Unlike the Oscar awards ceremony’s best-picture bumble two nights earlier, longtime entertainer and new President Donald Trump, scorned by Hollywood, pulled off a precision performance before Congress on Ash Wednesday Eve.
When television news and entertainment programs have to fill tightly timed slots — the evening news show can’t last two minutes too long, commercials have to make their message right on schedule — Trump managed to speak almost exactly 60 minutes, on the dot, even though he repeatedly was interrupted by applause whose length he had no control over in the U.S. House chamber.
No cue cards or notices flashing from a director’s booth to quiet down now. Indeed, Trump noted to the chamber how long the applause had lasted for the tearful Carryn Owens whom he introduced in the audience, the widow of Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens.
Trump further mastered the moment when he remarked that Ryan was looking down now, happy at breaking an applause record. Then his grieving widow smiled.
Even with such spontaneity and unpredictable length of reactions, Trump ended his talk almost to the minute. If he can deliver results with unwieldy Capitol Hill as he did in managing the evening just before the sacrificial lenten season began, he could have a very successful presidency.
Indeed, left-wing activist and commentator Van Jones was so impressed at the vignette with Carryn Owens that he declared on CNN, “He became president of the United States in that moment, period. . . . That was one of the most extraordinary moments you have ever seen in American politics, period.”
Jones added that if Trump could keep doing this “over and over again,” he’s going to be president for eight years.
When making films, actors and crew just stand around a lot waiting for scenes to be shot, but their possible boredom or distraction doesn’t end up as part of the movie.
On the other hand, with all the congressional and cabinet members, Supreme Court justices, other officials and guests filing in then waiting around for Trump to appear, everyone is a potential target for roving news cameras. There’s Speaker Paul Ryan popping a mint or hard candy into his mouth, and Sen. John McCain blowing his nose into a handkerchief.
It’s interesting what mattered to the nation’s viewers, who were Trump’s real audience for his speech anyway.
It’s good for the White House to have good relationships with those along Pennsylvania Avenue, but if the rest of the country is ignored or derided from within the D.C. bubble, ballot-box results come up lacking.
Almost as soon as Trump’s speech ended, CBS television news cut to pollster Frank Luntz and a focus group.
One man in the group commented that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t have applauded no matter what Trump had said.
Truly, the nation’s viewers noticed time after time that evening that Democrats in the chamber — whose own political performance had reduced them to minority status — look bored, listless, or disengaged, if not resentful. They often wouldn’t stand or even applaud while seated as Trump delivered a message asking for unity and cooperation.
Pollster Luntz asked his focus group, “So you were actually watching who applauded?” They chorused, “Yes!”
Almost as soon as Trump’s speech was over, while Republicans still applauded, many Democratic politicians simply got up and started to exit the chamber.
Often pollsters will say voters are looking for bipartisan cooperation. That may or may not be true, depending on the situation.
But after outsider Trump won a substantial Electoral College victory to shake up Washington — even though his candidacy supposedly was hopeless — restless voter-viewers on February 28 may not have felt much liking for minority Democrats who responded to Trump’s plea to lend a hand by sitting on their hands.
Just about everything about some of the resentful Democrats spelled more rejection of American voters. Some of them sported lapel ribbons for that generally grim enemy of the U.S. majority, the American Civil Liberties Union. Most of the Dem women on the floor wore all white. Some of their defenders said the white was simply a symbol of women’s suffrage.
C’mon, we’re supposed to believe that Dem pols in 2017 have to make a special display of their believing women have a right to vote? As some news outlets noted, the symbolism actually was for “the rights of women.” Which, like the term “women’s health care,” simply means abysmal permissive abortion to those fiercely dedicated to it but too ashamed to say it.
Look how being avid supporters of permissive abortion has rewarded the Democrats. Their bloody-handed pal Planned Parenthood pours tons of money into their campaigns, and their media pals carefully trim and focus their coverage. And Dem pols’ numbers still keep shrinking.
Tomorrow maybe suicidal Democrats will decide to become outright supporters of the euthanasia cause, too. And the euthanasia groups will say, we’re so happy to have your support, but please prove your dedication to our cause by killing yourselves now. And Dems carefully trained in self-destruction will say, sure, why not? What can it hurt?
Another way Democrats have hurt themselves significantly with voters is their blind refusal to acknowledge facts that any other American knows. Criminals had come flooding into the U.S. from south of the border because they knew how easy the elite would be on them. What lawbreaker wouldn’t like to set up his territory in neighborhoods where law enforcers look the other way?
Maybe Trump is making these bad guys reassess their border-jumping ways now.
What new driver is properly taught the ways of the road by being told there are no speeders, no drunken drivers, no dangerous showoffs, no one drug-impaired? Every driver is just Mary and Joseph with Baby Jesus in His car seat. That’s foolish. If defensive driving isn’t taught, there’ll be more pain on the roads. If border defense isn’t practiced, more pain in ordinary neighborhoods, although maybe not where chauffeurs ferry the elite.
Any background or ethnicity is imperiled by dangerous drivers, not just middle-class European-derived families.
It may be worth your time either to watch Trump’s speech again on a video or get a copy of his text to read, to reflect on how positive his presentation was.
From the inner cities to infrastructure, from increasing jobs to reducing regulation, from replacing Obamacare to reforming immigration, from fighting ISIS to rejecting bigotry, Trump went down a list almost too hopeful to imagine, if he truly means to handle this all.
Indeed, Trump exceeded President John F. Kennedy’s impossible-sounding pledge in the early 1960s before a joint session of Congress to put a man on the moon by the end of that decade.
Said Trump on February 28: “Think of the marvels we can achieve if we simply set free the dreams of our people….American footprints on distant worlds are not too big a dream.”
And note that: American footprints, not the footprints of 30 assorted autocrats from the United Nations.
“Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed. Every problem can be solved. And every hurting family can find healing, and hope,” said Trump. “Our citizens deserve this, and so much more — so why not join forces to finally get it done? On this and so many other things, Democrats and Republicans should get together and unite for the good of our country, and for the good of the American people.”
“Every problem can be solved”? Well, that’s more American optimism than acknowledgment of the realities of human fallibility down through history. But the U.S. surprised a lot of other nations by adopting a more breathtaking vision than theirs, while remembering to honor the individual, not the overbearing state.
Positive Foundations
It would have been better if Trump had devoted some challenging words to restoring traditional values as worth consideration by his listeners. Maybe introducing some staff from a crisis pregnancy center in the audience would be a good beginning. Still, Trump and his staff have been laying positive foundations for pro-lifers.
Finally, there was good humor lurking when Trump told of meeting with officials and workers from Harley-Davidson. “In fact, they proudly displayed five of their magnificent motorcycles, made in the U.S.A., on the front lawn of the White House,” he said.
Who could overlook the fact that Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway recently made some folks mad by supposedly violating ethics when she lightheartedly suggested that people buy some of Trump daughter Ivanka’s fashion products because they had been discriminated against by some stores?
Well, here was Dad himself having a certain brand of motorcycle on the White House lawn. Would the Dems try to put him in handcuffs for officially promoting only one manufacturer’s bikes? Just try it, Dems, and watch the cuffs fall off before your eyes from this new master of the presidency.
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