If a toddler throws her dinner on the floor, a second or two of fuss might ensue, but it’s not anything very startling. The adults clean up, then continue as before.
But if a guest throws dinner on the floor in a fancy restaurant, that is startling. Everybody turns to look. The staff will be agitated; explanations will be demanded.
That rule of life was confirmed last night. President Donald Trump’s behavior at the State of the Union flouted decencies and conventions from beginning to end. Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled her displeasure with the spectacle before her at the beginning and end of Trump’s speech.
No surprise: Pelosi’s actions are now the focus of attention.
David. A Graham: The State of the Union as spectacle
Review the Trump equivalents of throwing his dinner on the floor on State of the Union night:
The president refused to acknowledge Pelosi on his arrival, rebuffed her proffered hand, and could not even look at her.
The president crammed his speech with blatant and aggressive lies. The Trump administration is not committed to protecting patients with pre-existing conditions; it has repeatedly sought to end this protection and is in court right now trying again. The U.S.’s position as the world leader in oil and gas production is not thanks to any action of Trump’s; the country moved into first place in 2012. Trump has not presided over any kind of “comeback” of the economy, which grew faster in the three years before he took office than in the three years since. Manufacturing employment has not recovered under Trump; because of his trade wars, manufacturing employment has crashed on his watch. Trump’s untruthfulness is notorious, but it’s still a departure to lie and mislead so often and so brazenly before all the assembled Congress.