ban on abortions after the 20-week mark, no matter the life expectancy of quality of life of the fetus, or the condition or situation of the mother or her family.
Nor did he mention the ongoing policies to destroy health care for women and families, to make it easy for employers to shut off access to contraception, to reverse course on campus sexual assault, to shut off aid to foreign countries for family planning. No, instead he boasted how clever he was to sabotage the Affordable Care Act by eliminating the individual mandate.
Indeed, he never mentioned “health care.” Not once. He never mentioned that after the years of increases by the millions of Americans with health insurance as a result of Obamacare that brought down the uninsured level to just about 10%, that in just Trump’s first year, 3.5 million more Americans are without health insurance, the rate of uninsured is up to 12.3%. He did not mention the crisis in funding that is resulting in hospitals and clinics shutting down. No care and no clue how to resolve the health care crisis.
And after the sentimental line, “My duty, and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber, is to defend Americans, to protect their safety, their families, their communities,” weren’t you expecting him to talk about finally taking some action to restrain the scourge of gun violence, especially after the two most monstrous massacres in history?
Instead, he said, “We are totally defending our Second Amendment, and have taken historic actions to protect religious liberty.”
No, instead of pointing to how immigrants have built this country, how immigrants are the entrepreneurs, the innovators, the valedictorians and the Nobel laureates, the doctors and teachers, the health care workers and elder care helpers, the construction workers and the farm laborers, the Trump conflated “violence” with “immigration,” and all immigrants with the vicious M13 gang.
But he did not offer any plan or reasonable “compromise” to resolve the daily human tragedy of people now living in fear of government shackling them and hauling them away to jail and deportation without even the ability to say goodbye to their family. This is Trump’s America, Trump’s American Dream.
Trump boasted about America becoming an energy exporter (which happened under Obama), and cheered, “We have ended the war on American energy, and we have ended the war on beautiful clean coal” though there is no such thing as “clean coal.” And he boasted about reversing regulations to promote clean air, clean water, clean environment.
What he didn’t say? Climate change. Clean energy. Clean renewable energy. He didn’t mention that he is using trade policy – imposing 30% tariff on solar panels – and tax policy to unfairly tilt back the economic edge to dirty fossil fuels, harming clean renewable energy, the growth industry which has produced tens of thousands of new jobs, helped consumers and municipalities to save money.
He alluded to the disasters – amounting to some $300 billion in damage not to mention thousands of lives lost (not a word from Trump) - in context with American heroes who put their lives on the line, but not how climate change is making climate catastrophes more severe and more frequent or what government is doing to make communities more resilient so there aren’t such tragedies and devastation.
“To everyone still recovering in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands -- everywhere -- we are with you, we love you, and we always will pull through together, always,” he said, but forgot to that FEMA is cutting off aid to Puerto Rico, despite fact one-third of the island still doesn’t have electricity or clean water. He didn’t mention that the tax code Republicans jammed through treats Puerto Rico as if a foreign country, rather than a United States territory and its residents American citizens (who nonetheless have no vote in Congress or for President so why care?). He didn’t mention the actual death toll from Hurricane Maria – not 16, as he scoffed during that visit where the aid he brought amounted to tossing rolls of paper towels into a crowd – of more than 1,000, on par with Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.
Nor did he mention “science” or “innovation” or “research and development.” He didn’t mention how his administration is shutting down science – websites and studies that present inconvenient truths for the Trump agenda have been shut down, that science advisers have resigned that the Trump budget cuts off funding for research. Instead of talking about investing in research and innovation to keep America a global leader, he called for expanding nuclear weaponry.
He spoke with zeal about “modernizing and rebuilding our nuclear arsenal” because “making it so strong and so powerful that it will deter any acts of aggression by any other nation or anyone else” – effectively reversing decades of American policy aimed at reducing the nuclear arms threat globally – but didn’t mention “diplomacy” or “State Department” once. Not once.
Remember in the campaign how he said that heightened tensions around the world were entirely due to Obama and every other world leader’s “stupidity” and ineptitude? Well, despite a media that ignores these issues, all those tensions have only increased; terror attacks have not diminished. Trump failed to mention that North Korea has vastly accelerated its nuclear program and aggressive testing since he came into the office; he has only provoked tensions, and been impotent (or uncaring) about reducing them probably because it is more important to him to look tough.
