Democrats have this thing where they oppose anything President Trump does because it's Trump. They don't consider each policy as it comes, they instead stand as as a brick wall against the administration, whether on women's rights, border security, election integrity, and everything else. This wall was on display during Trump's State of the Union address. A party that calls for unity and coming together did everything they could on Tuesday night to rip the country apart.
Those Democrats who sat in Congress and watched the speech sat for the entirety of the speech. When Trump invited those to stand who agree that "the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens and not illegal aliens," they sat. The entire room, other than these Democrats, stood and cheered, applauded, and affirmed their promise to put Americans first over all others. But Democrats sat, some looking down at their phones.
Later Rep. Janelle Bynum said in that moment there was "thinly veiled racist language" from Trump, "anti-immigrant language, in what he was asking and that was uncomfortable." House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republican lawmakers standing was "cult-like behavior."
"You should be ashamed of yourself," Trump said as Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib shouted at him. He called to end so-called santuary cities, in which local law enforcement officers are prevented from working with federal immigration agents to ensure that illegal immigrant criminals with deportation detainers are removed from the country. But Democrats like those, they must like seeing ICE agents out in the streets trying to track down those with immigration detainers, because that is the result of their actions.
When Trump introduced the mother of Iryna Zarutska, a young women murdered by a career criminal on a commuter train line in Charlotte, they sat. "How do you not stand?" Trump remarked. When Trump awarded the Purple Heart to two West Virginia National Guardsmen, one living and one dead, they sat. And when Trump introduced the Olympic gold medal winning hockey Team USA, some Democrats still kept their seats.
It is common and traditional for the opposing party to sit in stony silence and watch the commander-in-chief deliver a report on his administration's accomplishments and plans, but it was a bit shocking to see that no matter what the issue, if Trump is doing one thing, they are doing the other.
The Democrats showed us plainly that they do not stand for: prioritizing Americans over illegal immigrants, voter ID laws despite 71% of their constituents being for it, low murder rates, keeping criminals jailed, letting kids grow up without medical mutilation, families who lost loved ones to illegal immigrant violence, secure borders, safe cities, helping Americans build wealth instead of redistributing wealth.
And these are just the Democrats who showed up. There were other events where Democrats boycotted Trump's speech and staged their own spectacles. A group called Defiance.org held their own event, featuring people wearing inflatable frog costumes, Mark Ruffalo Zooming in, and Robert De Niro saying "I choke on that phrase, 'we all love our country,' because our country isn't so lovable right now." Then he compared US citizenship to spousal abuse.
At the same event Oregon Senator Ron Wyden praised Portland anti-ICE "patriots," calling out "the uni-cyclers, the naked bike riders, the guy in the chicken suit, and a whole lot of frogs." Those "frogs" were staged in front of a Portland federal building for weeks on end obstructing immigration enforcement, trying to keep criminals in the country who were already slated for deportation.
At another event, the "People's State of the Union," Joy Reid stood up and sang. Rep. Pramilla Jayapal spoke at the same event, saying "and yes, our trans kids across this country who are sick and tired of being bullied, because it's not trans kids who are driving up your rent, it is the billionaires who are doing that, we are standing up for our trans kids across the country."
What she didn't mention is that the only reason LGBTQ+ groups push to give minors sex change treatment at younger ages is so that they will better pass as the opposite sex when they become adults. There is no medical basis for it, it is entirely about appearance, and this was stated even by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
These are people that speak incessantly of unity and do nothing to unify. This is a party that stands for one thing: opposing Trump, and nothing else. Each of their actions, from the local races to national politics, is about opposing Trump. Gubernatorial candidates have run their entire campaigns on "going after Trump." So, too, have district attorneys in our biggest cities.
Simply opposing Trump is not a political position. The rebuttal speech staged by Democrat Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger called for "change" but as always, that change is undefined, it is a couched in a heap of flowery rhetoric about wished for outcomes with no pathway to achieving them. Spanberger called for Americans to unite around a "common cause," but after seeing all the causes around which Democrats will not unite, it's hard to see any commonality they could champion.
