State of the Union address shows a new visionary Trump

Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address showed a remarkable change in both tenor and tone, than has been seen before. Gone, at least for the moment, were the bellicose statements, and the bombastic rhetoric that has endeared himself kudos from his base, and pans from his critics. In its place was a clearly articulated vision of his America, one that can, and will return to its strength and might - Pax Americana.

While the team of speech writers went into overtime, Tuesday’s result gave a magnificent mantle to what has been not only a contentious record, but a thin one, that gave even his supporters pause. But, freshly imbued with the legislative victory of tax reform, and the Senate confirmation of conservative Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, Trump could crow a bit, and the writers obviously gave pause to how much that bit contained.

More than one observer noted the similarities between Tuesday’s address and that of the iconic GOP hero Ronald Reagan whose script was both flawlessly delivered, and executed, as the former Hollywood actor sailed through it.

Trump did hit all of the points that led him to victory in 2016: a stronger military, border security - including the infamous wall, changing the structure of legal immigration and countering illegal immigration, trade deals that don’t debilitate the U.S. economy, and jobs, those “beautiful” jobs that he heavily touted, in the early days of the administration.

As usual there were guests in the First Lady’s box, there as examples of what lay at the core of his agenda --- almost part and parcel of what the televised audience expects to see from any modern president in a State of the Union address.

One of those were family members of a victim of the infamous MS-13 gang that had killed their daughter; and while no one watching could not share their grief, the moment was a playbook from the old 60’s “law and order” tag, which was a coded term for race, and tags onto the remarks that candidate Trump made about Mexico sending its rapists, thugs and criminals, and painting an already troubled legislative landscape with fear.

Seen also in a familiar pose, that the Republicans once held, was the minority party, sitting on their hands, as the hall erupted into applause, at prime points; at least those Democrats that actually showed up, as there were those such as Rep’s John Lewis, of Georgia, and Jan Schakowsky, of Illinois that boycotted the evening because of the recent intense partisan battles that have defined the Trump presidency, perhaps even more than his predecessor.

There were some cringe worthy moments, however, after the  announcement, or more accurately, re-announcement of the path for the DACA recipients, Trump later said, that “Americans were dreamers, too” in a direct reference to the former Obama program for those children brought to the country, illegally, as toddlers, or infants, 1.8 million of them.

But, pitting one group against another is dirty politics, that can lead to more than we hope for, and far less, that, as a nation, we deserve.

It was reported that some Democrats brought some DREAMers as their guests for the evening, only to have Rep Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona, express his desire that the police arrest, and deport them on the spot.

Care of the veterans, those that fought the nation’s wars when revealed next to a decade earlier, to rove far less than adequate, and now have become part of the arsenal against an entrenched liberal presence, intent on robbing these men and women of their  rights of care. While those problems are complex, and vary widely, the problems seem less than liberal but neglectful, a sad bureaucratic reality.

Ron Elving of NPR, perhaps said it best, when in his analysis he noted the gaping hole of bipartisanship, saying, “the president might have chosen to make a very different speech — aimed at meeting his various opponents halfway. He might have credited, for example, some of the members of the Senate who have been trying to negotiate a compromise on immigration. He might have saluted the Democrats in the Senate who voted for his tax cut last year, or who have been negotiating with his administration on infrastructure and other areas of shared concern.”

For those viewers,and listeners, that might have been pleased with the new tune, whose lyrics were the same, regrettable during a time of near savage partisanship, the issues of race (which dog him), the class divisions; indeed the whole lot, that has plagued the nation for decades, have been purposefully exacerbated, as political exercise.

In a possible attempt to heal,and win over Black Americans, Trump advanced the low unemployment rate for African Americans, and giving himself credit for it - yet that rate, still higher than those for white people or Asians, is not an end unto itself, but a beginning, and one that was not helped by the recent tax reform bill that gives some relief to some taxpayers, living in some places; but mostly, not to black Americans, like their white cohorts, on a reliable basis.

Jesse Jackson, in an editorial for the Chicago Sun-Times noted that the headline rate, what we’ve referred to as the marquee number, in previous blogs, is not wholly accurate as it does not include those that are stuck in part-time work and want full-time work, or those who have given up looking.

The diligent staff of factcheck.org gave their estimation: “When Trump took office in January 2017, the black unemployment rate was 7.8 percent, the lowest it had been in nearly 10 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Under Trump, it dropped a full percentage point to 6.8 percent in December. That’s the lowest rate since the bureau began regularly breaking out unemployment rates by race in 1972.

A similar drop of 1 percentage point was recorded during the same 11-month period in 2016. The drop was even more pronounced in each of the three years before that. It fell 1.9 percentage points in 2015, 1.5 percentage points in 2014 and 1.8 percentage points in 2013.

In other words, the downward trend has continued under Trump, albeit at a slower pace than in recent years.”

While others have blasted the president for this bout of hubris, the conclusion was this:  “. .  .  the gap between white and black unemployment remains largely unchanged under Trump. While black unemployment fell to 6.8 percent in December, the white unemployment rate that month was 3.7 percent. So the white rate is 46 percent lower than the black rate, about the same as the gap in December 2016.”

The tax reform bill that Trump has widely trumpeted - his only legislative victory is a  mixed bag, but one that primarily gives huge deductions for wealthy individuals and  corporations while slicing away at the deductions that most average income, and above, earners need, such as the state and local income tax deductions.

Many polls have revealed how deeply unpopular the bill, titled the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” is; in fact 64 percent of Americans oppose the Act and say that it favors the wealthy, and 76 percent for corporations, more than it does the average American; especially families living in high tax states, such as New York and California.

“The average household would get a tax cut of $1,610 in 2018, a bump of about 2.2 percent in that average household's income, according to a report by the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank that has been critical of the tax overhaul plan,” says National Public Radio.

Most revealing of those figures is that “however, extremes make averages, and the benefits would be much larger for richer households. A household earning $1 million or more would get an average cut of $69,660, an income bump of 3.3 percent. Compare that with the a tax cut of $870, or 1.6 percent, for the average household earning $50,000 to $75,000.”

Hearing the president crow about the bill made many observers wonder about the old “fuzzy math” of yesteryear. On a more serious note, most of the economic gains that Trump has claimed for himself came about as a result from the work of outgoing Fed Chair Janet Yellen, whose dovish, and data driven, approach made the grade, along with President Obama’s economic policies, and rescue of the auto and banking industries, coupled with a growing global economy.

The end result --- Pax Americana writ large - was the central theme, the rebuttal by Rep. Joe Kennedy III, said much about how regular wage earning people, of the so-called rank and file needed more than has been given this past year.

“Kennedy, a millionaire scion of the famed political family, pushed the official Democratic message of a “better deal,” with paid family leave, higher wages, and affordable child care and education. He argued that Trump is turning American life “into a zero-sum game” where one group can win only if another loses,” reported the Boston Globe.

Without mentioning the president by name, he said this, about the record that was touted that evening: “Their record is a rebuke of our highest American ideal: the belief that we are all worthy, we are all equal and we all count,” Mr. Kennedy said as he delivered the official Democratic Party response to Mr. Trump’s State of the Union address, said The New York Times.

Ripping the well-stitched cover from the evening, Kennedy also helped to reposition the Democrats when he noted, “We are bombarded with one false choice after another: coal miners or single moms, rural communities or inner cities, the coast or the heartland,” Kennedy said. “So here is the answer Democrats offer tonight: We choose both. We fight for both.”