I was gobsmacked that no Democrat present had the common sense and solid political instincts to think, “Wait…our party can’t appear to to oppose that framing of the issue!” All it took was one non-Deranged Democrat who could think on his or her feet to lead the hateful mob in the room to a grudging ovation, or even to break the image of every single member of the party appearing to choose non-citizens over Americans, for Trump’s stratagem to fail. And yet they couldn’t do it.

A bit later, the President pointed out the obviously distressed mother of the young Ukrainian refugee murdered last year in this horrific incident

and promised to prevent such an atrocity happening to anyone else. Again, Republicans cheered and Democrats sat silent. Who could disagree when the President observed later in his marathon speech, referring to the Democrats, “These people are crazy, I’m telling you”?

The Times, joining in the Axis whistling concert, wrote, “Almost palpable was the growing sense in Washington that the Republicans will not be in control of that room by the time they all get together to do this number next year. If things keep going the way they are now, it won’t be Speaker Mike Johnson smiling serenely over Mr. Trump’s left shoulder.”

This is called “confirmation bias,” and bias makes you stupid. It has certainly made Democrats stupid, and the growing sense that I had watching the speech was uncannily similar to the sense I had watching the Vice-Presidential debate in 2024. You can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

If I had to headline this column using the familiar Ethics Alarms designation, it would be “Incompetent Elected Officials of the Year: Congressional Democrats.” Can they get away with broadcasting their incompetence coast-to-coast?

We shall see.