Beautiful wars, strong dreams, gleaming waterways, heroes, warriors, a great wall.
Unmatched power is the surest means to our true and great defense, said President Donald Trump.
And: We have no choice but to annihilate them.
All is great in a beautiful strong America, and abandon all hope ye who doubt it.
A new tide of optimism is sweeping our nation, he declared.
And itistrue that 2020 has never been closer than it is now.
He mentioned Russia, but not the Russia investigation.
Unfortunately, we are not there yet, sadly.
He did not mention his big and powerful button.
But after he said sadly, he paused.
What were they clapping for?
He read slowly off a teleprompter.
I only heard the dog whistle.
Im loathe to review the pageantry of the State of the Union much further.
There were real tragedies involved.
I know less about politics than the legitimate news sources youve already consulted.
But Trump is a creature of television, uncannily modern in his performance and his consumption.
He tweets about Fox News the way some people tweet about CW superheroes.
He takesSaturday Night Livetoo seriously, a cultural condition known as the Twentysomethings Dilemma.
The possibility that our president is a TV addict has been somewhat discussed, little understood.
Its not entirely clear what the long-term effects of TV addiction are.
Theres not enough research, or maybe the whole countrys been addicted for half a century.
Certainly, in Trumps speech, you noted the nuclear residue from years of soaking in Roger Ailes radiation.
Even the story about the cute kid involved dead soldiers.
And Trump could say he was not anti-immigrant, of course, only anti-so-many-immigrants, anti-the-wrong-kind-of-immigrant.
We need, he explained, a merit-based immigration system.
Like, lets say, immigrants should only have been involved in no more than a thousand lawsuits.
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, he didnt mention.
Context is the friend of history, the enemy of myth.
The people dreamed this country, the people built this country, the president said.
Together, they could light up the entire world, said the man with the big button.
Let there be light: Kaboom!
The Trump Content Industrial Complex fired up.
(Consider this post the dying ember.)
While I waited forStephen ColbertsLate Showto go live, I watched Congressman Joseph Kennedy III deliver the Democratic Response.
His vision of history was a tradition of progress, of suffragettes and freedom riders.
He never used the word annihilate.
There was a visual snafu, a glow around Kennedys mouth.
I assume this was a lighting problem, too much makeup applied, or not enough.
Dont they teach this stuff in Kennedy Kindergarten?
It didnt seem like it should matter.
Late night or viral video?
Own it, or pretend it never happened?
Colberts been to this rodeo before and was ready to make fun of any Mitch McConnell cutaways.
But he did fixate marvelously on Trumps fascination with the American flag.
Down in Charlottesville I saw your supporters carrying two other flags, he deadpanned.
Theyre pundits for people who dont like pundits, but who secretly do like pundits.
So Colbert asked them what they generally thought about the State of the Union speech as a format.
Then the2 Dope Queenscame on, so the show wasnt a complete wash.
Cartoonish antics invite cartoonish comedy.
ButJimmy Kimmel Live!aimed for something more clever.
Is it wrong to compare Kimmel and Colbert as post-SOTU comedians?
But where Colbert went for broadsides, Kimmels humor was up to something trickier.
He didnt just cut to Melania Trump, he made sure to note the first ladys Clintonian white pantsuit.
Kimmel approached Trump from several directions, exploring the interior egomania and the exterior grasping desire for affection.
Whether you like it or not, Stormy is here, he said.
But Daniels interview wound up being the least interesting part of the episode.
She was cheerfully blank, hiding behind either a nondisclosure agreement or the possibility of a nondisclosure agreement.
And she was ready with some laughlines.
There were puppets and near-winks.
Here was someone else trying very hard to say something without quite saying anything.
You worry this is all a little contagious.
Who is the symptom, and who is the disease?
Credit Kimmel, then, for taking the conversation in a different direction.
He gathered some people on the street who claimed to be in favor of shipping the Dreamers home.
They covered the spectrum, from conversational conservatism to I wanna start deporting Dreamers even before MS-13.
(MS-13 is, coincidentally, the Mexican gang Trump referenced throughout his State of the Union.)
Kimmel brought the MAGA crew into a room, and introduced them to a family.
Esmerelda was a Dreamer, brought to America when she was 2.
She has a young daughter, Rose, an American citizen.
And a fiance, Michael, born in Kansas, serves in the Army National Guard.
This story seems too good to be true, if youre on the hunt for a Complicated Dreamer narrative.
But this is a big country, and no story is as simple as a hashtag.
There was an actual conversation, and not one that flowed in any particularly hopeful direction.
Some others suggested getting an immigration lawyer.
(One woman seemed mainly upset that DACA offered participants healthcare.)
But you didnt get the sense that much had been resolved.
But the rawness of this segment was refreshing.
This was the open hand, extended.
At one point in the segment, Kimmel looked close to tears.
I think this country has become cruel, he said.
The sincerity was refreshing, coming so so late in a long night.
Kimmels other guest was plainspoken, too.
I am very, very upset with the state of our union, said Kerry Washington.
Time to dream something better.
