Democrats in Congress can completely change the national conversation tonight if they act together.
They can stand and shout "Liar!" at every opportunity. They can yell "Traitor!" and "Putin's puppet!" when Trump mentions Ukraine. At the end, they can yell "Shame!"
If they do it in unison it will have quite an impact. AOC can lead the way!
Yes, I agree. they should not boycott the SOU address but counter it with a reaction that more than half of the US electorate believe-that Trump and Musk are pawns of Putin, traitors and committing crimes against the Constitution of the United States of America!
Maybe just sit there in total silence without any indication of reaction to his words. As Pelosi suggested, let him stew in his own juice. The tanking of the economy is beginning and can already be seen today.
I worn’t be watching a bloated walrus deliver his abdominal lecture about all the “really beautiful” things he’s done. Hoping Dems in Congress turn their back on him and walk out. Hope they all dress in black.
The last time I decided to respect the office of the President under this occupant, after the plane crash, I was insulted, gaslighted and disrespected. I will not be respecting the office of the President under this occupant again. I have plenty of outlets for entertainment without subjecting myself to this masquerade of government.
The lies, the misdirection, the gaslighting, the complete lack of a plan or an inspiring vision for all Americans renders this speech less than useless as a national exercise in democracy.
Did I say I won’t be watching? The summary of salient points will be available on the Contrarian and from HCR. No need for me to watch as he disrespects and gaslights our representatives.
Great article, Ted. Maybe some Dems can read this message from Mr. Lincoln as a “rebuttal“ after FF – PINO.’s garbage tonight? And keep repeating at every opportunity. (It will take more than one time to get through to shameless MAGA supporters.). And no, I can’t and won’t listen tonight.
Sorry, I won't be watching. Every time Trump comes on my TV I either change the channel or hit the Mute button and yell obscenities at the TV. His whiny voice makes my skin crawl.
"Will he soften his hardline message with humor or double down with more announcements of tariffs, firings, and immigrant roundups?"
Soften? He does not know how to do this. Humor? He has no sense of humor, just thinks he does when he gets his cult to laugh at his nasty attacks at anyone who isn't him.
I think he really just likes to watch people fighting one another (he himself is too scared to do anything but throw nasty epithets around), so it's possible he will encourage another made-for-tv event to feed his base.
While my senators and representative are, unfortunately, Republican, If I had a Democratic Senator or representative, I would expect them to attend. It is their job. Many of the Congressional Democrats will be doing their job tonight, and many of them have invited fired government employees, some of whom are also veterans or disabled veterans, to attend as their guests. Perhaps some will even wear the blue and yellow of Ukraine, as so many of BOTH parties did three years ago when Putin started this war.
I understand the need for a gesture of disgust. Nancy Pelosi's tearing up her copy of Trump's speech was a memorable act of protest, much more so than walking out of the chamber. If Democrats don't show up, then Republicans will invite in more MAGA types. We do not need that.
Waving Ukranian flags at the end would be one protest act that would catch the cameras.
My point is that we need to be strategic with such protests. Mass walking out would be interpreted as petulance by both MAGA Republicans and the legacy media.
Now is their time to rebel if they are a Republican and seeing that they’re catching hell from their constituents in some of the Town Hall meetings. Now is their time to shine if they are a Democrat and become world class obstructionists especially in the courts.
I won’t watch. I am sure we will not be disappointed in his definite delivery of unimaginable disappointment. Somebody should make a stately sounding rendition of YMCA and send Contrarians a recording.
honestly, I'm shocked he is even continuing to pretend that he "has to" do such a thing as address the Congressional minions. I'm a Dem on the floor, I'm getting up and walking out the moment he walks in.
It's going to be a disgustingly performative SOTU.
Of course this annual ritual is performative by nature and design: it's always a bit of a circus, a bit of a show.
But this year it will be the kind of theater the world hasn't seen since--well, it's kind of a cliche by now, but if the cliche fits, and all that: that the world hasn't seen since 1933: a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, but alas, this time signifying something dreadful and dire and irreparable.
We will watch the president of the United States perform a sort of butch Kabuki, grinning and spiteful and buoyed by hate, cheered on by a backdrop consisting of his treasonous vice president and his House Speaker Mr. Johnson (who evokes Chaucer's haunting phrase, "the smiler with a knife under the cloak").
We will watch Republican members of Congress---and perhaps even some Supreme Court justices--huzzah and gloat and cheer for every lie or expression of treason and malice: we will watch them howl out gleeful insults like the drooling crowd at a wrestling match.
We will watch befuddled Democrats (those who show up--others plan to be offstage doing chants or drum circles or die-ins or whatever) doing some disorganized version of performative virtue or indignation or unsmiling loftiness, with maybe a few displays of performative "good-sportness" thrown in to show that they're still the sorts of regular fellas who, even as they denounce an existential threat to democracy, don't hesitate to grin and offer it a handshake and a cup of tea or a round of applause.
Again, we haven't seen the like since 1933 and the fall of the Weimar Republic.
In any case God help us: because it doesn't appear that anyone else is going to.
Democrats in Congress can completely change the national conversation tonight if they act together.
