Grade Trump's Speech

[Progressive Pessimist]

I ended up watching some of it towards the end, hoping to catch Abrams' speech, but that wouldn't be for another half frigging hour. But from what I've gathered about it, I give him a D-. On the Trump curve, that's some massive credit there, from his usual F grade speeches.

I am only giving him that credit because he was more positive than usual...but again, that's not saying much. His conciliatory moments ended up significantly contrasting with his usual Trumpian fear-mongering, misleading, gas-lighting, outright lying, and probably most significantly contradicting himself. Apparently we need a border wall because our border cities are apocalyptic dystopian hellholes, yet El Paso is one of the safest cities in the country because it already has a wall? So then, why do we need a wall across the entire border if parts of it already have them and aren't so unsafe after all? I would also be curious if El Paso is a sanctuary city or not, because that undermines his entire agenda on immigration if it is. Furthermore, he did mention some important issues that should be addressed and have some bipartisan appeal like reducing prescription drug prices, infrastructure...and I guess that was it. But even then, it's out of character to think that he will follow up on that, and he still seems to be prioritizing those less than his ridiculous wall! It's also impossible to take his calls for rejecting "retributive and revenge-driven politics" when he fear-mongers about Socialism in our own country (talking more about that than the situation of Venezuela), exaggerates the extremity of the New York and Virginia abortion bills, continues to misunderstand and distort immigration issues, and declares the legitimate investigations into him as "partisan." He has no credibility, and probably never will. This speech was still typical Trump.

Also, his delivery was ass. I should have felt a little choked up when he told the story of that Holocaust survivor, but he narrated that story horribly. It just felt uncomfortable to see this man's story get butchered like that. He cannot read competently to save his life. I've heard kindergartners sound less choppy and awkward reading 'The Cat In the Hat.' And it as even more awkward when he goaded the entire chamber (sort of) into singing "Happy Birthday.' The "U-S-A" chanting from the Republican side was also pretty obnoxious and they applauded for some shocking things like "making peace with the Taliban," as referenced in another thread.

Stacey Abrams however, performed excellently. Her speech was personal, smart, succinct, and effective at addressing the issues that actually, or should actually matter while also not coming off as too confrontational but also still drawing a clear distinction with Trump's "vision" for the country. She delivered it with gusto and there wasn't a singly distracting or meme-worthy moment. It was probably the best rebuttal...maybe ever, definitely in the internet age. Though that also means that her speech will probably be forgotten about, but maybe that's an objective indication of how good it was that we won't be talking about her drinking water or staring at the camera, or anything like that. She really is talented, it's such a shame that Georgia looks to be such a non-starter for her. Either way, she would be the best bet against Perdue in 2020. She has a future, I just don't now when it will finally come to her.

Overall though, whatever goodwill Trump cultivated from this speech is also sure to be forgotten about when he leads the country into another shutdown or starts hate-tweeting again. Every day is like 'Groundhog Day' with Trump and I would rather trade places with Bill Murray due to it.