Contemplating the United States at 250

At what ended up being my only 'real' graduation in June 1976, I received a certificate - and the first $100 bill I'd ever seen - from the local American Legion for being the 'best' or 'one of the best' history students in my class. I was proud, my Dad being my history teacher and all - and also shocked, as I had no idea it was coming. 

I share my graduation story not to toot my own horn; rather, I admit that, like many people, I've forgotten more of our country's history than I remember. How bad are things? 

According to a Cato Institute poll, "nearly half (46%) of Americans don’t know what America’s 250th anniversary commemorates. A little more than half (53%) correctly answered that it was the adoption of the Declaration of Independence." 

That's why it was so much fun to stumble on the Time Magazine Special 1776 Issue tucked in with some of my Dad's papers. According to Henry Grunwald, then Time's managing editor, the issue was "an attempt to reconstruct, with the tools of both history and journalism, and in our distinctive newsmagazine format, at least part of the life and soul of the events that gave birth to our nation." The issue was dated July 4, 1776.

Here are a few examples of what it covered.

• New Yorkers tearing down a statue of King George III on horseback, cutting off (and shooting) his head, and carrying it off, after having heard a reading of the Declaration of Independence; the statue was later used to make ammunition for the war effort. Resistance? Yeah, it's in our blood.
• A discussion of who in each state is allowed to vote, or more importantly, who isn't, including variables such as no Papists (Maryland) or Jews (NY), people who don't own property (12 states), or people who couldn't afford to pay for the privilege. That last part, having to pay to vote? Discouraged then, and illegal now, with poll taxes banned, even as we look at 'unofficially' implementing some if the Save America Act becomes law.
• Thomas Paine's condemnation of King George as "the greatest enemy this continent hath," echoed today by the varied condemnations coming directly from the White House almost daily, and from each party's followers to the other's, as the need arises.
• Some background on John Hancock, owner of the largest and most prominent signature on the Declaration; he was "one of the richest men in the Colonies and one of those most adored by the crowds. He is also one of the vainest." Remind you of anyone these days, a man with a giant signature, tons of wealth (growing every day), and so vain he had his name slapped on a living memorial to another person? 
• How the states created their own constitutions, filled with similarities - and differences, too. That continues today; regulation, taxation, education, social benefits, wages and pensions, and more are handled differently. Heck, in some states individuals can collect a bounty for spying on, and telling on, their neighbors, something that would never happen in other states.
• Concerns about the young nation's finances, including the shocking $15,000,000 debt of the Continental Congress; a trade deficit with England - and a trade surplus with the rest of the world; concerns about whether economic independence could be achieved without establishing a 'manufacturing society;' and the threats from inflation, caused in part by the costs of war. Is this "like Deja vu all over again," as Yogi Berra said? 
• Smallpox and whether or not inoculating soldiers was a good idea. Boston's leading physician, we're told, thought that inoculation was an 'infatuation' and a 'heathen' treatment. General Washington banned inoculation of soldiers (even as he ordered it for his wife) out of respect for the differing opinions of the states; he even threatened officers who chose inoculation for themselves with being "cashiered and turned out of the Army...as an enemy and traitor to his country." Again, we're seeing history repeat itself, with a ban on flu vaccines for the Hegseth army, until a major outbreak forced the shots to be restarted. 

In the closing essay, titled 'The Future of the Experiment,' there's a discussion of whether the states, "separated, moreover, not only by miles, but also by religion, customs, habits, and temperaments" can hold together; these differences, as well as history showing how hard it is to keep a vast empire together, were "already raising the specter of civil war - or wars - if the British presence is removed." The essay continued, 

Adding to the fear of anarchy is the fact that there are some Americans who oppose all central governments, even their own, and who view the Declaration of Independence as a declaration not against Britain alone, but against all large governments. Unity, for them, is a means and not an end...

