Trump still wants you to be very, very afraid - By E.J. Dionne Jr.
By E.J. Dionne Jr. Opinion writer March 1 at 1:05 PM
The obsession with President Trumps ability to spend one hour in a disciplined relationship with a teleprompter obscured one of his central goals on Tuesday night: He continued to try to scare the country to death.
Yes, he lived up to media expectations that he would finally attempt to look presidential and that he could recite words that sounded optimistic and forward-looking. He and his handlers are well aware that commentators typically reward presidents for doing what commentators say presidents need to do.
And he also issued a ritual call for bipartisanship, even though earlier in the day, he had said he regarded House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi as incompetent, actually. Put aside that upbraiding his female critics is one habit that is very difficult for Trump to break. It was hard to square the nice, lets-all-get-along paragraphs with everything else Trump has been doing.
And beneath the obeisance to the Beltway rules about what addresses to joint sessions of Congress are supposed to look like lurked Trump Classic. Hes still the man who wants to aggrandize the executive and expand the power of law enforcement by making the country believe it is under threat from dark forces that only a strong hand can deal with.
He didnt repeat his controversial use of the word carnage, which stood out from almost everything else he said in his inaugural address. He simply described the carnage.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-still-wants-you-to-be-very-very-afraid/2017/03/01/3a260fa8-fea6-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html?utm_term=.67a5eaba2364&wpisrc=nl_popns&wpmm=1
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)OKNancy
(41,832 posts)and scared of what will happen to this country.
I'm one of the people who thought... we will get through this, we are strong, the pendulum will swing back in our direction.
Now I'm worried the USA is not going to be the country I dreamed of as a girl when I heard the Kennedys speak.