State of the Union 2020

The President's state of the union address was, predictably, a dispiriting and depressing affair, full of dissembling and dubious assertions.  He also used incendiary language, referring not only to so-called "illegal aliens" but also to the horrors of public schools, which he referred to as "government" schools, presumably to demonize them compared to the private and religious schools he prefers to subsidize.  When the president lied he lied big, referring to an "ironclad" promise that he would never allow those with preexisting conditions to be denied insurance while his administration fights for exactly that in Congress and the courts, as well as fighting against providing any medical care for the uninsured.  He accuses the Democrats of planning to take away the health insurance of 180 million Americans who are "very happy" with their insurance (not true; I have never met anyone happy with their health insurance and its high deductibles, co-payments, and constant denial of benefits) while failing, of course, to mention that the replacement, a single-payer system, would be inclusive and effective.
And so it went, as a grinning Trump paused after almost every sentence to wait for applause, led by whack-a-mole popping up by vice-president Pence and the Republicans.  Ever the con man and showman the president filled the gallery with heroes, including the military and families who had members killed by immigrants, while the president bragged that he would never interfere with anyone's second amendment right to carry a gun, though some thought he went a little too far giving a medal to the homophobic and misogynistic Rush Limbaugh.

Incidentally, some have criticized me for not reporting on the last two Democratic debates, which I felt added nothing of substance that had not already been rehashed in the earlier debates.  I am hopeful that this week's debate will break some new ground, including discussion of how to encourage unions and what to do about foreign policy.  Meanwhile, on the latter subject, I recommend Jessica Mathews's article "Do the Democrats Have a Foreign Policy" in the Feb. 13th issue of The New York Review of Books and Adam Shatz's "The Death of Qasem Soleimani" and Patrick Cockburn's "Blundering into War" in the Jan. 23 London Review of Books.