Torn

.@SpeakerPelosi tears up of State of the Union speech.#SOTU #SOTU2020 pic.twitter.com/sIpi4G7KsL

— CSPAN (@cspan) February 5, 2020

I'm not one for that GIF-y kind of "yas queen" political gesture, but I easily get the sentiment behind tearing up a copy of Trump's campaign speech delivered in the place of the State of the Union. It was, indeed, better than the alternative which, one can assume, was shoving the packet of self-serving lies and stage-dressing back down his nasty throat. The White House comms team responded to her action with pure absurdity.

She was tearing up none of the things alluded to in the White House's hackish Tweet, but rather the contempt Trump showed for any positive thing at all that might have been discussed or celebrated there by lying, by smearing immigrants with racist assertions, and by hanging a medal around the neck of an infamous hate-spreader, Rush Limbaugh.

I'll level with you, cancer is a horrendous disease and I could and would wish it on no one. But suffering doesn't change what a person has done with their platform in the course of their highly-lucrative career, and watching this virulent racist be awarded a high honor on a night when we could celebrate the service of the Tuskegee airman, watching this soldier in a culture war be rewarded for his divisiveness against fellow Americans instead of focusing on our shared patriotism--this was an affront. In Rush Limbaugh's entire career, he has heaped vilification on feminists, calling a reproductive health care activist a "slut" on his platform for days on end, and generally referring to feminists as "Nazis" while offering up rape apology and misogyny on a regular basis. Whatever charitable things he's ever done (possibly for PR) are nothing compared to the harm he's done for the discourse--and of course, this Birther, this showman of the bizarre and bent opinion, is a hero to Trump--Trump's presidency is based on Limbaugh's act!

But who is he to be so celebrated? A person anathema to the values of millions of us?

The state of our union is, we are torn. A divisive president has highlighted the ways in which we are divided. The Republicans who enthusiastically applauded his deeply partisan speech, the GOP Senators who mean to acquit him later this week for things they even admit he has done, can't unite us. Our disunion is strong. And that is how Trump has liked it, and that is how he now has it.

So say what you will about Speaker Pelosi tearing the speech up. Trump tears at the Constitution and at whatever still exists of our national comity. You figure out for yourself who is more to blame--the one who errs, or the one who points it out.