Joseph Patrick Kennedy III, has been called the future of the Democrat party.

Joe Kennedy is the future. Glad to see the Democrats embracing that.

— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) January 26, 2018

It was for this reason that he was tapped to give the official Democrat State of the Union resposne.

Before I get into that, I want to cover Joe Kennedy III’s biography.

He is the Congressman for Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District.  That is the district next door to the 8th district, which was the one his father was the Representative of.  He is the grandson and great nephew of two Senators, and great nephew to a president.  His family has been involved in politics from Massachusetts since 1901.

If Joe III is the future of the Democrats, he’s also the past for more than a century.  Nothing says “we are the part of the working man” than a career politician, from a political dynasty that inherited $60 million, a place at Harvard, and a Congressional seat.

That’s all well and fine because my “white male privilege” is a problem that needs to be checked.

So having been picked to give the State of the Union response was supposed to be his thrust on the national stage.

What did he say?

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It is a privilege to join you tonight.

Okay, good start.

We are here in Fall River, Massachusetts — a proud American city, built by immigrants.

Fuck!  That’s just a swipe at Trump.  Fall River is 87% white.  The “city, built by immigrants” dates back to industrial expansion in the 1870’s.  Technically, it’s correct, but not in anyway related to the DACA hill that the Democrats are desperate to die on.

From textiles to robots, this is a place that knows how to make great things.

Especially financial problems, Massachusetts makes great financial problems, which is why it is ranked 48 of 50 for fiscal condition and people are fleeing the state.

Like many American hometowns, Fall River has faced its share of storms. But people here are tough. They fight for each other. They pull for their city.

It is a fitting place to gather as our nation reflects on the state of our union.

Platitudes…

This is a difficult task. Many have spent the past year anxious, angry, afraid.

According to poll data, only 14% of Americas felt scared by Trump’s SOTU.

We all feel the fault lines of a fractured country.

That’s Democrat identity politics for you.

 We hear the voices of Americans who feel forgotten and forsaken.

Really, because they are the ones who voted for Trump (see Michigan and Wisconsin).

We see an economy that makes stocks soar, investor portfolios bulge and corporate profits climb but fails to give workers their fair share of the reward.

I guess Joe didn’t get the list of companies that gave bonuses and raises or invested in building in America after the passage of the tax cut.  The tax cut that hasn’t gone into effect yet.

A government that struggles to keep itself open.

#SchumerShutdown

Russia knee-deep in our democracy.

For which there is still no evidence a year later.  I can’t wait to see the Nunes memo.

An all-out war on environmental protection.

Which ended the all out war on coal and cheap electricity in America.  I can’t wait for $1.00/gal gas again too when Trump allows drilling of the CA coast again.

A Justice Department rolling back civil rights by the day.

The cattle cars full of gays heading to conversion camps roll on through the freight yard near where I work everyday.  No wait, they don’t.

Hatred and supremacy proudly marching in our streets.

Setting fires at Berkeley, dressing in black and bashing people’s heads with bike locks.  That Antifa shit really got out of control, didn’t it?

Bullets tearing through our classrooms, concerts, and congregations. Targeting our safest, sacred places.

Chicago… Baltimore… Detroit… I’m sensing a connection between all the places where crime has gone up.    Doubt were taking about the radical, Left Wing atheist that shot up the Sutherland Springs church, or the Bernie Bro who shot Congressman Steve Scalise.

And that nagging, sinking feeling, no matter your political beliefs: this is not right. This is not who we are.

The Democrats can’t stop proving they are not who Americans are.

It would be easy to dismiss the past year as chaos. Partisanship. Politics.

You know, #Resistance.

But it’s far bigger than that. This administration isn’t just targeting the laws that protect us — they are targeting the very idea that we are all worthy of protection.

Just obey the law, is it really that hard?  Most Americans are tired of the “laws for thee but not for me” that Democrats play by.

For them, dignity isn’t something you’re born with but something you measure.

Actually, dignity is something you EARN.  Dignity comes from being a productive member of society.  It’s called the Protestant work ethic, but it actually goes back to ancient Judaism.  Productive work is a mitzvah.  This is why the Shabbat is so important, it the one time that everyone is commanded to rest.  There is no point to resting if you don’t work.

