“Socialism destroys nations, but always remember, freedom unifies the soul”

– Donald Trump State of the Union Address 2020

Watch the full State of the Union Address here.

On Tuesday, Trump delivered his fourth state of the union address since his election in 2016. It was a speech full of American spirit, controversy, and downright entertainment.Trump was filled with charisma and American Pride as he spoke about the state of our country. While listening to Trump was great, I almost had more fun watching Nancy Pelosi and her reactions than I did listening to Trump, but I digress.

In his speech, Trump honored American heroes, including a 100-year-old veteran who is the last of the Tuskegee Airman from WWII. We got to meet a mother and her daughter who was born at only 21 weeks and weighed less than 1 pound at birth. We met the brother of a murder victim from an illegal immigrant. We watched as a soldier reunited with his family, and we met a 13-year-old boy with big dreams to be in space. These people were diverse in background, race, in circumstance, and it became a beautiful picture of unity and what America is at its core.

However, despite these touching moments, watching the speech became a glaring image of the division in America. Seeing a literal line down the center of the room was striking. In the room you see the Republicans on the left and the Democrats on the right. As Trump speaks, you hear a variety of reactions: cheers, applause, boos, and chants are all included in the array. Trump spoke about various accomplishments that have benefited America. He spoke about Black, Hispanic, and Asian unemployment being at all-time lows. He spoke about executive orders to provide increased funding to America’s Historically Black Colleges, increased population of women in the workforce, and a decrease of Americans on welfare. He made comments on his work toward criminal justice reform, school choice, vocational education, and he mentioned the bills he signed for paid family leave. I struggled to find one topic that was not a win for the American people. Each of these things should be unifying topics, right? Well, from what I watched, apparently not.

Here is what I found so confusing: The Democrats are supposed to be the party of the people. I even took the liberty to look up the official Democratic party platform. You can take a look for yourself here. They claim to stand with the minorities. They are the party for feminists and black America. They want to increase the wealth for the lower and middle class.  However, when Trump announces wins for these people, there was stone cold silence from the Democrats in the room. They stayed seated, hands in their laps, whispering to each other, scoffing at Trump’s words. If these are the people Democrats say they stand behind, then explain to me why they do not feel the need to show happiness and support when positive benefits have been given to them. I may be kidding myself, but much of what Trump said during his State of the Union Address are things that all people, no matter party affiliation, can rally behind.

Now, I do think that a bit of transparency is important, so I would also like to make this note. Some of Trump’s success is merely due to timing. For example; black unemployment has been consistently dropping since 2013. During the Obama administration, it dropped continually from 2013 on. So yes, the fact that Trump is able to claim the lowest unemployment rate in a decade is partially due to the time he arrived in office. The unemployment for Black Americans was already dropping when he took office in 2017, which gave Trump the opportunity to push it to the record low. Almost the same pattern goes for women’s unemployment, Hispanic unemployment, and Asian unemployment. So sure, Trump is over dramatizing the accomplishment, but he is a politician so what can you really expect. Every person in that room has probably done something similar at one time to win their respective election. When you boil it down, politics is marketing, and the same way McDonalds classes up their burgers for an ad, politicians class up their accomplishments to win elections and favor with people.

However, this fact does not change how I feel about the Democrats’ reactions to the address. As I stated before, Democrats have claimed to be the party for the people. They claim to represent minorities, and blue-collar America, and they love to point fingers at the 1% and their evil Republican ideals. So here we are in 2020 and we have a Republican President. He is fighting for the people that his party has supposedly neglected and the Democrats sit there scowling. Since Trump took office, the Democrats have been screaming for unity in America, and while Trump is quite literally fighting for the American people on both sides of the spectrum, all you can hear is crickets and boos on the Democrats side of the room. So, if they cannot be happy for a better quality of life for the people they represent, then what exactly are they in government for?

Watching the Democrats during the State of the Union address was the seal on the envelope of their hypocrisy. Unity! Sympathy! Minorities! Feminism! These topics are like listening to a liberal, Democratic, broken record. What became glaringly apparent to me was that Democrat leaders only care about their people if someone from their own party is helping them. They love to be accepting and tolerant of their own people, but you Republican….how dare you help one their people! “Begone you *insert various derogatory insults here.*” It sounds harsh but I have experienced it first hand, and since this is about the address, let me pull an example from there.

Trump spoke about the border crisis and introduced us to Jody Jones. He is the brother of a murder victim, killed by an illegal immigrant. While Trump speaks of the tragic event, you see Jody in the gallery honored to be in attendance, crying at the loss of his brother. Not one ounce of applause or acknowledgement was given to this man from the Democrats. Not a single one. This man lost a beloved family member because of the lack of border security and every Democrat turned their head. Dear Democrats, the next time you accuse Republicans of being unsympathetic, I am going to pull this moment out and remind you of the cold hearts you showed this man.

Before I finish, how can I not mention the most memorable and controversial moment of the entire address. Nancy Pelosi’s public display of utter classlessness. She ripped up the President of the United States speech! I wasn’t quite sure how to react at first, my first instinct was, “Wait! She can do that?” While her act was not a violation of the law, it was highly disrespectful. Donald Trump, love him or hate him, is the president. The presidency is an office that should be respected. Not to mention that it is Pelosi’s job to be there and attentive. She is in a position that requires she respect the office of the president. Think about it, if your boss handed you an important document about the state of the company that had information and decisions that you were to read and respect, and then you tore up the document in front of him with a smug look on your face, you would probably get fired. At the end of the day, it is childish. Nancy Pelosi is 79 years old and she behaved about as maturely as a toddler who didn’t get the toy they wanted in Walmart.

To conclude, I think a picture is worth a thousand words, and the Democrats painted a big one. They painted a picture displaying their pettiness, hypocrisy,  and lack of class. They want so badly for us to believe they are the party of respect and tolerance. However, what I watched during the State of the Union Address was an image of a party that represents anything but those things. I find it sad to see an image of such a great divide while the country and the economy is prospering. At the end of the day we are all Americans: We should not be wishing ill on each other based on beliefs. We are all members of the greatest country in history and a win for one American is a win for us all. I believe Donald Trump is winning for the American people and I am excited to see him win again in 2020.