I had to attend an aviation event this evening and then proceed to the gym for my annual workout. So I missed the Trumpenfuhrer’s speech at the Reichstag. How was it?
Are people who didn’t vote for Trump shocked and horrified by his continuing failure to do the stuff that they want him to do? I found that in Manhattan last week. My elite (either through wealth or education) friends there continued to express their shock that Trump was doing X, Y, or Z. I would point out that they hadn’t voted for him and therefore wouldn’t it make more sense for Trump to instead do the stuff that he promised to the people who did vote for him? Answer: NO! The elite point of view is so obviously correct that they expect Trump by now to have come around to adopting it!
Update: Boston Sports Club was showing professional wrestling and State of the Union on adjacent TVs (a friend pointed out that Trump has a history with WWE).
I didn’t watch it because I expected a scene of thoroughly debauched, chaotic bedlam with both parties out of control beyond anything we’ve seen in the past, and maybe with some other kinds of disruptive shenanigans sprinkled in from the outside. Someone bursting in with a fire extinguisher and smoke bombs, running down the aisle and being gang tackled ten feet from the President. Events that would make a WWE cage match look like the News Hour, and I just didn’t want to witness it.
Apparently though, it came across as one of his best moments, at least according to the polling last night and this morning. Now I’ll have to watch it. As far as your friends in Manhattan are concerned, I’ll bet a good fraction of them think he should have resigned 23 months ago and since he didn’t, he should at least be doing what they expect him to do now.
My elite (either through wealth or education) friends there continued to express their shock that Trump was doing X, Y, or Z. I would point out that they hadn’t voted for him and therefore wouldn’t it make more sense for Trump to instead do the stuff that he promised to the people who did vote for him? Answer: NO! The elite point of view is so obviously correct that they expect Trump by now to have come around to adopting it!
It would be good to have a tap recording of this conversation. It’s likely the people in question could be characterized as preferring the government to do what they would like it to do, just as everyone in the country does.
But it takes a Boston Brahmin to expect it.
There’s a very small (though non-zero) chance that Phil is paraphrasing Boston Brahmins here.
I think it is bad to call trump, “Trumpenfuhrer” and refer to congress as “Reichstag”. I think what you are doing is comparing him to a Nazi. Why would you compare the first president with a jewish daughter with being a Nazi? I find it to be disrespectful and in poor taste. To answer your question the speech was pretty uneventful. It was fine but nothing new really happened.
I agree: The WH, and not the Capitol, is the true Reichstag.
Because that’s the one that was captured by Russians a while ago, and there are real photos to prove that.
Paging Mr Muller… Mr Heinrich Muller, that is.
Probably because he openly supports white nationalists?
Toucan Sam: We are assured here in Massachusetts that there are only tiny differences between Trump and Hitler! Michael Moore and at least some distinguished Yale faculty agree (see https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2019/01/31/fahrenheit-11-9/ ).
In defence of Phil, it is very clear that he is using those terms ironically, mocking those who do compare Trump to being a Nazi. This is clear if you have been reading his column continuously for some time – it is a “in” joke.
So I watched it and I think he did a good job. It’s not the world’s best State of the Union speech but coming from him, at this time, at this moment, it was a good speech. It wasn’t anything really new, but he was effective. I hope he doesn’t do what he usually does and take one step forward and two steps back. The real problem is whether he can control himself when it comes to thinking of himself as his own media impresario. He sucks at that. He’s hurt himself worse than anyone else could ever have hurt him. I don’t think a part of him ever grew up and if you look at his background he never had to, in fact he was always celebrated for being a kind of a gold-plated self promoter. I was afraid of that.
The most important thing for me is that I think most people approved of the speech because the average person thinks Washington needs to stop the politics of revenge, which I thought was the best line in the speech. We are a house divided and revenge is in the air every day. It’s personal. Even entertaining an idea that someone else from the “other party” might have talked about is a bright line label and can start a fight. I don’t know whether our country can handle many more years of that before someone exploits the weakness. May 1 is coming.
I really wish I had one hour to spend with him. I wouldn’t mince words about what I think he’s done, right and wrong – having lived in both worlds. I wouldn’t waste his time.
This is off-topic but I think Putin has every good reason in the world to move 10,000 troops to Venezuela, prop up Maduro and challenge Trump to do anything at all about it, which he will find very difficult to do.