STFU

I couldn't get myself to actually watch it (I binge-watched Episodes 8 through 10 of Netflix' Sense8 instead), but I'm told that during last night's State of the Union address, Trump claimed credit for a “great American comeback,” contrasting his alleged successes with the records of his predecessors.

“In just three short years, we have shattered the mentality of American decline and we have rejected the downsizing of America’s destiny,” Trump said. “We have totally rejected the downsizing. We are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago, and we are never, ever going back!”

Am I the only one who remembers that America was most decidedly not in decline when Trump took office?  Let's talk facts, not rhetoric:  under the Obama administration, corporate profits and the stock market reached record levels while inflation and interest rates remained near record low levels.  A moderate tax increase was imposed on higher income Americans, universal health care was enacted, and the budget deficit was significantly reduced, as was income inequality. Bush's Great Recession and the subprime mortgage crisis were both overcome during Obama's first term, and as the economy improved and job creation continued during his second, a spending cap was implemented to further reduce the deficit back to historical levels. 

Trump has an obsessive, near pathological hatred for Obama and has done everything he can to rewrite history in his own favor.  To be perfectly clear: there was no "American decline" at the time Trump took office and there was no "downsizing of America's destiny."  Trump's "American carnage" SOTU address of 2016 was a fictional concept and if anything, America is now more isolated than before Trump took office, we have fewer military and economic allies, income inequality has gotten worse, and the erosion of environmental controls and the failure to address climate change will haunt this country for decades to come.  Trump's term has been a failed presidency by any rational measurement.

The entire SOTU address was predicated on a big, fat lie - we were not in decline before, and we are most decidedly not getting better now.

Worse yet was Trump awarding a Medal of Freedom during the speech to the divisive conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh.  Limbaugh's racist, sexist, bullying broadcasts over the past several decades have done as much as anything else to polarize our politics and cause one side to demonize the other. Awarding him the same honor that had gone to Elie Wiesel, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Teresa was the worst decision since Bush gave one to Bill Cosby.  

It was a move that is being widely praised by the far right and roundly booed by the left.  It was a move calculated to further divide, not unite, the country. It shows that Trump has no interest in even pretending to heal the partisan divides separating our nation.  Imagine if Obama had awarded a Medal of Freedom at a SOTU address to, say, Michael Moore or Rev. Al Sharpton.      

I'm glad I didn't watch the speech, and I'm glad that the remainder of Trump's presidency will be measured in months and not years.