Regardless of what most people think, politics is not micro, it’s macro. It’s about guiding vision as much – if not more – than results. If you needed any further evidence of that, think about the Trump presidency: Donald J. Trump’s actions – whether you approve of them or not – are the result of his sweeping vision of “America First” vs. unelected Beltway bureaucrats (a.k.a. the so-called “Deep State”) and the forces of globalism. The Democrats under House Speaker “San Fran Nan” Pelosi, the so-called “Resistance” operating inside the federal government, and their mouthpieces in the mainstream media operate under an illusion (no matter how misguided it might be) that the 2016 election was somehow stolen from Hillary Clinton, thereby making everything President Trump stands for and does, illegitimate.

As was mentioned in Monday’s post, the whole “Impeachment 1.0 / Russia Collusion” Mueller Report and “Impeachment 2.0 / Ukraine” were designed, in the minds of that so-called “Resistance”, to remove an unduly and illegitimately elected President from office.

Rarely, if ever, in American political history have you have three distinct events occurring in tandem that will, to one extent or another, influence American vision and perception entering a presidential election year as we are seeing before our very eyes in 2020. On Monday you had the closing arguments of the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump followed by the Iowa caucuses, on Tuesday you had the President’s State of the Union speech, and on Wednesday you’ll have the vote to acquit the President of the impeachment charges against him. Taken individually you’ve got enough power and emotion to fill more than a week of 24-hour news cycles; coming on the heels of one another? Unbelievable political intrigue and drama, chock full of contrasting visions and promises for our country.

Let’s take them one by one. In my mind, the story of the final day of speeches by the U.S Senate prior to the vote on the Democrats impeachment charges goes to Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who delivered a blistering expose of those who he is convinced worked with the “human lemur” Adam Schiff and his team to frame the charges (if you want to call them that) involving “Impeachment 2.0”, including in his speech the so-called “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella as one of the main conspirators who conceived the impeachment narrative. Paul’s charges went to the root of the entire impeachment saga, focusing on a cadre of un-elected bureaucrats who took it upon themselves to not just use a FISA court to spy on an opponent’s election campaign, but concoct a scheme to collaborate with the sitting chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to frame a sitting President on impeachment charges.

Hours later, the entire nation became witness to the absolute fiasco of the Iowa caucuses where all the political lunacy, intrigue, incompetency and outright craziness that is today’s Democratic Party was displayed for all to see. If, as the American Spectator’s Charles Lipson writes, America was looking for a steady, competent, and inspiring alternative to President Trump and his administration, they are now sorely disappointed:

To begin with, this failure makes the Democratic party look ridiculous. The damage is compounded because they are the ‘party of government’. That’s their brand, and it has been since Franklin Roosevelt proposed the New Deal. Democratic policies almost always call for more government, run from Washington. When people point to social or economic problems, Democrats reflexively respond with laws, regulations, and bureaucracies to tackle them (and taxes to pay for them). That prospect looks a lot less appealing when you can’t count the votes in a high school gym. It doesn’t encourage people to say, ‘These are just the people to handle my healthcare.’

Contrast that with the President’s State of the Union speech, one that was forceful, emotional, and brassy on what the President’s vision was for America. The President spoke in bold and (yes, in agreement with some of his detractors here) unusually partisan terms for such an occasion. If there was a conciliatory tone anywhere in the speech, I didn’t hear it. And to that I say, huzzah – that’s my President! America didn’t vote Donald Trump into office to be a go-along, get along kind of guy. They voted for a mover, a shaker, and a doer. Everything the President spoke about – free market capitalism, respect for the Constitution and the of law, freedom, the defense of our borders, and, as always, “America First” was in stark contrast to the den of “Resistance” vipers dressed in white to indicate their own competing vision of America, one involving socialized healthcare, open borders, unregulated abortion, government rule and regulation, and European-style democratic socialism. If folks were looking for a contrast in visions, one could hardly paint a broader distinction. As Powerline blog’s John Hinderaker writes:

This puts the Democrats in a tough spot. Through the first half of the speech, President Trump reeled off one item of good news after another: Record low unemployment! Lowest black unemployment ever! Lowest Hispanic unemployment ever! Rising wages, especially at the bottom! Median net worth skyrocketing! And so on. The Democrats greeted all of this with stony silence. When Trump announced that in the last three years, 10 million people have gotten off welfare, the Democrats looked as though they were ready to cry.

This comes across very poorly, I think. Would it really cost the Democrats anything to look as though they are happy about a good economy. I don’t think so, but their hatred of the president is so all-consuming that their judgment is warped.

Then, of course, there are the more controversial issues–controversial with the Democrats, anyway, if not with the voters. Like illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. In the battle between law-abiding Americans and criminal aliens, the Democrats made it very clear whose side they are on.

Which is the way it ought to be. Elections have consequences, and Americans (contrary to the Democrats’ impeachment vision) ought to have the right to choose their own vision for this country’s future. Personally, I had no problem with President refusing to shake Nancy Pelosi’s hand – she’s not just a political opponent but an enemy to him and his administration; I think Pelosi’s utterly classless move of ripping up the President’s speech in sight of everyone might garner her cheers from “the Resistance” who so want the President’s speech and agenda to be impeached, but it’s gonna have a lasting effect in the form of literally hundreds of presidential, House, and Senate campaign commercials:

Dems put on a show for a tiny gaggle of noisy hate-maddened lunatics. Trump played to a vastly larger audience, a contrast perfectly captured by him delivering a poetic and inspirational closing while Pelosi acted like a toddler and ripped up a copy of his speech.

Taken together, both actions illustrate in their own way the two grand visions before the American people in action: a President who considers impeachment a slap in his face, a stain on his presidency, and an act of disrespect to those who voted for him and support him, and a Speaker of the House seething with rage and resentment and reduced to a petty act of defiance, whose Party, even after the President’s acquittal tomorrow, remains determined to remove this President in any way possible before November 3.

This is what it has all come down to.