kenberg, on 2017-January-20, 16:06, said:
It was a truly awful speech.
jogs, on 2017-January-20, 17:52, said:
You guys just don't get it. In 2018 democrats will lose more seats.
Yesterday was a busy day and my one sentence was a quick reaction right after watched the speech on my computer. I'll say a bit more and refer to a couple of other evaluations.
First from
George Will
Part of it:
Quote
Twenty minutes into his presidency, Donald Trump, who is always claiming to have made, or to be about to make, astonishing history, had done so. Living down to expectations, he had delivered the most dreadful inaugural address in history.
Kellyanne Conway, Trump's White House counselor, had promised that
the speech would be "
elegant." This is not the adjective that came to mind as he described "American carnage."
That was a phrase the likes of which has never hitherto been spoken at an inauguration.
Noe from
Robert Samuelson
Again I take a sample:
Quote
The question that swirls around
Donald Trump's inaugural address is whether his aggressively pronounced policy of America First will actually result in America Last — not literally last, but declining in power and prestige because the United States no longer views its role in the world as promoting economic and geopolitical stability for our allies.
Instead, he imagines a world in which the United States takes what it can and worries about others only as an afterthought. What does he expect other countries to do? The answer is obvious. They will act more aggressively in their own selfish interests, leading to a further disintegration of post-World War II economic and political alliances.
Neither of these guys would be considered a lefty, but they perhaps could be cast as part of the dreaded elite. Well, I have been called many things but nobody ever described me as elite so now I will say a bit.
I saw the speech as simultaneously belligerent, whiny and unrealistic, pretty much for the reasons Will and Samuelson cite.
Simple case: I like blackberries and blueberries, and strawberries to a lesser extent. At least in the winter, the ones I buy come from, well, from somewhere else. Peru maybe Or Mexico sometimes. Buy American? Gotta give up those winter blueberries. Who cares about blueberries, you ask? Sure, but a very long list could be made with blueberries being replaced by anything from clothing to cars. We are really going to buy American? To whatever extent this has a meaning rather than being a stupid provocative slogan that will prompt trouble with our friends, what the hell does it mean?
Jobs: I'm from Minnesota, an uncle worked in the iron mines, as did my first wife's father. Many of the mines closed. This was not because of stupid decisions in Washington, corrupt elites, or nasty foreigners, this was because the iron ran out. My father installed weatherstripping, sometimes in lived-in houses, sometimes he contracted with construction companies that were building new homes. The latter was far preferable. Toward the end of his working life the jobs with the construction companies began to disappear due to changing technology. Well, he coped. But the important thing is that the changes he had to cope with had nothing to do with elites, with Washington, or with foreigners. Trump has has had virtually nothing to say about what seems to me to be the real problems with jobs. He brings out his list of villains and the faithful cheer.
I could go on but you get the idea. I think Donald Trump's interest in the working man begins and ends with how he can use the issue to get votes. He knows little and cares less. You say I don't get it. I think I get it very well, I just don't like it.
Help
Did you two guys hear the same speech? 