By your net worth, your celebrity, your headlines, your crowd size.

Says the inherited millionaire from the party of celebrity endorsements.

Not to mention, the gender of your spouse. The country of your birth. The color of your skin. The God of your prayers.

Says the inherited millionaire from the party of identity politics and grievance mongering.

Their record is a rebuke of our highest American ideal: the belief that we are all worthy, we are all equal and we all count. In the eyes of our law and our leaders, our God and our government.  

We are all equal.  Break the law and you will be punished.  Nothing says unequal like entering the country illegally, being deported a number of times, shooting a woman with a stolen gun, then getting a slap on the wrist.  Sanctuary cities are the very definition of unequal, where the law of the land applies differently to different groups.

But today that promise is being broken. By an administration that callously appraises our worthiness and decides who makes the cut and who can be bargained away.

God dammit, just obey the fucking law.  If you come into America illegally then block the entrance to Disney demanding special favors, you are the problem.

They are turning American life into a zero-sum game.

Where, in order for one to win, another must lose.

That is the very definition of Democrat economics.  Bernie ran on that.  I better never hear “piece of the pie” or “fair share” from any Democrat ever again.

Where we can guarantee America’s safety if we slash our safety net.

We can extend health care to Mississippi if we gut it in Massachusetts.

First of all, I’m sure Kennedy just hates Mississippi, and has never been there.  But what is killing healthcare in Massachusetts is their unfunded liability problem.  Maybe if they didn’t piss their money away on other things, they’d have some for healthcare.

We can cut taxes for corporations today if we raise them for families tomorrow.

What was that about zero sum you said earlier?  How about lower taxes and lower spending so we don’t have future problems?

We can take care of sick kids if we sacrifice Dreamers.

In the choice between US citizens and Illegal Immigrants, your part fell squarely on the Illegals.

We are bombarded with one false choice after another:

Coal miners or single moms. Rural communities or inner cities. The coast or the heartland.

As if the mechanic in Pittsburgh and the teacher in Tulsa and the day care worker in Birmingham are somehow bitter rivals, rather than mutual casualties of a system forcefully rigged for those at the top.

That’s the Democrat platform.  Every time a Democrat says “flyover country” Trump gets a vote.

Eight years of the Obama economy gutted the Middle Class while the Wall Street donor class got bonuses.  Obama and Hillary can cry me a river with their “The average American mortgage would only buy 25 minutes of talk time” speaking fees.

As if the parent who lies awake terrified that their transgender son will be beaten and bullied at school is any more or less legitimate than the parent whose heart is shattered by a daughter in the grips of opioid addiction.

Violence is always wrong, but more than half the country doesn’t think that allowing kids to “chose” their gender is anything but emotionally harmful.  Most parents were uneasy about letting boys with long hair and emotional problems in the locker rooms with their daughters.  The Democrat opinion on this is way off from mainstream America.

The opioid crisis, on the other hand, is a crisis of hopelessness.  Not just do we need to deal with the opioids themselves, but we need to work on rebuilding the communities so young people don’t give up on life and turn to drugs.

So here is the answer Democrats offer tonight: we choose both. We fight for both. Because the strongest, richest, greatest nation in the world shouldn’t leave any one behind.

We choose a better deal for all who call this country home.

No, all you’ve offered is resistance.

We choose the living wage, paid leave and affordable child care your family needs to survive.

So more $15/hr minimum wage that replaces workers with robots?  Trump’s cutting corporate tax rates did more for business growth and salaries than all the “Fight for 15” protests of the last few years.

We choose pensions that are solvent, trade pacts that are fair, roads and bridges that won’t rust away, and good education you can afford.

Illinois, Californian, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York have the most underfunded pensions in the country.  Illinois is at junk bond status.  California cities are going bankrupt.  You have no idea how to have a solvent pension system.

I don’t mean to nit pick but building “roads and bridges that won’t rust away” is physically impossible.  If you don’t understand economics, thermodynamics is way over your head.

