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President Trump "borders on the threat of committing a war crime."
No, President Trump was "bold and courageous and forthright."
Same speech, two wildly different reactions. The first is from Terry Moran, an ABC News correspondent who is as unabashedly biased as anyone on the air. The other is from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose nation is under constant existential threat.
To quote Groucho Marx, "Who ya gonna believe?"
If we are a polarized nation, and we are, President Trump's speech to the United Nations General Assembly provided more stark evidence.
Left-wing journalists, pardon the redundancy, generally loathed the president's forthrightness regarding North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela.
Brian Fallon, a former Hillary Clinton mouthpiece now paid by CNN to hammer the president, described it as "intellectually confused if not outright incoherent." NBC's Andrea Mitchell called it "bombastic," while MSNBC guest Lawrence Wilkerson blasted it as "the most atrocious speech I've ever heard an American president give in any venue." Really, the "most atrocious ever?" Wow!
On the right, Trump's tough talk won widespread praise, perhaps best summarized by former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton. "This was the best speech of the Trump presidency," he declared, adding that President Trump "was as clear and direct as it is possible to be."
Putting aside the speech and its merits or flaws, the post-game analysis provides a clear look at America in the age of Trump. Whatever he does, whatever he says, the president's supporters support, his critics criticize. It's just what they do.
When the president refered to Kim Jong Un as "Rocket Man," his voters snickered and brushed it off as harmless humor. But his legion of enemies acted as if President Trump dropped the verbal version of a hydrogen bomb directly on Pyongyang
When President Trump met with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to discuss DACA and the so-called "dreamers," his supporters gave him the benefit of the doubt. But left-wingers went as ballistic as Kim Jong Un, questioning how any Democrat could possibly talk with and "normalize" the president. You probably saw the amusing scene where Pelosi was shouted down by immigrants, normally her most reliable constituents. Simply because she spoke with the president of the United States.
President Trump's approval rating, according to a new poll by Politico/Morning Consult, has ticked up to 43%, and he remains very popular among four in five Republican voters. But Democrats really, really dislike the guy. In the latest Gallup daily tracking poll, a whopping 9% of Dems approve of President Trump's performance. He is presumably less popular among liberal Democrats than Venezuela's President Maduro.
Unfortunately, all of this is unlikely to change very much. The liberal media, which means pretty much all of the media, will continue to harp on the president's shortcomings. If the administration does something well, as it apparently has after the hurricanes in Texas and Florida, you will not hear much about it.
Hollywood will continue to bash the president at every awards show, ratings be damned. Just this week Ellen DeGeneres declared that the president of the United States, the leader of the free world, is forever banned from her talk show. Why? Because he's "dangerous" to the country and the world. Will Ellen be asking prospective guests if they voted for this dangerous man?
Barring some unifying event such as war or an act of terror, this unhealthy and unprecedented polarization will likely continue for four or eight years, as long as the loved-and-loathed Donald Trump resides in the White House.
You knew this would be a very bumpy ride, so you probably buckled up a long time ago. But it's worth double-checking your air bags as well. It's getting bumpier out there by the day.
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