Aside from all the military, political and economic problems, Americans must ask an equally important question: Is independence really justified? Are the principles, the view of man, underlying last week's Declaration valid, and can a commonwealth based on them endure?

...Perhaps the greatest peril to the future of the American experiment is that contending groups, properly encouraged to strive for their self-interest, will do so with such heedless vengeance that the needs of society as a whole will be forgotten.

The essayist concludes by posing a key question: Is independence justified - and will it work? Here's the answer:

The delegates in Philadelphia, and most of their fellow citizens, would answer yes - if man is indeed the rational, moral creature, capable of self-control for the greater good, that the Americans of 1776 believe him to be.

Fast-forward from the bicentennial year's look at 1776 to today, when we celebrate our nation's semiquincentennial in what feels like a deeply divided country, including over whether we even have anything to celebrate. 

People put so much time and effort into 'defining' things, whether it's trying to label 'the other side' or label each side's respective ideas. People argue daily about who is a 'real American,' who is a 'patriot,' and who is a 'threat to our very existence.' People gleefully report each other to law enforcement, to people's employers, or they dox them, causing all kinds of trouble, simply because they can't stand hearing another voice. I've been reported at least twice for social media activity.

There's an almost feral desire among political parties to cement their power and tighten their grip on whatever slice of the government they hold, regardless of how that impacts the country. Don't believe me? We have a president - right now - calling for changes that he thinks will ensure his party will be in power for the next American century, and that's not all that's going on. 

And yet? I love this country, even if I'm often driven nuts by the people in charge exercising power not theirs, those who refuse to exercise the power they have, and anyone who refuses to allow me the power I have as a citizen. 

I love this country, even if many of my fellow citizens - politicians, media people, influencers, and yes, people I'm acquainted with - think I can't possibly love America because I don't agree with them.

I believe in our founding principles of equality and the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. I believe we are a nation of immigrants. That includes my ancestor who came over on the Mayflower and the rest who started our various family lines here, and in my opinion, we need to remain one going forward. We are a nation of resisters, too, and need to remain one.

I believe we can continue our experiment and grow our nation, and that someone, somehow, will rise to the occasion, motivate all of us to become better Americans, and bring us back from what so often feels like the brink of disaster, if "man is indeed the rational, moral creature, capable of self-control for the greater good," as most thought in 1776, and as I remember most did in 1976 when I graduated high school.

Perhaps Thomas Paine had the right idea back then?

In the Progress of Politics as in the common occurrences of Life we are not only apt to forget the ground we have traveled over, but frequently neglect to gather up experience as we go.

In our 250th year and beyond, let's remember to do that, and to do it together. 

Sunday School 9/4/22

We're back in the This Week classroom for part of your Sunday School. Martha Raddatz hosted Keisha Lance Bottoms, senior advisor to President Biden in an interview that, in my opinion, went off the rails pretty quickly.

She started with Biden's Independence Hall speech and how the White House said it would be "optimistic" and "was about bringing people together," but pointed to Biden saying "President Trump's MAGA supporters are a danger to democracy" and wondered how that was "unifying."

Now, just for clarification, if you search Biden's speech, the word 'danger' appears three times. 

The first time was when Biden quoted someone else, which seems the most likely instance Raddatz was referring to: 

That’s why respected conservatives, like Federal Circuit Court Judge Michael Luttig, has called Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans, quote, a ‘clear and present danger’ to our democracy.

The second was when he talked about "we, the people" not getting torn apart: 

We, the people, will not let anyone or anything tear us apart. Today, there are dangers around us we cannot allow to prevail. We hear -- you’ve heard it -- more and more talk about violence as an acceptable political tool in this country. It’s not. It can never be an acceptable tool.

And the third was when he spoke more directly about" public figures," MAGA Republicans prominent among them, and political violence: 

On top of that, there are public figures -- today, yesterday, and the day before -- predicting and all but calling for mass violence and rioting in the streets. This is inflammatory. It’s dangerous. It’s against the rule of law. And we, the people, must say: This is not who we are. 