The student loan monster created by the federal government is what made tuition so expensive.  You’ve created a bubble and then have decided to keep pumping it up.  This is going to be bad when it bursts.

We choose a health care system that offers mercy, whether you suffer from cancer or depression or addiction.

That is also unaffordable.

We choose an economy strong enough to boast record stock prices and brave enough to admit that top C.E.O.s making 300 times the average worker is not right.

One has nothing to do with the other.  You can’t complain about Trump playing a zero sum game and then have all your economic arguments zero sum.  The guy at the helm of a company making $45 Billion is worth 300 times more than the guy at that company who works on the assembly line.  Making Ice Cream isn’t that difficult, but when Ben and Jerry’s limited the CEO salary to 5 times the average worker salary, they couldn’t find a qualified CEO who was willing to take the pay, so they sold out to Unilever.  Now apply that to Apple or ExxonMobil or Boeing.

We choose Fall River. 

So you still can’t find Wisconsin or Michigan then?

“Hi, I’m Joe Kennedy and I’m running for President.  Still, I can’t be bothers to step food out of the third richest per capita state in the Union.  Vote for me, flyover country dwellers.”

We choose the thousands of American communities whose roads aren’t paved with power or privilege, but with honest effort, good faith, and the resolve to build something better for their kids.

(I’m going to keep using that image because I love it so)

Also, no you don’t.  Just look at the problem of “two Colorados” which happened previously in California.  The rich, Liberal big cities eat up all the money from the state coffers and the rural counties are left to go to squalor.  Victor Davis Hanson called this “Mexifornia.”  How about that almost all of the Obama recovery went to big (Blue) cities and Rural America got fucked.

That is our story. It began the day our Founding Fathers and Mothers set sail for a New World, fleeing oppression and intolerance.

That’s racist.

It continued with every word of our Independence — the audacity to declare that all men are created equal. An imperfect promise for a nation struggling to become a more perfect union.

“All men?”  That’s sexist.

And to all the “Dreamers” watching tonight, let me be clear: Ustedes son parte de nuestra historia. Vamos a luchar por ustedes y no nos vamos alejar.

You are a part of our story. We will fight for you. We will not walk away.

You proudly marched together last weekend — thousands deep — in the streets of Las Vegas and Philadelphia and Nashville.

You sat high atop your mom’s shoulders and held a sign that read: “Build a wall and my generation will tear it down.”

Yes, we get it.  You prefer 800,000 Dreamers to 320 Million Americans.

You bravely say, me too. You steadfastly say, black lives matter.

Also not a great wagon to hitch your horse to either.

You wade through floodwaters, battle hurricanes, and brave wildfires and mudslides to save a stranger.

All those damn Trump voters with their bass boats and lifted Trucks saving people.  How many yachts does the Kennedy family have?  Never once saw Joe down there lifting a hand to help.

You fight your own, quiet battles every single day.

You drag your weary bodies to that extra shift so your families won’t feel the sting of scarcity.

Says the man with the soft hands of a money fondler.

You leave loved ones at home to defend our country overseas, or patrol our neighborhoods overnight.

You serve. You rescue. You help. You heal.

I seem to remember the Dems hitching their wagon to the “fuck the police” movement.

That — more than any law or leader, any debate or disagreement — that is what drives us toward progress.

Bullies may land a punch. They might leave a mark. But they have never, not once, in the history of our United States, managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future.

Politicians can be cheered for the promises they make. Our country will be judged by the promises we keep.

That is the measure of our character. That’s who we are.

Out of many. One.

Says the party of identity politics.

Ladies and gentlemen, have faith: The state of our union is hopeful, resilient, enduring.

Says the man from the party of safe spaces.

Thank you, God bless you and your families, and God bless the United States of America.

We can agree on this.

This was a speech dripping with hypocrisy.  It was like a shitty plagiarism of a Trump speech.  Everything he accuses Trump of doing, the Democrats did since 2008.  Everything good he says he wants to do, Trump is doing.

That, and it was delivered so fucking poorly.

Joe Kennedy III couldn’t have been more out of touch if he announced his candidacy for 2020 with Chelsea Clinton as his running mate.

Then again, judging by this speech, he just might.