Though the State of the Union address offered Donald Trump yet another chance to prove that he is capable of setting a clear, coherent direction for the United States, he failed—bigly. Instead, he was outsmarted and upstaged by Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, who gave a thoughtful and inspiring Democratic response in less than 11 minutes. Abrams’ speech was widely praised, garnering much enthusiasm from Democrats.
Even Washington Post conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin weighed in. Rubin, a prominent never-Trump Republican, penned an opinion piece in which she calls Abrams “talented,” “engaging,” and “pitch perfect” for an electorate tired of Trump.
Subsequently, Abrams’ success on Tuesday night whipped Trump supporters into a frenzy. They can’t stand it when their corrupt, incapable leader is shown for who he really is (too late!) and so they immediately pounced on Abrams as an out-of-control radical who threatens to upend the American way of life, and white men’s power, specifically.
On Wednesday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson went on a rant about Abrams, saying that her speech “wasn’t much” and cautioning his viewers that she wants to overthrow white men. According to the Daily Beast, Carlson opined that “Abrams is selling ‘bitter division’ and seeking to rally the ‘marginalized to unite against the dominant groups,’ namely white people.”
Because he can never seem to shut up, Donald Trump also added his thoughts, jumping in to talk about Georgia’s 2020 Senate race. It has been widely speculated that Abrams will run against Republican Sen. David Perdue, who was elected in 2014. Max Greenwood of The Hill writes:
In an interview with a group of reporters, Trump said it would be a “mistake” for Abrams to enter the 2020 Senate race, because Perdue “will be very hard to beat.”
“I think it’s a mistake for her to run against him because I don’t think she can win,” Trump said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which was among the news outlets included in the interview.
It’s a good thing that no one outside of the MAGA-hat-wearing crowd actually cares what Trump thinks. Especially when he’s got little to no political analysis or insight. If Abrams decides to run against Perdue, the decision will ultimately be in the hands of Georgia voters. In last year’s gubernatorial race, Republicans had to work hard to suppress votes in order to win. And though they succeeded in stealing the election, Abrams still received more votes than any other Democratic candidate in Georgia’s history. Georgians like Stacey Abrams. So do millions of Americans. And that’s what has conservatives scared to death.
Their frenetic pushback and attempts to discredit her are only more proof that she’s a viable threat to their power. And that’s a good thing. We’ve had enough of these sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic tyrants and their backward ways. America needs more Stacey and less old, conservative white-man megalomania.