All style. No substance.
All gloss. No heart.
Our president presented the state of the union last night. The state of the union, apparently, consists of simpering platitudes and teary-eyed human interest stories. Of tall promises and no specifics. Promises of infrastructure and great projects. Lofty promises. No blueprints. No money in sight.
The leader demanded national unity, but offered no shared values on which to base it. Just cheap jabs at people who don't stand during the national anthem. No offers of healing or understanding or offers to address the root causes of the pain and anger and alienation of those who take a knee during the anthem. Clearly, he doesn't care. He just parades weeping parents whose kids were murdered by illegal aliens. Let's build a wall across our southern border to keep out the rapists and murderers. He didn't even mention some are good people. Yeah, that just screams unity.
He did what all wannabe dictators do: He praised the police and the military. (Conveniently forgetting he's been trashing the FBI all month.) He praised the 2nd Amendment. He touted religious freedom. Yeah, we're gonna be unified, while we're building walls, racially profiling and shooting each other (not necessarily in that order, but probably) and kicking each other out of our respective homes and places of business in the name of Jesus.
He praised beautiful, clean coal. (Why not beautiful, clean cyanide?) Not a word of support for the victims of flooding and wildfires who are the first of many beneficiaries to come of all that "beautiful, clean coal." He wants to beef up our nuclear arsenals, reviving the madness of the 1980's with a vengeance. Smaller nukes, easier and therefore likelier to use. (Yeah, we're all gonna be unified in smoldering ashes. Praise be.)
He went on and on about how wonderful we are as a people and how much we have to fear from all those inferior races out there in this terrible, dangerous world. In between weeping parents and soapy human interest dross, he did add a touch of magnanimity by promising a path to citizenship for "dreamers". They grew up in this country. And, he'll graciously allow them a chance to become citizens after 12 years of probation. Of course, they'll never see their aunts or uncles again. Gotta keep America white.
The really sad part is that 75% of his audience took the speech favorably. He told them what they wanted to hear. We're great. We're wonderful. We're God's gift to humanity. We've done so much for an undeserving, ungrateful world. Now, it's our turn. Build a wall. Build those small, practical nukes. Hell, let's have one in every home. America first. America uber alles.
