Trump is really not very good at delivering prepared speeches - although not many of our recent Presidents were, either. Reagan was unusually good, but you'd expect that from a Hollywood background. Trump didn't have the verbal elegance of a truly great speaker, It doesn't seem to keep him from communicating effectively, though, but it's prose not poetry. It's been said that poetry is the art of letting the word be heard behind the words, and that's just not his forte,
But the last minute or two of the speech was different - he did bring out the words behind the words. It was a message that I don't recall hearing, at least not in a long, long time. The word behind the word was unity. He struck me as completely sincere about this.
Alas, I am starting to think that there are too many factions that think their path to power is by disuniting these United States - chief among these may be the media. If Trump means to fight this battle then this is big, big stuff. That's inspirational, but there's quite a good chance that he will lose, going down in history as a tragic hero fighting a lost cause.
I wish him luck. I'd never seen him as a Martin Luther figure before. He sure gave us his 99 Theses of American Greatness last night.
Actually, I hope Trump was making a cynical play for independents and Republicans who are delusional about the nature of the Democrat Party. The Democrats will never accept unity that does not involve their total control of everything. Looking at the cross tabs of the polling data, it appears to me that the delusional faction includes about 30-40 % of Republicans and most Independents, so the play is worth making. Democrats will reject and it moves this group toward Trump.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for my hope is that the alternative is that Trump himself is delusional about the nature of the Democrat Party. This would be very bad. Bush suffered from this delusion and look at the mess he got us in.
Regan hoped there was good in the dem party, too. The said the same to him as to Trump. "Give us what we want, and we'll deal."
DeleteI think then it was amnesty. Regan did and they didn't. Same as now.
My big problem is the wrong people are hurt in a shutdown. People who don't see the demoncrats as the problem and can't do anything.
The only way to deal with demonrats is at the polls and there don't seem to be enough people who don't want free stuff, to deal with the problems.
Well, for not being good at speech he sure talked awful pretty. Yes, his pauses were somewhat painful, but he would toss out sentences like a shield and then slip the content between the ribs of his opponent.
ReplyDeleteI've watched the last two SOTU and he can speak better and command the crowd better than the previous 4 occupants. I actually enjoyed the event, and thought he got his message out cleanly. The way he speaks makes it hard to take him out of context, not impossible, but hard.
And, well, watching Democrats in all-white was funny, almost like they were a klan or something.
The man is a master manipulator. And it is fun to watch.
Better than listening to Pelosi, and watching her adjust her dentures or whatever she was doing.
He had the dems applauding him.
ReplyDeleteThen he told them not to sit down because they were going to love what he said next.
He owned them.
We're too late for unity by at least two generations.
ReplyDelete