The Patriot Post® · State of the Union Postgame

Well, that was a home run. The State of the Union speech was beautifully written and brilliantly delivered. It hit the right balance of bragging about accomplishments, presenting a vision for the future, and celebrating America — all while repeatedly offering paths to reach unifying middle grounds on some key initiatives. Credit was constantly given to the American people, and the use of first-person pronouns appeared with about one-tenth the frequency of the typical Obama performance. Even the use of guests with personal stories served to underscore the points being made about issues ranging from immigration to the military to patriotism to foreign policy rather than simply tugging on heartstrings.

Not everyone agreed with this, of course. Trump was measured, in control, confident and, dare we say, presidential, which was all to the great chagrin of the media pundits who have made careers/ratings out of claiming he is unhinged and mentally unfit for the job. The media started out by analyzing why Melania wore a white blouse and pantsuit. Could it be a swipe at her husband by adopting the uniform of his opponent for president? Or maybe a sign of her seething at the reports of an affair early in their marriage? After all, isn’t white the color of the women’s equality protest movement? What that had to do with the speech is anyone’s guess. Maybe she just likes white and looks good in it.

Then they tried to downplay the snap polls that were very positive for Trump, stating that the polls were skewed because — ready for this? — they only involved folks who actually saw the speech. Think about that one for a second. I guess they might have favored polls of people who didn’t watch the speech, like the reporter who interviewed NYU students a couple days before the speech and found that every single one of them hated it.

This all pales, however, compared to the behavior of the Democrats in attendance. I get it — the opposition party cannot be expected to cheer for the other side, particularly if the subjects are policies they disagree with, or proposals they don’t support. But who sits on their hands and scowls at low minority unemployment, defeating ISIS, and DACA kids being given citizenship opportunities? Who walks out because the audience started to chant “USA”? Democrats came across as petty and hugely out of touch with the country. They even tried to credit Obama for the booming economic numbers. Democrats have stopped denying that an economic revival is underway, so they are adopting step 12 in the merger and acquisition deal process — the grabbing of credit by the uninvolved.

I know, maybe Trump supporters like me could be accused of being a tad biased, but don’t believe me; look at the polls. A full 75% approved of the speech, with 95%+ of Republicans, 70% of independents, and an eye-popping 43% of Democrats all on board. And an astonishing 80% thought Trump was trying to unite, not divide, the country in the speech. Another media theme was that the speech utterly failed to unite “the chamber,” which is yet another clueless comment that doesn’t understand that the “chamber” wasn’t the target audience. I guess they were all disappointed that White House previews of attempts at unity didn’t turn out in sync with the media’s definitions of “unity”, which has traditionally meant a GOP cave to Democrat positions. It was as if they all expected the negotiations to resemble many that I have with my wife. She wants to go out to dinner. I want to go to the movies. So we discuss it, negotiate, and compromise — and then we go out to dinner. But at least I go along happily, not go to my room and pout.

If the Democrat reaction tells us anything it’s that the “resist” movement, in the person of the far-left donor base, has at least for now won the internal battle. Don’t expect any cooperation anytime soon on issues like comprehensive immigration reform, or anything else for that matter. Democrats have decided that an issue is better than a solution, since the solution is likely now to predominantly benefit the guy who has made the first concessions. The polls are also beginning to shift in favor of tax reform now that folks are starting to see the real positive personal results, not the doomsday individual tax hikes and corporate giveaways that were being sold by Democrats and the media.

The State of the Union speech was a major step in the right direction of propping up poll numbers and shifting the public view of Trump and his policies. Look up “mission accomplished” in Webster’s and you’ll find the speech. Democrats seem to have chosen a losing PR strategy of just resisting with nothing positive and trying to convince folks that those extra dollars in their pockets and growing 401K statements aren’t real. If the GOP can stay the course, and Trump can resist off-message Twitter responses, November might be looking up.