It’s ironic that the symbol for the Republican Party is an elephant. An elephant is known for having a great memory, as in an elephant never forgets. Republicans, especially Donald Trump, have the worst memories.
They forget that illegal immigration decreased yearly during Obama’s presidency. They forget that unemployment, even black unemployment, was dropping for the past several years. They forget that the economy was increasing long before Trump took office. They forget that the stock market has been doing great for the past several years. Now that the stock market has had a couple of rough days, they’re forgetting there even is a stock market. Republicans denied the economy was doing better and faulted the economic indicators they’re citing today. Finally, they forget how they treated Obama.
Republicans complain that Democrats won’t give Trump a chance and all they do is obstruct his agenda. They forget all the conspiracy theories they created about Obama like he’s Muslim, a communist, or that he was born in Kenya. Who can forget Mitch McConnell’s statement that the Republican agenda was to make Obama a one-term president? They especially forget how they treated him during his State of the Union speeches.
It’s par for the course that the party out of power doesn’t applaud much during the president’s speech. During Obama’s first State of the Union, one Republican shouted: “you lie.” So it’s galling that for the past week they’ve been complaining about the Democrats lack of enthusiasm during Trump’s stupid speech.
Republicans have been going on and on about it. Fox News hasn’t shut up about it. Conservative pundits have been complaining about it. Every conservative political cartoonist has drawn about it. I know these people weren’t in comas during the Obama presidency because I heard them bitching every day. Bad memories.
During a speech Monday in Cincinnati, Trump attacked the Democrats for not applauding. He’s already lied about his SOTU speech, saying it was the most viewed in history. George W. Bush and Obama both had more viewers for their first SOTU speech. His speech in Ohio was remarkable for two reasons.
First, he was boasting about the economy and how he’s revived it while the stock market was plummeting by more than 1,000 points. Second, he accused the Democrats of treason for not applauding during his speech.
Trump argues that they sat on their hands while he was mentioning good news. I guess the Democrats didn’t want to clap when he was taking credit for Obama’s accomplishments.
Trump said, “Even on positive news, really positive news like that, they were like death and un-American. Somebody said treasonous. I mean, yeah, I guess, why not. Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.” People who truly love our country want to protect it from Trump.
Is this North Korea now where it’s treason if you don’t grovel to the Dear Leader? Will we all be forced to hang portraits of Trump in our homes, thus scaring children and small animals? Not only is Trump incapable of displaying how thin-skinned he is, he can’t refrain from expressing his desire to be an autocrat. He’s surrounded himself with too many people like Stephen Miller who said shortly after Trump first took office, “the president’s authority will not be questioned.”
Trump has called the press “enemies of the American people.” He’s attacked our judicial system. He has called for investigations into a political opponent. He’s attacking law enforcement officials for investigating him and trying to manipulate those agencies and eliminate their independence from the president. Trump is acting like an autocrat. Next in line for that is treason for those who don’t grovel before him.
I didn’t think the Democrats failing to clap for Trump was the most impressionable image from the SOTU speech. The most memorable for me was Trump clapping for himself. I’m sure it’s not the first time he got the clap.
For failing to clap for the president to be treason, Trump will have to become a dictator and change some laws. Right now, it’s impossible to commit treason in the United States.
Technically, the nation has to be at war for someone to commit treason. That’s the way the law is written. I’m not talking about combat situations we’re in. The United States has to be officially at war, which we haven’t been since World War II.
While nobody can be charged with treason, you can say someone acted out treasonous behavior. I don’t think failing to clap for Trump fits that description.
I think better definitions for treasonous behavior would be asking Russia to hack your political opponent, inviting Russians to Trump Tower to provide dirt on your political opponent, failing to enact sanctions on Russia passed by Congress and that you actually signed, or failing to protect the United States from Russia’s continuing attempts to disrupt our elections.
I could probably think of a few more, and if I can’t, I’m sure Trump will.
Creative notes: I drew a cartoon with “dilly dilly” about a month ago. It’s about played out. Though, when I was out watching the Super Bowl and the guy in the Bud Light commercial shouted “dilly dilly,” the entire bar returned the cheer. I was sitting next to a woman much older than I am, and she asked, “what’s dilly dilly?”
The expression, whatever it means, might be played out but I really liked including “pit of misery”.
The creation of this cartoon will be YouTubed at some point later Today. Dilly dilly! (Clay Jones has a YouTube channel. GO HERE.)
Email Clay Jones at [email protected]