There are so many things we can take away from Trump’s speech, which I watched with horror (and many Democrats didn’t watch at all). He was insulting, calling Joe Biden the “worst president in American history,” and using a racist slur against a sitting US Senator from Massachusetts. He made a point of demeaning young trans people, to the point that he insisted there was no such thing as a trans youth, and that they should learn to live with themselves “the way God made you.”
This kind of attitude is not only cruel but the sort of thing that leads to the high suicide rate among young trans people.
He lied, repeatedly, so much so that the (generally reliable) news media had a hard time keeping up. Hardly any factual statement he made was true.
That didn’t stop the Republicans from applauding repeatedly.
Then he took on the Democrats, some of whom didn’t attend, and some of whom wore pink or the colors of the Ukrainian flag as a protest. The Democrats, he said, wouldn’t applaud him no matter what he said.
Poor Donald. The whole political career of this billionaire has been about his personal victimization—and his vows for retribution.
But there was a deeper message here.
I still remember Barack Obama’s keynote speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004. The speech that made him president four years later. He talked about bringing people together; “there are not blue states and red states, there is the United States.”
Every single State of the Union speech I have seen in my life involved some of that; every president talked at least a bit about unity, working “across the aisle,” and every one of them came up with at least some type of platitude that both parties could accept.
Thus: Bipartisan applause.
Trump did none of that, and I think this New York Times op-ed explains a lot of what’s going on:
“Life’s unfair,” my grandfather told us. “You win or you lose.”
This is what’s called zero-sum thinking — the belief that life is a battle over finite rewards where gains for one mean losses for another. And these days, that notion seems to be everywhere. It’s how we view college admissions, as a cutthroat contest for groups defined by race or privilege. It’s there in our love for “Squid Game.” It’s Silicon Valley’s winner-take-all ethos, and it’s at the core of many popular opinions: that immigrants steal jobs from Americans; that the wealthy get rich at others’ expense; that men lose power and status when women gain.
And in his own past, zero-sum thinking was deeply ingrained. His biographers tell us he learned from his father that you were either a winner or loser in life, and that there was nothing worse than being a sucker. In Trumpworld, it’s kill or be killed; he who is not a hammer must be an anvil.
Trump doesn’t want to work with the Democrats on public policy; he wants to beat them. He doesn’t care what the results of his decisions are, or who gets hurt; he just wants to see himself as a winner, and everyone else who doesn’t join with him as a loser.
When Bill Clinton ousted George Bush and became president, Bush famously left a note behind in the Oval Office that said “your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you.” Trump doesn’t see our country’s success, just his own victories.
But here’s my other takeaway: Where were, and are, the Democrats? From the UK Guardian:
Those who attended showed their displeasure by turning their backs on Trump as he spoke and holding up placards with messages like “No kings”, “Save Medicaid” and “Musk steals” in reference to the leading government cost-cutting role being played by the billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
The protest was disparagingly compared to bingo signs by one normally sympathetic commentator, Symne Sanders-Townsend, a host on the MSNBC channel
“Why are democrats just sitting there? The signs are not landing. It is giving bingo! Sigh,” she posted on X.
The audience of silent, grim-faced Democrats – some of them holding Ukrainian flags or wearing garments in the country’s colours – provided Trump with the perfect prop to troll them in real time.
As a San Franciscan, and a voter in California’s 11th District, I have to ask: Where is Nancy Pelosi? Five years ago, she was the visible leader of the opposition, tearing up Trump’s speech because it was so full of lies.
Now? Completely missing. She’s still a powerhouse in Congress, but she’s showing zero leadership as Trump day by day usurps the power of the legislative branch of government.
Maybe she’s listening to James Carville:
With no clear leader to voice our opposition and no control in any branch of government, it’s time for Democrat to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party: roll over and play dead. Allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight and make the American people miss us. Only until the Trump administration has spiraled into the low 40s or high 30s in public approval polling percentages should we make like a pack of hyenas and go for the jugular. Until then, I’m calling for a strategic political retreat.
The problem is, a whole lot of people will get badly hurt, and some of them will die, while we are rolling over and waiting from Trump to damage the country so badly that the Democrats can do what Trump likes to do, and say “I told you so.”
I don’t have all the answers. But I don’t think this is the right one.