Shall we forgive Raddatz her lack of specificity? 

Bottoms said Biden "reminded the American people who we are as a country," a democracy "built on the rule of law," "that values the peaceful transition of power," and "that values the right of people to go and vote safely and in peace."  He reminded us that "democracies are fragile," and

if we are not intentional about preserving who we are as a country, if we are not intentional about reminding ourselves that there is a rule of law in this country, then we will be in danger. So, the president spoke optimistically about who we are as Americans. We are the greatest nation in the world. But also, a reminder that we have to be intentional about being the greatest nation in the world and that we have to call out hatred. We have to call out this balance and that if we don’t, our democracy is in danger.

Here's Raddatz, totally dismissing the response to her first question.

Whatever you said, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which tracks hate speech, said after the Biden speech, there was a surge online in conversations that said Biden’s remarks singling out MAGA Republicans were interpreted as a declaration of war against conservatives and all the Trump voters.

Really? "Whatever you said..." That's how Raddatz wants to run the interview? Wow. To her credit, Bottoms gave an answer I support.

Well, what I would say to that is that this is what this MAGA agenda has been all about. It’s been about distorting the truth. It’s been about misleading people. It’s been about putting out information that inflames people. And I just encourage people, go to The White House website, WhiteHouse.gov, and read the speech for yourself. I’ve read it multiple times and what I see in the speech, I see words of encouragement. I see optimism. I see a commander-in-chief who was calling out to all of us, no matter our political affiliation.

That brought this question. 

"All of us?" He wasn’t calling out to the MAGA supporters certainly. He mentioned them more than a dozen times and -- as a threat to democracy. Has the president essentially given up on those MAGA Republicans, some 70 million people?

All I can do is sigh. Really loudly, really annoyedly, really frustratingly, sigh. 

Because everyone knows - everyone who hasn't had their head in the sand, or someplace else, since late 2018 or early 2019, at least - knows that there are millions of people who voted for Trump who are not 'MAGA' supporters, at all. They are the disaffected, 'let's try something different' folks who were tired of the same old, same old, who were willing to take a chance on an allegedly successful businessman, who were willing to look past the bluster, and hope that, in conjunction with a reasonable Congress, things they were unhappy with could change. 

These are the people that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton spoke about. And they're the people Joe Biden talked about, too. Here's just one example, for the folks in a booth in the corner in the dark in the back - and for Raddatz.

Now, I want to be very clear -- very clear up front: Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. 

And Bottoms pointed out that Biden has, and will, work with anyone and everyone - Rs, Ds, Is - "to get things done in our country." She didn't say it, but she could have said that the "MAGA Republican agenda doesn't include working with anyone across the aisle," and we have ample proof of that:

• Peaceful transition of power ring a bell? 147 Republicans voted against that. 
• Infrastructure? Only 13 Republicans voted for that; many more have taken credit for it.
• Doing something to ease the baby formula shortage? 192 Republicans voted against that.
• Insulin price controls? 193 voted against that. 
• Build Back Better? All House Rs voted against that. 

Is that Biden's fault? Is it solely the GOP's fault? Is it solely the Dem's fault? 

Raddatz wondered "How has President Biden bridged the divide? What has he done really to unify this country?" She pointed to a Quinnipiac poll showing that 69% of Democrats and Republicans believe democracy is in danger of collapse, but the Republicans blame Joe Biden and the Democrats blame Donald Trump, and said, "Again, how has Joe Biden helped bridge that divide?"

I could be wrong, but I believe we elected a president in 2020, not a miracle worker. Biden can try all he wants, but there's also accountability on the other side to do something other than say that Biden's speech was not unifying (as did many MAGA Republicans on social media), or to vote against everything that Biden puts forth as an agenda item, particularly when a plurality, if not an actual majority of Americans at least theoretically support much of the Dem's agenda; polling has shown this to be the case for several years, the decisions of our elected officials notwithstanding.

