Knicker Knotting

I’ve never watched a State of the Union address and I certainly wasn’t going to break that streak last night, but the day-after reactions are fun. It seems that the Republicans booed the emperor, and Democrats are shocked — shocked! at the lack of decorum and respect. Why, never in the history of the Republic has this happened before.

Many liberal viewers couldn’t believe what they were seeing and hearing. One of those viewers was Heather Cox Richardson, a historian and history professor at Boston College. What she witnessed last night had her clutching her pearls so hard that her necklace popped right off:

This is chilling. These people screaming at the president of the United States have no sense of the importance of their positions, or of the meaning of our democracy.

— Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) (@HC_Richardson) February 8, 2023

Chilling!

I am HORRIFIED that Republicans are booing him. Have you no respect for that office?!?

— Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) (@HC_Richardson) February 8, 2023

was appalled! Ashamed.

— Angela Dawn Rodriguez (@okieangie) February 8, 2023

That's it. Ashamed. Ashamed that this is where we have come to.

— Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) (@HC_Richardson) February 8, 2023

And this sequence is fun:

The president isn’t a monarch anointed by God to rule. Instead he is elected to represent the people’s will in Washington. If he stands in the people’s House and lies it is the DUTY of the people’s representatives to shout him down and call his lies out. This is democracy.

— @amuse (@amuse) February 8, 2023

Where were the lies? Please list them, because I study this stuff for hours every day and I could footnote everything they booed at. In contrast, when Democrats booed at Trump in 2018, it was immediately proved to be a lie. But I’m hearing people saying both parties are the same.

— Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) (@HC_Richardson) February 8, 2023