Trump's State of the Union Address and Commentary

Over the span of this blog, I have laid out from time to time my political orientation, which is issues-specific but weighted by how I perceive those issues affect me and my family.  I also believe that the primary Constitutional duty of the president and the executive branch is to provide for the national defense.  Now I realize, both in social media, television, radio, and the print media, the political discussion tends to be binary in nature, with the same people generally going straight down the line on either the "conservative/Republican" side or that of the "liberal-progressive/Democratic".  With the election of the current occupant of the White House, the polarization has taken on a much more personal slant as this individual seems to welcome confrontation and offense while regularly dishing out insults to anyone wounding his hyper-inflated pride and then wondering why so many people hate him.  However, I must in all fairness rise to Donald Trump's defense...so if what I'm about to say offends your political sensibilities, you'd probably better just stick to the channel or website that preaches to your chorus...

I was at work recently when President Trump delivered his first State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court justices.  I listened to the whole thing on the radio...which in itself was a feat since it lasted so long.  A funny thing happened while I was listening to him: I found myself nodding my head in agreement.  On this issue and that...interspersed with call-outs to special audience guests Trump wanted to honor...I thought that the president was spot-on with his delivery and themes: yes, I thought he hit the proverbial ball out of the park.  And then I went home and watched replays and reactions on TV...

With the replays, I instantly became irritated with the smug, smirking Vice-President Pence and the even worse Speaker of the House Ryan sitting behind Trump...and then I looked at the president himself.  Donald Trump, while saying all the great things that I earlier had agreed with without seeing him, looked like he was seething with hostility and aggression, and he had all of those irritating mannerisms as well...especially his patronizing hand gestures.  I suddenly felt like hurling something into the TV to make it all go away...reason won out, though, and I switched the channel.  I also viewed how people on TV reacted to his speech and was flabbergasted to hear it depicted as racist...come again? 

Early in his address, the president had the apparent gall to say that "Americans are dreamers, too".  I didn't take it as refuting the case for the children of undocumented immigrants being given the chance to stay in the country and be able to work (which I and most Americans support), but rather to bring everyone together...to acknowledge that we all have our own aspirations and that he was working on behalf of all of us.  But apparently, some white supremacist had already used that line and so that, in the eyes of some on the left, made Trump's statement racist.  He was also trashed for upholding the virtues of standing for the pledge of allegiance to the flag...something that has been a long-standing tradition in this country.  His critics angrily took him to task for that comment as a backhanded criticism of some NFL players' protests against what they perceive to be racial profiling and brutality by police.  But regardless where one stands on the Dreamers and the NFL protests, the president's presentation in his speech was dignified and inclusive. These were just two instances where Trump was excoriated by his critics; there were more as well.  The problem, of course, is that our 45th president tends to make statements, both in extemporaneous speech and on Twitter, that give fuel to his political adversaries...as well as a couple of his executive orders that took effect immediately and gave those directly affected little to no time to adjust...

It's tough enough for someone like me who voted against Trump in 2016 to have him as my president.  It's even worse when I find myself agreeing with his stance on certain issues...especially those on national defense, border security, and immigration...and then get frustrated when he undermines his own positions by making asinine impromptu comments and pointless Twitter postings (e.g. ban on Muslims entering U.S., "s---hole" countries).  Well, maybe I'm not defending him quite as much as I though I would.  And I'm getting tired of hearing people like Democratic Senator Dick Durbin get up there and condescendingly equate illegal immigration with the legal process that he himself benefited from through his own family line coming here many years ago.  The president's proposal does not turn our country's back on immigration but rather returns it to the legitimate process and more in favor of the frustrated folks who obeyed the law and are stuck on those long waiting lists, as Republican Senator John Cornyn pointed out a few days ago in a rebuttal to Durbin's speech...