 
Bottoms spoke of Biden's bipartisanship in passing gun legislation as one example, but reiterated the point of his remarks. 

But it’s also going to take for all of us to stand up to hatred and what the president again continues to say it’s this MAGA agenda. The president has not called out all Republicans. He’s been very specific about this MAGA agenda. And I’ll just remind you the words from Martin Luther King Jr., when he said that it’s not the words of our enemies that we will remember, it’s the silence of our friends. And what the president has said is that mainstream Republicans, Independents, Democrats can all come together. We’ve seen us come together to do what’s right on behalf of the American people. But if people are silent, then the very core of who we are as a country is in danger.

I don't see that as being difficult to understand, do you? Unity is not forged in one hand, in one party, in one set of policies. It's like a tango - it takes two.

One thing I will give Raddatz credit for was asking about Dems paying for ads in the primaries that work in favor of MAGA Republicans. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, head of the DCCC, defends it, and the Democratic Governors Association apparently does, too.

In my opinion, it's dumb, and they shouldn't do it. She did say "tens of millions of Democratic groups who have spent money" but I'm pretty sure the meant "Democratic groups which have spent tens of millions of dollars." Bottoms didn't have a good answer for that - maybe because there isn't one. 

Please, read Biden's speech. You don't have to agree with him, but you should at least know what he said, and the context of his remarks. The punditry would prefer you don't educate yourselves, but I respect you more than they do.

See you around campus.

Noodling Around: A More Perfect Union (Part 1)

Steaming hot noodles

In what seems like a lifetime ago, back in January of 2014, I posted this quote from President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. 

We owe it to the American people to say what we're for, not just what we're against.

He was talking about Republicans and their then forty votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act; his point was that if they had ideas to make it better, to save money, or whatever, they should tell us what they'd do differently. But the truth is, he could have been talking about any bill, idea, plan, or pipe dream.

We see this all the time, the things everyone's against: the Dems are opposed to ABC if the Rs are for it, and the Rs are totally against XYZ if that's what the Dems support. And what makes thing worse? The American people probably have different priorities than the people we elect do - and we agree on them. 

It's true: polls have long shown there's agreement on what needs fixing, even if there are dozens of ideas on how to fix what ails us. And with people on both sides of the aisle unhappy with each other and with their own parties, with extraordinarily thin majorities in both chambers,  and with folks even arguing about what unity means, how on earth is anything going to get done?

I've been doing some noodling around on this for a while now. To me, the first step is to figure out what's important to us - to the majority of us, not just the loudest yellers. All we know for sure is, what matters most to the politicians (i.e., staying in office while amplifying the voices of the yellers) doesn't seem to jive with what most of us want for ourselves, our families, our neighbors, or even for perfect strangers.

Poll Watch: Democracy, Extremism and More

And so, it begins (again). 

The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump begins today, with an almost certain outcome already known, as it was the first time he was impeached a year ago. 

The Senate will have a split vote on whether it's even constitutional to impeach him, with the Rs likely ignoring, for the second time in two weeks, that it was their own rules that made it impossible to impeach him before his term ended. 

We will go through the motions: the Rs will claim the impeachment is dividing the country, and Ds will say that Trump continues to pose a clear and present danger to everything that's good and wholesome, so he must be prevented from ever holding office again. Pundits will wear their best outfits, the networks will have their impeachment background music, and when it's over, everything is supposed to be OK. 

But will everything be OK? Here's some info from a recent Quinnipiac poll illustrating where we stand right now, on impeachment and some other measures of 'OK-ness.'

First, the small print: the survey was conducted by live interviewers calling both land lines and cell phones from 1/28 - 2/1/21. There were 1,057 participants, 35% of whom identified as independents, 31% Democrat and 23% Republican. The margin of error is +/- 3%.

Now, to the survey.

