President Donald Trump’s first joint address to Congress on Tuesday was more than just his first opportunity to lay out his agenda, it was also a coming out party for the Democrats. After weeks of tedious sparring, the Dems finally settled on a new party chairman in former Obama Labor Secretary Tom Perez, over lefty upstart Rep. Keith Ellison. But Ellison still made his presence known during Trump’s speech, as did the rest of the Democrat leadership, which is coming to grips with the fact that they have become a party of tactics, not ideas.
This was not only a chance for Trump to cut through the noise of Twitter that his media critics love to focus on so much, but also for the newly reformed Democrat party to respond and prove that what remains is a party built for measured opposition against Trump. And they blew it. Big time.
Members wore white outfits and ribbons, or in Rep. Maxine Waters’ case, chose not to attend at all. It’s not unusual for party members to remain bolted to their seats when a President from the opposition delivers red meat applause lines, but for whom the Democrats refused to stand is what’s perplexing given the outcome of the election and the stated goal that the party needs to regroup and rethink.
It’s understandable for Democrats to not want to stand and applaud when Trump declares it’s time to repeal Obamacare. But for a party desperately attempting to prove (more on that in a minute) that they haven’t lost that big chunk of land between New York and Los Angeles where they mostly now reside, Democrats seemed to indicate they believe 2016 was a fluke.
“I just met with officials and workers from a great American company, Harley-Davidson. In fact, they proudly displayed five of their magnificent motorcycles, made in the USA, on the front lawn of the White House,” Trump said while leading into a discussion of tax rates for the American company, which is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As the GOP members rose to applaud Trumps’ example, Democrats remained firmly planted on their rears, perhaps still trying to figure out where the world Wisconsin is located.
As Trump pivoted into his campaign theme of violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants, he pointed out his guests in the upper gallery. Both Jessica Davis and Susan Oliver are widows of California police officers killed in the line of duty by an illegal immigrant. It was a moment Trump thundered away on and once again as the House honored the fallen officers, Democrats couldn’t decide whether to rise or sit.
Trump also singled out the family of Jamiel Shaw II, a high school student murdered by Pedro Espinoza, an illegal immigrant. Democrats booed and gasped at Trump’s immigration overhaul surrounding these victims, but again seemed to fail to understand how stories like these resonate with voters. Jamiel Shaw, the father appeared on Fox and Friends after the speech and was asked to give his thoughts on the Democrats’ reaction. “I just ignore them, like they do me,” he said.
But the moment of the night came when Trump singled out Carryn Owens, the recently widowed wife of Special Officer Ryan Owens, a Navy SEAL killed during a raid in Yemen. There are still questions to be answered about the operation itself, some of which Owens’ father is demanding and deserves, but as the gallery stood and applauded for Carryn Owens, she broke out in tears and gratitude, at times looking up and mouthing words. The ovation lasted over two minutes. During the ovation, several Democrats were caught on camera remaining in their seats, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ellison and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Perhaps they felt the scene was exploitative, as several news personalities pointed out on Twitter, which is fine, but this was the party that rolled out Gold Star family members Khizr Muazzam Khan and Ghazala Khan during the Democrat National Convention and paraded them around cable news for a week in response to Trump’s flippant comments. Maybe, just maybe, both families, Khan and Owens are deserving of ovations. If the reason Democrats can’t rise and applaud the widow of a fallen service member, or victims of violent crime, or American companies based in the heartland of the country is fear of a backlash from their base, maybe the base they are catering to is the problem.
Once Trump wrapped his speech up, the Democrat response did not fall to someone of the younger generation like Sen. Kristin Gillibrand, Ellison, Sen. Cory Booker, Rep. Joaquin Castro, but to former Governor of Kentucky, 72 year old Steve Beshear. Beshear was surrounded by other likeminded old white people in a staged diner. It was an odd scene that looked more like the dinner party from Get Out than it did a re-energized party of youth of diversity.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow lightly praised Trump’s speech and Van Jones declared the moment he singled out Owens is the moment he became President. Trump finally appeared to understand, even if briefly, the power that comes from having that microphone. From all appearances, the Democratic party is still stunned from the election loss, the types of voters who rejected Hillary Clinton, and are still not ready to become the President’s opposition.