Way back in the ’70s, on the original Saturday Night Live, John Belushi played a character called “The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave,” so named because of its propensity for crashing a house party, slobbering on the sofa until all hours, eating and spewing all the food, and ignoring the hapless hosts who desperately wanted it gone.
Belushi came to mind when Donald Trump situated himself in Nancy Pelosi’s House and turned the State of the Union ritual into a MAGA rally. On the cusp of being acquitted by his Senate supplicants, who are happy to indulge his impulse to grab Lady Justice by the crotch, he signaled last night that he’s not going anywhere (“the best is yet to come”) and that he’ll float toward re-election on a cloud of disinformation.
And, naturally, the Democrats seem determined to make his mission easier. Here’s a snapshot of American politics in February of 2020: While the Democrats can’t even get their act together to report the full voting results from their first presidential contest, Trump is on stage awarding a presidential medal to demagogic bigot-misogynist Rush Limbaugh. As a wise man once said, when you’re a celebrity you can get away with anything.
Honoring Limbaugh (who’s reportedly sick, no jokes please) was a blatant play to the MAGA base – but so was his entire speech. He didn’t pretend otherwise. His re-election strategy is to divide and conquer, to maximize acolyte turnout in the few pivotal states (including Pennsylvania) that will tilt the Electoral College. And if he can lure swing voters by trumpeting himself as an economic miracle worker, that would be gravy.
And last night, that’s where the lies and semi-truths began. At this point in his Belushi presidency, it’s probably a waste of time to fact-check him, because low-information voters are likely to buy his hooey anyway, and people who respect truth and context aren’t likely to vote for him anyway.
But since I can’t abide BS, I’m going to take issue with whoppers like this: “I moved rapidly to revive the U.S. economy…If we had not reversed the failed economic policies of the previous administration, the world would not now be witness to America’s great economic success.” In truth (for what it’s worth), the economy added 190,000 jobs per month in the first 35 months of Trump’s regime. In the final 35 months of the Obama administration, the economy added 225,000 per month.
He also said that, since he took office, people with money invested in 401(k)s have been seeing “increases of 60, 70, 80, 90, and even 100 percent.” If you have a 401(k), I invite you to verify his claim. I doubt you’ll see returns remotely that fabulous. Perhaps that’s because, according to one fact-checking report, “An analysis by Fidelity Investments showed the average 401(k) balance increased less than 1 percent when comparing the first quarters of 2018 and 2019.”
Trump also said that “our economy is the best it has ever been.” Another lie. The economy’s annual growth rate under Trump has never exceeded three percent – whereas, under Bill Clinton, it was 4.5 percent in 1997, 4.5 percent in 1998, and 4.7 percent in 1999. The growth rate, under Lyndon Johnson in the mid-60s, was as high as 6.6 percent. Under Harry Truman in 1950 and 1951, it was as high as 8.7 percent.
His lies and his hyperbole are forever intertwined. He declared that, on the global stage, America “is highly respected again.” The servile Republicans in the chamber duly roared in ecstasy, seemingly unaware – by choice or ignorance – that respect for America has plummeted since Trump took the helm. He also forgot to mention that western leaders at a recent NATO summit were captured on video laughing at him behind his back.
This dollop of snake oil also stuck in my craw: “We will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions.” That’s rich, coming from a guy who’s currently in federal court pushing a lawsuit that seeks to kill the only health coverage law – Obamacare – that has ever protected people with pre-existing conditions. And since video has not been flushed down an Orwellian memory hole, we still have footage of Trump and the House Republicans in the Rose Garden, in May 2017, celebrating a House vote to kill Obamacare and its protection of people with pre-existing conditions. (The Senate later saved Obamacare, thanks to John McCain.)
On the hypocrisy front, he fumed at length about the existential danger of “socialism” while, at the same time, pledging to “protect your Medicare and your Social Security.” Once again, the MAGA Republicans in the chamber roared their approval – seemingly ignorant of the fact (as Trump surely was) that when Democrats championed Medicare in the early ’60s and when Democrats championed Social Security in the mid-’30s, right-wing Republicans fervently denounced them as “socialism.”
Also noteworthy was the stuff he left out. The phrase climate change never passed his lips.When he briefly extolled how great he’s doing in the Middle East, he neglected to say a word about the Kurds, our steadfast anti-terrorist allies whom he betrayed when he retreated from Syria and abandoned U.S. bases to the Russians. And speaking of Russia, that word didn’t rate a single mention. Neither did Ukraine, which was probably a good thing, lest he have been tempted to riff about his “beautiful” phone call and brag about his fake Senate trial.
On the other hand, one particular speech passage deserves our attention: “So long as I am President I will always protect your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. In reaffirming our heritage as a free nation, we must remember that America has always been a frontier nation.” No mention of America’s gun violence epidemic – Parkland, El Paso, and so many more – and no mention, naturally, of his refusal to do anything about it. Last September he declared: “We’re going to take a look at a lot of different things. And we’ll be reporting back in a fairly short period of time.” Nothing happened, of course, because he’s tethered to his base voters and nobody beyond.
Can the Democrats ultimately get this guy to leave? Not if the still-festering Iowa farce is any indication. Not if the party’s progressive/pragmatist divide is any indication. It’s possible, of course, that blue America can pull itself together and oust him in November, because, as Trump said last night, “America is a place where anything can happen.”
Alas, ain’t that the truth. He is living proof.