Only 22% of respondents believe that democracy is alive and well in the US, while 71% say it's under threat and 7% don't know.

• Republicans (85%) are more pessimistic than Dems (67%), Independents (70%), men (72%), women (71%), and people with (80%) and without (75%) four-year college degrees. 
• Younger adults - the 18-34 demographic - are the least pessimistic, with only 58% thinking democracy is under threat; the 65+ cohort is the most pessimistic (80%).

Fully 75% of respondents are concerned about continued violence in the US by extremist groups emboldened by the insurrection at the US Capitol, with 48% saying they are very concerned, and 27% somewhat concerned. Another 22% of respondents expressed less concern (9% not so concerned, 13% not concerned at all).

• Democrats (70%), women (54%), and four-year college grads (51%) lead the very concerned bucket; Republicans (21%), men (18%) and Independents and non-degree holders (16% each) lead the 'not concerned at all' groups. 
• Women are more concerned than men. 82% of white women are concerned, with 55% very concerned; 80% of non-white women are concerned, with 52% saying they're very concerned. The least concerned? White men, at 34% (21% not at all concerned).
• Just 50% of the 18-34 expressed any concern, while 84% of seniors did.

We're not optimistic on the partisan divide, either. 72% of respondents expect partisan divisions in the country to stay the same (33%) or get worse (39%), with only 20% thinking the divisions are going to decrease. Democrats are the most optimistic; nearly three quarters think it will stay the same (40%) or get better (34%). Not surprisingly, the least optimistic are the Rs; nearly 2/3 (63%) think it's going to get worse. 

• Women are twice as optimistic as men in thinking it'll get better (26% to 13%) and white women are more than twice as optimistic as white men (28% to 12%).
• Meanwhile, 50% of white men think it's going to get worse; they're the only demographic, other than Republicans, that reaches that mark.

And, finally, on the day's hot topic? Half of all respondents believe the Senate should convict former president Trump, while 45% disagree. Not surprisingly, there's a wide swath of disagreement between Ds and Rs - 86% of the latter say no, and 86% of the former say yes.

• At least half of each age bucket say yes: the 35-49 and 50-64 are right at 50%, with the 18-34 gang 1% higher and the 65+ cohort 2% higher. 
• The most conflicted groups? Independents (49% say convict, 45% say no, and 6% don't know or didn't answer) and the 50-64 age bucket (50%, 47%, and 3%).
• Trump's steadfast supporters - men, whites, and non-college educated folks - are supporting him on this. 53% of all men, 64% of white men, 53% of non-white men, and 60% of those without four-year degrees say he should not be convicted.

My overarching take on this? It seems the people who are most involved in the current spate of extremism, and in fomenting the divide, are the ones who are the least optimistic that things are going to get better. They're the same people - Republicans and white men in particular - who could start acting differently, and help push the needle in a positive direction.

Does that excuse the Dems? Good lord, no - of course not! I would never let them off the hook, believe me. But they are not the party of the cannibalistic deep state pedophiles. They are not the conspiracy theorists. They are not the group that sought to 'liberate' Michigan and other states. They are not the people who tried to cajole election officials to "find 11,780 votes" so that their candidate could win. They are not the people of the fearless leader who abandoned his most loyal supporter, leaving him to an unruly mob looking to hang him. 

The Dems have their own problems, and they are many. But the Rs have a bigly ownership stake in the state of things in the country right now, and to date most of them don't seem to understand that, or care enough to do anything about it. Oh sure, the few who have thrown in the towel and announced they're not running for office again are taking a stand, of sorts. But the rest of them are too busy censuring each other, trying to force each other to resign, and threatening to primary anyone who doesn't still and always support Donald Trump. 

We deserve better from all of them, for sure, but we mostly deserve much better from the Rs right now, and I'm not optimistic they're going to rise to the occasion. 

I'd be thrilled if they proved me wrong.  

Ranting and Raving (v8): We Don't Need No Stinking Unity!