Infrastructure: He talked a good game about wanting $1.5 trillion to fund infrastructure, but never mentioned where this funding would come from, or the fact that his idea is to make the requirements on municipalities so onerous, they are unlikely to pursue projects. What he did say was that he would overturn the environmental review process as well as local say over what is built. Moreover, his administration’s rejection of the Gateway Tunnel, between New York and New Jersey, is a clear sign that even without an “earmark” process (which he wants to resume), he will use infrastructure spending as a political slush fund.
Trump boasted especially about the booming economy but failed to mention that the trend merely continued what was happening as a result of Obama’s policies. As Bernie Sanders noted, “his first year in office marked the lowest level of job creation since 2010... 254,000 fewer jobs were created in Trump’s first 11 months in office than were created in the 11 months before he entered office.” Indeed, Trump failed to mention that precisely because of his rhetoric, his travel ban, his ‘shithole’ attitude to other countries, international visits to the US – America’s 2nd greatest import - slumped by 4-6 percent when tourism surged around the world, shaving $4.5 billion from the economy and costing 46,000 jobs.
While he mentioned that wages are finally going up, he failed to mention that to the extent they are, it’s because of Obama’s push to raise the minimum wage. Indeed, Sanders noted that after inflation, workers’ wages rose 4 cents an hour, $1.60 a week (Speaker Ryan thinks that is a fortune for which workers should be grateful to Trump). On the other hand, since March of last year, the three richest people in America saw their wealth increase by more than $68 billion.
While Trump touted the bonuses he claims workers received because of the tax cuts, only 2% of Americans are getting such bonuses, and the one-time bonuses are no substitute for actual wage increases. Moreover, while a few said they were expanding (most were plans already in the works), major employers like Walmart, AT&T, General Electric and Pfizer are laying off tens of thousands of workers and Kimberly-Clark said it was using the tax-cut savings to restructure and close 10 plants, laying off 5,000 workers.
Education: He touted over and over the Republican tax cuts, but never mentioned how his administration would support public education, which by eliminating deductibility of state and local taxes – not to mention cuts in federal education spending by $10 billion - will be severely harmed. Or how his administration is reversing course on student loan forgiveness or making college affordable.
Federal workers. There was so much in this speech that made your head explode, that this little throw-away comment has all but been missed: “I call on Congress to empower every Cabinet Secretary with the authority to reward good workers and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.” Basically, Trump is saying that the executive branch should have the ability to fire civil service workers willy nilly. That means a purge of those who don’t toe the line, don’t seem properly loyal to the party or ideology. That means a loss of professionalism, expertise, institutional memory, and commitment to the mission, whether it is Environmental Protection, or health and human services, or diplomacy.
He called for “bipartisanship” (exactly once), which Trump and Republicans define as: Democrats, you do what we want, to which Trump adds “show loyalty to me.” (Indeed, he blasted Democrats for failing to applaud during the speech, calling it “un-American” and even “treasonous” behavior.) But he looks to bipartisanship only because he has to, since McConnell does not seem willing to use the nuclear option and end the 60-vote threshold for cloture. But rather than describe how bipartisanship might be encouraged – urge Republican leaders to engage Democrats and respect (after all, that’s what a leader would do), immediately after, when freed from the teleprompter, Trump renewed his personal attacks, insults, sniping at Democrats. He teased that Senator Charles Schumer “caved” in voting to end the government shutdown before getting the DACA bill he wanted. How is that supposed to engage true bipartisanship?
Trump used the word “compromise” exactly twice, but the way he uses the term, he means, “Do what I say.”
Instead, he extols his “steely” resolve. This wasn’t about bipartisanship or compromise, it was about domination and confrontation.
Rep. Joe Kennedy III who gave the Democratic rebuttal perfectly nailed Trump’s transactional agenda – as when Trump threatened to withhold aid from countries that did not vote the way the United States wants in the United Nations (“I am asking Congress to pass legislation to help ensure American foreign-assistance dollars always serve American interests, and only go to friends of America, not enemies of America.”:
“They are turning American life into a zero-sum game where for one to win, another must lose. Where we can guarantee America's safety if we slash our safety net... So, here is the answer that Democrats offer tonight. We choose both. We fight for both. Because the greatest, strongest, richest nation in the world should not have to leave anyone behind. We choose a better deal for all who call our country home,” declared Kennedy, giving a more statesmanlike State of the Union than Trump could have ever delivered.
_________________________
© 2018 News & Photo Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. For editorial feature and photo information, go to www.news-photos-features.com, email editor@news-photos-features.com. Blogging at www.dailykos.com/blogs/NewsPhotosFeatures. ‘Like’ us on facebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures, Tweet @KarenBRubin