Democrats, Trump ties go south over SOTU

WASHINGTON: It’s a time-tested Washington ritual in which the President tells the Congress, and through its legislators the American people, that the state of the union is strong/solid/ sturdy/resilient/durable/all of the above. Lawmakers rise in partisan fervor to welcome the President’s remarks- or accept in stony silence if they are in the opposition- the whole pageant witnessed by justices of the Supreme Court, military commanders, and other eminences grises, with the Speaker of the House and the vice-president seated behind the President.

From the President’s entry into the House, greeted by raucous legislators, to the intermittent applause during his speech, it is a choreographed spectacle worthy of a totalitarian regime of the North Korea or Saudi kind, and one that has gone on since 1913. For the first time ever, it might not happen in the Age of Trump. And if it does somehow take place, it may turn out to be a spectacle more akin to what happens in animated democracies such as India, with boycotts and walkouts.

President Trump and the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hurtled further down a collision course on Wednesday, exchanging letters in which the President first insisted on making his annual State of the Union (SOTU) address to the House in person on January 29, riding on the invitation that Pelosi subsequently rescinded, and the Speaker confirming that she and her party were in no mood to entertain the President unless he backed down from his stand that has resulted in a partial government shutdown that has lasted a record 33 days.

Although Pelosi has made known that she would prefer Trump delay making his annual address till government reopened and he was welcome to send the SOTU speech in writing or make it from another venue, Trump picked on her excuse that his security could not be assured to insist that he had the security folks word that he would be fine and insisted on coming to the House. Within hours, Pelosi wrote back to him formally disinviting him – creating an unprecedented impasse.

"I am writing to inform you that the House of Representatives will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the President’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber until government has opened," she said. "Again, I look forward to welcoming you to the House on a mutually agreeable date for this address when government has been opened."

Amid overthetop speculation whether he would march on the Congress with his followers, Trump himself acknowledged this had never happened before in US history, and said Pelosi had "canceled" his speech because "she doesn’t want to hear the truth."

"She doesn't want the American public to hear what's going on. And she's afraid of the truth. The American people want to hear the truth," he told reporters, adding, "It's a sad thing for our country. We'll do something in the alternative."

That something, according to Washington scuttlebutt, could be anything from a sober SOTU address from the Oval Office, to a protest style rally on the steps of the Capitol, to a campaign style speech someplace where Trump can rouse his base.

"It's really a shame what's happening with the Democrats. They've become radicalized. They don't want to see crime stopped....And it really is a shame what's happening with the Democrats," Trump said.

In a sign of growing schism in the country, both ideological and geographical, Trump has repeatedly suggested that Democrats have veered further left, and somehow that is dangerous for the United States. "I think they've become a very dangerous, a very, very dangerous party for this country. I think that Chuck Schumer (the Senate majority leader), sadly, is dominated by the radical left and he's dominated by Nancy Pelosi. Very strongly dominated. He's a puppet," Trump said.

The sight of several strong, opinionated women elected to Congress on the Democratic side- many from ethnic minorities- appears to have rattled the traditional white male constituency that someone sees them as a "danger." Although Trump did not specifically refer to it, lawmakers such as Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Pramila Jayapal are proposing radical ideas in areas such as taxation and healthcare that strike at the very roots of Republicanism.

On a lighter note, the power struggle became the subject of jokes in Washington. One meme showed the Kremlin as the backdrop of his SOTU address. Another tweet asked: "Is it any surprise Trump is going to force himself on the American public without getting proper consent from a woman?"