You know, I'm SO sick of the Democrats already! How on earth am I supposed to make it through the next two years???  

No, I'm not stupid - I said two years on purpose, because we are going to take over the House and take back the Senate in the midterms - I promise you that! And then things will go back to normal!

First of all, the Dems cheated their way into office, with those supposed millions of ballots that picked Sleepy Joe Biden over our beloved savior of the GOP, Donald John Trump. As if!!!

Does anyone really believe that someone wouldn't want Donald Trump to continue being our president? I mean, how stupid would you have to be to not want him?? He saved our Country! He loves America! He hugs the flag!

They cheated, they CHEATED, in Pennsylvania and Georgia and Arizona and Nevada and Wisconsin and Michigan. And they had help, from China and Iran, and Venezuela, and a bunch of RINOs, those fake Republicans who said they supported our beloved President, but wouldn't help him when it mattered - when it mattered SO MUCH for our Country!!!

And then, after all of our efforts failed to keep the cheaters out, even when we tried to capture the no-good RINOs and liberals in Congress, and to hang that bastard Mike Pence for allowing the Electoral College vote to be certified, they're calling for UNITY? For Country over Party? Who the hell do they think they are??? We are all about Country over Party! We call our own people RINOs for Pete's sake! We - US, not the Dems - WE are the party that's all about country over party! Are they kidding???

They say they're fighting for the SOUL of the NATION?? What the hell is wrong with them?  Countries don't have souls - corporations and good people do! Not commies and socialists and liberals! Countries don't have souls - Republicans do! 

Our souls are fine - just fine, thank you very much for asking. We know where we're going when WE die - do they? Do they even believe in Heaven?  I bet they don't. Come on, man - how can anyone who believes in giving illegal ALIENS a pathway to citizenship believe in heaven?? That's a lie! And we're sick of the fake religious people, too!

And killing pipelines! Killing all of those jobs that don't even exist yet? Who does that, who erases tens of thousands of paper jobs? And what are all of those paper jobs going to do without a salary and benefits?? How are they supposed to survive? Where's THEIR stimulus, Biden?  

All because it's what Trump wanted, and what we wanted? When all of YOU were worried about the environment and animals or something silly like that? Not to mention, there goes my 401(k), and now I'm going to have to choose between putting food on the table or gas in my truck. Thanks a lot, Sleepy Joe!

And let's talk about UNITY... What does that even mean? How can you be pro-unity and allow our president, our country's savior Donald John Trump to be impeached a SECOND TIME?? Where's the unity in THAT??? What, do you want blood out of a stone or something?

He's gone! He's out of office! He's banned from Twitter! You stole the election from him! How much punishment do you think he deserves, for doing NOTHING wrong? How much is one man supposed to take?  What did he say that was so wrong?  NOTHING, that's what he said that was so wrong. Do you think people actually listened to him? Do you think the people who were arrested blame him?  Hell, NO - they blame ANTIFA and the DemoRATS and the Libtards and the socialists, that's who they blame! 

And they're RIGHT! Trump had nothing to do with it, and you're trying to kick him when he's down, when he's already gone?!

You want unity? How about you stop pushing for stuff that you know we don't like? How about not getting rid of the Trump agenda?? How about not trying to shove your left-wing socialist crap down our throats by suggesting legislative and policy changes? Where do you get off doing that, Mr. Unity???!! 

If you want unity, you'll listen to US! 74 million people voted for US, and for our COUNTRY! You have NO RIGHT to come in and start pretending you're president on day one, just because you won the Electoral College in a stolen landslide, and just because you had 7 million more votes - they were all fake! FAKE! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!! 

