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Here’s the SOTU comparison you’ve been waiting for…
THE SOUND OF PATRIOTISM
What does real American patriotism sound like?
You probably heard it in President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
The president shared the history of America as an epic: 13 colonies banding together to throw off tyranny, expanding throughout the continent, innovating and creating in ways previously unimaginable, becoming an example for the rest of the world, all the while staying grounded in our founding principles.
If you weren’t pumping your fist in front of the TV, are you even a true patriot?
Trump underscored this retelling of American greatness by honoring our nation’s heroes past and present.
National Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, who narrowly survived being shot in the head by an alleged Afghan terrorist while patrolling the streets of our nation’s capital, was given the Purple Heart. National Guardswoman Sarah Beckstrom, who was shot alongside Wolfe that day and did not survive, received the award posthumously.
Trump told for the first time the story of Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover, a U.S. Army pilot responsible for flying troops into Venezuela for the Maduro raid. Despite taking multiple bullets to the leg and hip, Slover insisted his team continue as blood poured from his body. Slover successfully navigated his helicopter to the drop zone and ensured the mission’s success. Trump presented him with the Medal of Honor.
And he awarded the Medal of Honor to Captain Royce Williams, a 100-year-old Korean War veteran who shot down four Soviet jets.
The president spoke of sacrifice, duty, courage, and a common mission and then elevated those who actually lived those values.
He told the story of a nation and then put flesh and blood in the gallery and said: This is what it costs. This is how we achieve greatness.
He didn’t just wrap himself in the flag or do jingoistic sloganeering. He identified our country’s ideals, found them in real people, and asked the rest of us to strive to be like them.
It was a masterclass.
Then there was the Democrat response.
Spanberger stood in front of about half a dozen flags, but her message was listless and flat.
To her, America is a room rather than a frontier. It’s clinical, managerial. More paperwork than pioneering. Bureaucracy over bravery.
This is patriotism worn as a skin suit, not something expressed due to true belief. Her lack of conviction was made even more obvious by her lack of fact checking. Spanberger wasn’t standing in the original House of Burgesses in Williamsburg, Virginia.
She was in a replica building reconstructed much later in the early 1900s by the Rockefeller family.
But no one expects a member of the Democrat Party, which has consistently tried to erase our glorious history, to get it right. They spent the last decade tearing down statues, rewriting school curricula, disrespecting our flag, and smearing our founding fathers.
And just look at who Spanberger promoted as her heroes.
Students walking out of school to protest enforcement of immigration law. Minnesota agitators who interfere with federal law enforcement operations and try to prevent the removal of violent criminals from our country.
Do those people come anywhere close to Captain Williams or Chief Warrant Officer Slover? I think not.
Spanberger can pretend she’s a moderate. But her speech gave her away: Democrats only pretend to be patriotic when they can use love of country as a tool to attack Trump.
They don’t mean it. And no one is buying it.
That’s it for the free portion of today’s Unfit to Print.
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