Nothing gained

President Donald J. Trump addressed the nation on Tuesday. All networks gave him free airtime for the prime time speech.

Democrats immediately demanded equal air time for a response. Reportedly, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer said based on previous pronouncements by the President this address was bound to be “full of malice and misinformation.” Thus, they wanted to respond to it as soon as it was over.

Democrats had already decided that they are against what the President was about to say hours before he said anything. They also were supposedly fearful that the President might sway the American public. Some also questioned if the situation justified a national address even though the President declared the country was facing a national security crisis.

So, Tuesday, the speech went on. The Democrat response did too.

The President reiterated his call to tighten border security, citing the flow of drugs, illegal aliens and the resulting crime and dangers to American citizens. He emphasized that border security was more than a wall, but involved the use of technology, more agents and more facilities for those being held at the borders. He said what is happening there is a “crisis of the heart, a crisis of the soul.”

This crisis, he said, is the reason for the government shutdown.

Schumer and Pelosi responded. She repeated her claim that the speech was full of malice and misinformation. They accused the President of manufacturing a crisis. The emphasis for them was on the shutdown of the government, already the longest in history.

They called for a separation of the two issues: border security and the shutdown. Once the government was open again, there would be the time to negotiate the border crisis, they said.

One pundit called their rebuttal akin to an opening skit on Saturday Night Live, standing shoulder to shoulder at a podium. Trump was described as emotionless as he read from the teleprompter.

Basically, it was much ado about nothing. Most likely few were swayed.

The two sides talked past one another. Neither offered any real plans for solving the standoff.

Amazingly, the two sides have a great deal in common. Only the “wall” stands between them, even though that wall is no longer one of concrete.

Nothing was gained. We ended up where we started, and that is not good news at all.