And who do you think you are, Mr. "Scranton" - some "every man" you are -- you wear a goddam ROLEX watch!  You own a PELOTON! Nice try, you leftist, elitist piece of crap! DONALD TRUMP was "every man" - he's the only one who understands what it's like to be in the trenches like us working people!!!  No one else EVER cared about us. And who cares if he has a gold toilet - he talked JUST LIKE US!  He was OUR president, and you're just a puppet for the coastal elites and Big Tech who want to CONTROL US!! And take away our guns! And turn us into Cuba! 

You want Unity?  Do what we say!  WE'RE right and YOU'RE wrong, totally wrong!  Trump had the election stolen from him, and we lost control of the Senate, but WE'RE STILL IN CHARGE because those Trump voters LOVE us - and if you want unity, dammit, you're going to have to go through us!! 

And as soon as we figure out what your precious 'unity' means, we'll let you know.

TGIF 1/22/21

What a week, eh?

We've said goodbye - sorry, we've said have a good life and we'll see you soon - to one president, and said 'hello' to another. 

We've said goodbye to OrangeVerse, and hello to "there is always light if only we're brave enough to see it, if only we're brave enough to be it."

We've said goodbye to American carnage, and hello to humanity and decency. At least, we've said the words 'humanity and decency,' even if there's not necessarily a lot of acceptance of that idea quite yet. 

We've said goodbye to hundreds of bills going to the Senate to rot on the Grim Reaper's desk, and hello to 'shared' control of the US Senate, if Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell can figure out how to make it work. The fullabluster on the filibuster is currently a huge hang-up - or, at least, it's the excuse for the delay in getting things organized.

We've said goodbye to Executive Orders in lieu of legislation (217 in four years), and hello to Executive Orders in lieu of  legislation (30 in three days).

We've said goodbye to long red ties, and we've fallen in love with a pair of mittens. 

We've said goodbye to the president who won 306 Electoral College votes in 2016, and hello to a president who won 306 Electoral College votes in 2020, one who must abandon his agenda now in order to create unity with the 74.2 million voters who are upset that 81.2 million other voters picked someone else. 

But we also had some pretty cool fireworks, from multiple locations in the nation's capital, and a pretty cool celebration leading up to those fireworks, one that looked like us and sounded like us and was shared by lots of us Americans in a way that inaugural balls never were. 

I'll close with this, which I saw on Twitter earlier today.

TGIF, everyone.

Seeking Unity in the State of the Union

News has it that the president is seeking to give us a message of unity in tonight's SOTU, which will be coming your way at 9PM eastern time.

He's tried giving us that message before - think Charlottesville, for example - with limited success. Usually that's because he's not able to restrain himself - and his handlers are not able to restrain him - from tweeting nastiness, lies, or self-defeating misinformation within hours of giving a speech. He's hampered by that whole, "I'm talking to you, not to myself" trap that ensnares so many people in public life, but maybe tonight will be different.

For example, we're told in this report recapping an appearance by Kellyanne Conway on Fox and Friends, that the president will focus not only on unity, but on an "end to retribution and  resistance politics"- but Conway was not optimistic that his "rivals.. will respond well." And, she said,

It's a very uplifting address to celebrate milestones of American greatness, including those that have anniversaries coming up in 2019... When he is calling for unity and he is talking about actual portraits of Americans who have achieved greatness on behalf of all of us, including our brave men and women in uniform... (if there is) anybody sitting there with their arms folded, looking like they're sucking lemons, he is calling for unity and working together. They will need to decide if they're serious about that as well. 

She also added that the president wants the legislature to "do its job" including "meaningful immigration reform" with a physical barrier that "you can't crawl under, climb over, drive through or walk around."

(As an aside, I noticed that the president's advisor didn't mention the pole vaulting option; she might want to look at that, now that Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker again.)

Finally, Conway noted, he'll tout his many accomplishments, which bad people deny, and he'll address late-term abortion, a topic that will delight his base and antagonize people who believe that the government doesn't need to be between the patient and her doctor. You'll recall that was a huge rallying cry for the Republicans on why the Affordable Care Act was a horrid idea for the country.

Go figure.