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Frida Ghitis: Insults to Pelosi -- and the American people
It was a night of indelible images. Above all, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tearing up President Donald Trump's speech. Though the bad blood started even before the speech began, with Trump apparently refusing to shake Pelosi's outstretched hand.
But there were the medals, the family reunions and the overall rhetorical weirdness that has become par for the Trumpian course.
The President managed to resist the temptation to lash out against Democrats during his State of the Union. However, he couldn't help insulting the American people with a barrage of lies, exaggerations, misrepresentations and claims of personal credit for the accomplishments of others. After all, that is the stock-in-trade of the marketing maven that is Trump.
America is "highly respected again," he claimed, a favorite mantra that does not become true by force of perennial repetition. International surveys, one after the other, show that Trump is deeply disliked and mistrusted in most of the world, and that generally drags down America's standing.
He proclaimed that, "The state of our union is stronger than ever before." In fact, America is more divided than it has been in living memory. That's a dangerous weakness for any country.
Above all, this was a speech aimed at winning the 2020 election. Trump highlighted the country's economic performance. "We are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago," he claimed, even though economic growth was stronger during much of the Obama administration than under Trump. He claimed to be "restoring our nation's manufacturing might," even though the US economy has entered a manufacturing recession. And he took credit for millions of Americans coming off food stamps, fudging the numbers -- which have been declining since 2013 -- and failing to note that his administration's rules are kicking poor people off the program.
Trump added drama with his guests in the audience. In an unprecedented move, he had the First Lady give the Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh in the middle of his speech. It's terribly sad that Limbaugh has advanced cancer, but it's hard to justify granting the nation's highest civilian honor to a man who has done so much to inflame divisions among Americans.
The presence of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido was a nice gesture to the Venezuelan people, and surely a welcome one by millions of Florida voters. But it was also an awkward reminder that Trump's Venezuela policy hasn't succeeded.
Having Guaido there helped Trump talk about the evils of socialism, a Trump 2020 dig at Democrats, whose presidential candidate Trump will paint as a Venezuela-style socialist. "Socialism destroys nations, but always remember, freedom unifies the soul," the President nonsensically mused.
Unifying was the opposite of the purpose of a speech that aimed to drum up votes. And though we were spared the insults, we were subjected to crass marketing, to division and to damnable lies.
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Posted by Erin Burnett to Rush Limbaugh at February 5, 2020 at 1:36 PM
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