Fay Voshell

My own reaction? Mild disappointment. I wanted Trump to go whole hog. To declare a national emergency. To announce that he would build a Wall along the whole length of the U.S. southern border using funds from the Pentagon. And the Army Corps of Engineers. And that he would defy any court ruling, up to and including one from the U.S. Supreme Court, telling him otherwise. That he’d fire any officers who wouldn’t cooperate. That he’d let the House impeach him — which it already promised to do, for trivial, partisan reasons. And count on the Senate to vindicate him, then the voters to reward him in 2020 with a second term and a GOP Congress. As I think in fact they would.

The President looked like a police investigator who’d been sleeplessly interrogating sociopaths.

I hope that the above is his back-up option. It’s certainly better than the other alternative: caving to the Democrats who have renounced our right to have borders. Who want to tell the next Caravan, and the next, that they can drag their children through the desert to our borders, and gain free schooling and Medicaid for the price of showing up.

Such a concession, opening the government without a Wall? It would be tantamount to resigning. The Democrats would give him zero credit for making concessions. Instead they would simply smell the blood in the water from a floundering lame duck. Then continue gnawing on Trump until he shambled out office in the style of Jimmy Carter, not lamented nor even remembered. And of course, the ongoing influx of a million or so low-skill immigrants into a post-industrial economy with a massive welfare state would do the rest. We would never again have a pro-life (or pro-gun rights, pro-religious liberty, fill in the blanks) President. Or Congressional majority. Or Supreme Court justice, of course.

Trump Looks Traumatized

But my own feelings quickly subsided. I started resonating to Trump’s. I was struck by how little joy, fun, or even spunk the President displayed in his address. By the stark, almost gaunt earnestness with which he made his simple, accurate statements, and straightforward arguments. Gone was the bright-eyed dealmaker who’d found common cause with Al Sharpton and Vince McMahon — and so was sure he could find the sweet spot between himself, Pelosi, and Schumer.

When Trump spoke of the Democrats this time, the look on his face was starkly different. He no longer imagined that he was playing high-stakes poker, or even political chicken, with rational, patriotic opponents. Instead, his face was that of a man who had been staring down into the Void.

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Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:21 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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