The Patriot Post® · 'Decorum!' They Shrieked

Joe Biden did a lot of lying on Tuesday night. No two ways around it. When the lies became intolerable, Republicans did some objecting. And now the Democrats and their mainstream media sycophants are aghast at the lack of … decorum.

Please.

This isn’t to say that Republicans weren’t guilty of some rudeness. They were. Indeed, they taunted Biden with shouts of “liar” when, for example, he accused them of planning to do away with Social Security, and when he lamented the rising number of Americans dying from fentanyl overdoses.

“Other Republicans,” as The Washington Times reports, “called out ‘Border!’ They were referring to what they say are the administration’s lax border security policies that allow smugglers to bring the deadly drug into the U.S.”

PJ Media’s Mark Margolis offers a representative sample of the Left’s outrage:

Salon accused Republicans of taking “orders from Trump” to throw a “hissy fit” during Biden’s speech. The Washington Post described the “raucous display” of Republicans as a “core weakness” of the party. John Harris of Politico seemed to think that what happened Tuesday night had never happened before, and accused Republicans of “putting the spotlight on themselves — through extraordinary rudeness. With boos, taunts, groans, and sarcastic chortles, the opposition party effectively turned themselves into prime-time props for President Joseph Biden.” CNN’s Jake Tapper said that Republicans made themselves look bad and “really allowed [Biden] opportunity to look vigorous.”

“The behavior of a sizeable group of Republican legislators tonight was outrageous and disgusting,” wailed the once-relevant Larry Sabato. “Their screaming and catcalling at the President was obscene. Free speech? Sure. Decorum and courtesy? DEAD. This was unthinkable when I started watching the State of the Union in the ‘60s.”

“Without a doubt,” said former “Republican” Congressman Adam Kinzinger, “Biden absolutely crushed the GOP 'dumb yellers’ masterfully. Every President will try to recreate and fail. But I mourn the loss of decorum by GOP.”

Oh, the decorum. And this from the stooge who sat on Nancy Pelosi’s rigged J6 select committee after she had taken the unprecedented and unconstitutional step of denying Kinzinger’s colleagues, Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, their rightful spot on the committee.

Biden “got exactly what he deserved, and I am not sorry one bit,” said Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. “What am I going to do? Stand up and give golf claps? No, thank you. I don’t clap for liars.”

Decorum, though, doesn’t just die during a feckless president’s State of the Union Address. It suffers a thousand cuts all along the way.

Yes, yes, South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” at President Barack Obama back in 2009 when Obama, well, lied about whether his ridiculously named Affordable Care Act would cover illegal immigrants. But that wasn’t even during the State of the Union; it was in September, during a joint session of Congress.

But it was during his State of the Union Address the following year, in 2010, when Obama broke all precedent and scolded the Supreme Court for its Citizens United decision against Democrat censorship and in favor of free speech. Obama all but wagged his finger in the justices’ faces and warned that their awful decision would “open the floodgates” to special interests and foreign money, which prompted a shocked Justice Samuel Alito to mouth the words “not true” in response.

We seem to remember, much more recently, a choreographed action taken by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the conclusion of President Donald Trump’s 2020 SOTU Address. Why, yes, here it is in all its decorum:

How strange that the mainstream media didn’t seem troubled by this. Here, for example, is a 1,700-word NBC News article about Pelosi’s egregious and unprecedented outburst. One thousand seven hundred words in the article, and not one of those words is “decorum.”

The article does mention “conservative blowback,” though. And Trump’s “highly partisan” speech. And the “inflammatory” Rush Limbaugh. And it quotes Pelosi extensively as she refers to Trump’s speech as a “manifesto of mistruths,” “a disgrace,” “a reality show,” “a pack of lies,” and how she tore up the speech “because it was the courteous thing to do, considering the alternative.” And how, at a Democrat caucus meeting the following day, Pelosi’s fellow Democrats gave her a standing ovation.

“I didn’t go in there to tear up the speech,” Pelosi lied, as evidenced by the little pre-tearing ritual she engaged in during Trump’s speech.

As we wrote in our recent “good riddance” send-off: “Nancy Pelosi will be remembered for the most childish, most petty, most despicable breach of decorum in the modern history of American politics, which she achieved when on the night of February 4, 2020, she conspicuously and flamboyantly tore up President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech while the nation looked on — in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 2071. It was a pathetic display, one befitting a petulant teenager, and it marked the bottoming-out of American politics.”

Considering the visibility of her position as House speaker, and the dignity that the office naturally confers on — and expects of — its holder, Pelosi’s act was, without question, the worst ever breach of decency in the history of SOTU addresses. It takes the cake. And the Democrats own it.

But, but, “Decorum!” they shrieked.