They can stand and shout "Liar!" at every opportunity. They can yell "Traitor!" and "Putin's puppet!" when Trump mentions Ukraine. At the end, they can yell "Shame!"
If they do it in unison it will have quite an impact. AOC can lead the way!
Yes, I agree. they should not boycott the SOU address but counter it with a reaction that more than half of the US electorate believe-that Trump and Musk are pawns of Putin, traitors and committing crimes against the Constitution of the United States of America!
Maybe just sit there in total silence without any indication of reaction to his words. As Pelosi suggested, let him stew in his own juice. The tanking of the economy is beginning and can already be seen today.
That could be taken as appeasement and acquiescence.
And they can walk out.....
If they walk out, they no longer control the conversation.
I worn’t be watching a bloated walrus deliver his abdominal lecture about all the “really beautiful” things he’s done. Hoping Dems in Congress turn their back on him and walk out. Hope they all dress in black.
The last time I decided to respect the office of the President under this occupant, after the plane crash, I was insulted, gaslighted and disrespected. I will not be respecting the office of the President under this occupant again. I have plenty of outlets for entertainment without subjecting myself to this masquerade of government.
The lies, the misdirection, the gaslighting, the complete lack of a plan or an inspiring vision for all Americans renders this speech less than useless as a national exercise in democracy.
Did I say I won’t be watching? The summary of salient points will be available on the Contrarian and from HCR. No need for me to watch as he disrespects and gaslights our representatives.
Great article, Ted. Maybe some Dems can read this message from Mr. Lincoln as a “rebuttal“ after FF – PINO.’s garbage tonight? And keep repeating at every opportunity. (It will take more than one time to get through to shameless MAGA supporters.). And no, I can’t and won’t listen tonight.
Sorry, I won't be watching. Every time Trump comes on my TV I either change the channel or hit the Mute button and yell obscenities at the TV. His whiny voice makes my skin crawl.
"Will he soften his hardline message with humor or double down with more announcements of tariffs, firings, and immigrant roundups?"
Soften? He does not know how to do this. Humor? He has no sense of humor, just thinks he does when he gets his cult to laugh at his nasty attacks at anyone who isn't him.
I think he really just likes to watch people fighting one another (he himself is too scared to do anything but throw nasty epithets around), so it's possible he will encourage another made-for-tv event to feed his base.
While my senators and representative are, unfortunately, Republican, If I had a Democratic Senator or representative, I would expect them to attend. It is their job. Many of the Congressional Democrats will be doing their job tonight, and many of them have invited fired government employees, some of whom are also veterans or disabled veterans, to attend as their guests. Perhaps some will even wear the blue and yellow of Ukraine, as so many of BOTH parties did three years ago when Putin started this war.
I understand the need for a gesture of disgust. Nancy Pelosi's tearing up her copy of Trump's speech was a memorable act of protest, much more so than walking out of the chamber. If Democrats don't show up, then Republicans will invite in more MAGA types. We do not need that.
Waving Ukranian flags at the end would be one protest act that would catch the cameras.
My point is that we need to be strategic with such protests. Mass walking out would be interpreted as petulance by both MAGA Republicans and the legacy media.
Now is their time to rebel if they are a Republican and seeing that they’re catching hell from their constituents in some of the Town Hall meetings. Now is their time to shine if they are a Democrat and become world class obstructionists especially in the courts.
I won’t watch. I am sure we will not be disappointed in his definite delivery of unimaginable disappointment. Somebody should make a stately sounding rendition of YMCA and send Contrarians a recording.
honestly, I'm shocked he is even continuing to pretend that he "has to" do such a thing as address the Congressional minions. I'm a Dem on the floor, I'm getting up and walking out the moment he walks in.
LIES.
Needed some humor. Thank you.
It's going to be a disgustingly performative SOTU.
Of course this annual ritual is performative by nature and design: it's always a bit of a circus, a bit of a show.
But this year it will be the kind of theater the world hasn't seen since--well, it's kind of a cliche by now, but if the cliche fits, and all that: that the world hasn't seen since 1933: a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, but alas, this time signifying something dreadful and dire and irreparable.
We will watch the president of the United States perform a sort of butch Kabuki, grinning and spiteful and buoyed by hate, cheered on by a backdrop consisting of his treasonous vice president and his House Speaker Mr. Johnson (who evokes Chaucer's haunting phrase, "the smiler with a knife under the cloak").
We will watch Republican members of Congress---and perhaps even some Supreme Court justices--huzzah and gloat and cheer for every lie or expression of treason and malice: we will watch them howl out gleeful insults like the drooling crowd at a wrestling match.
We will watch befuddled Democrats (those who show up--others plan to be offstage doing chants or drum circles or die-ins or whatever) doing some disorganized version of performative virtue or indignation or unsmiling loftiness, with maybe a few displays of performative "good-sportness" thrown in to show that they're still the sorts of regular fellas who, even as they denounce an existential threat to democracy, don't hesitate to grin and offer it a handshake and a cup of tea or a round of applause.
Again, we haven't seen the like since 1933 and the fall of the Weimar Republic.
In any case God help us: because it doesn't appear that anyone else is going to.