Democrats Should have Boycotted It

[QueerDuck]

8. Well, I can walk and chew gum at the same time, and I think our elected Democrats can do so too.

It's easy to categorize things in a binary way... good or bad; us vs them; black or white with no shades of gray. It's also easy to make emotional decisions based on revenge or what feels good at the moment... but which has the potential to be distracting and to make Democrats a target. In this regard, being targeted and criticized relentlessly by those we'd normally consider to be allies is not outside the realm of likely possibilities. While it may have been satisfying for the hard-core political junkies among us... that type of stunt would not resonate with the rest of the country who are largely clueless.

Even now... our Democrats are being attacked and second-guessed simply for having attended. There will always be those who believe that the Democrats can do nothing right, and among those, there will be a vocal group who will seize any opportunity to attack Democrats, whether it's deserved or not. In this case, the attacks that are being hurled at them for simply attending the SOTU address is undeserved and unhelpful.

A performative tantrum and "snub" of Trump and disrespecting their own Congressional institution and constitutional obligations would be satisfying to far fewer people that you may be imagining. It would change nothing. If such a thing would happen, their absence would be the headline, NOT their reasons for it. It would reflect poorly on the party and not on Trump or the GOP.