The birth of a nation

This is the end of Donald Trump’s interminable SOTU address to Congress, the nation, and the world:

Thomas Jefferson drew his last breath. Just a single long human lifespan separates the giants who declared and won our independence from the heroes who stand among us tonight. Everything our nation has done, everything we have achieved has been the work of those few great lifetimes. In those brief chapters, Americans built this nation from 13 humble colonies into the pinnacle of human civilization and human freedom, the strongest, wealthiest, most powerful, most successful nation in all of history, Americans ventured out across the daunting and dangerous continent.

We carved paths through an unforgiving wilderness, settled a boundless frontier and tamed the beautiful but very, very dangerous wild West. From empty marshes and wide-open plains, we raised up the world’s greatest cities. Together, we mastered the world’s mightiest industries, shattered history’s monstrous tyrannies, and we liberated millions from the chains of fascism, Communism, oppression and terror.

Americans lifted humanity into the skies on the wings of aluminum and steel. And then we launched mankind into the stars on rockets powered by sheer American will and unyielding American pride. We wired the globe with our ingenuity, we captivated the planet with American culture, and now we are pioneering the next great American breakthroughs that will change the entire world.

All of this and so much more is the enduring legacy, unmatched glory of the hardworking patriots who built and defended this country and who still carry the hopes and freedoms on all of humanity’s backs. For years, they were forgotten, betrayed and cast aside, but that great betrayal is over and they will never be forgotten again because when the world needs courage, daring vision and inspiration, it is still turning to America.

And when God needs a nation to work his miracles, He knows exactly who to ask. There is no challenge Americans cannot overcome, no frontier too vast for us to conquer, no dream too bold for us to chase, no horizon too distant for us to claim. For our destiny is written by the hand of Providence and these first 250 years were just the beginning.

From the rugged border towns of Texas to the heartland villages of Michigan. From the sun kissed shores of Florida to the endless fields of the Dakotas. And from the historic streets of Philadelphia to right here in our nation’s capital, Washington DC, the Golden Age of America is upon us.

The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended; it still continues because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot. And our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder and more glorious than ever before. Thank you. God bless you and God bless America.

The glorious settlement of the virgin wilderness by patriotic Americans in search of living space (I think there’s a German word for that) leaves a few things out, while conjuring up a classic fascistic Golden Age, which the Leader is now restoring, despite the ceaseless subversions of the Enemy.

The whole right wing hysteria about “political correctness,” which became “critical race theoy” (remember that?) which then became “wokeness,” consists of nothing but insisting that leaving a few things out is the patriotic thing to do, because patriotism consists of a sort of valorized stupidity, aided as always by the most egregious religious fairy tales, as here.

And let me be even more frank: Trump’s paternal grandfather was a German pimp, who ran a whorehouse in Alaska, after immigrating there, probably illegally. ETA: Commenter Jean-Michel points out that Fredrick Trump’s immigration was probably legal, since the relevant immigration laws were all but explicitly targeted at Chinese laborers, but that his emigration from Germany was in fact illegal, since he didn’t complete the required military service, and was stripped of his citizenship as a result. All of Donald Trump’s children are first generation Americans, since their mothers were central European immigrants, except for that one kid with the stripper name whose mom was the southern belle whose ancestors were slavers, which is another one of those few things that get left out when we are given A Child’s Version of American History (now with more overt white supremacy). ETA: Brandunaware notes that the barely subtextual assumption here is that white people all belong to the Volk on account of their whiteness, so a Slovenian “model” (cough) is more genuinely American than a seventh generation Black person.

BTW I went to law school with Ann Coulter and she was exactly like this back then, so if it’s a schtick the commitment to the bit is truly impressive, but I don’t think it is. Or maybe like the Master himself she’s just living her gimmick, to the point where neither of them can even remember when they were anything other than what they’ve since become. This sounds like the premise for a horror story, and it’s one that we’re all inadvertently trapped inside of now.