Older readers should assure the young people in their lives that America’s elected officials have not always behaved this way.

True, the president’s annual State of the Union address has often featured interminable interruptions for applause. But not until President Donald Trump came along did the members of one party abandon all good sense and decency.

Wednesday on the social media platform X, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted a partial list of principles, policies, objectives, and achievements for which Democrats refused to stand and join their Republican colleagues either in affirmation or in shared celebration.

Leavitt’s list included items such as “[p]utting American citizens over illegal aliens,” “[v]oter ID laws,” and a “murder rate at the lowest since 1900.”

We know, of course, that Democrats rely on illegal immigrants to rig elections in their favor. But imagine refusing to applaud fewer homicides.

In any event, the press secretary posted those items in response to a video shared by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

“Trump on Democrats not standing up during what he believes should be applause lines during his speech: ‘These people are crazy, I’m telling you. They’re crazy,'” Collins wrote.

And what did Trump deem an obvious applause line to anyone besides a leftist lunatic?

“No state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will,” the president said during his speech.

Republicans, of course, stood and applauded, while Democrats remained seated.

“Look — nobody stands up,” Trump said, pointing at the Democrats. “These people are crazy, I’m telling you. They’re crazy.”

Here’s what the Democrats in Congress refused to stand for during the State of the Union:

Putting American citizens over illegal aliens

Voter ID laws

The murder rate at the lowest since 1900

Keeping violent criminals locked up

Protecting parental rights

Stopping fraud… https://t.co/XmAk3bZSzg

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) February 25, 2026

Meanwhile, on its website, the White House published a longer list of people, principles, and achievements Democrats did not cheer.

If their refusal to celebrate fewer homicides or to affirm parental rights exposed Democrats as pigheaded at best, then this second list might represent the absolute rock-bottom in callousness and treachery to which anyone, let alone elected officials, can possibly descend.

Democrats, for instance, refused to acknowledge the grieving mother of Iryna Zarutska. Recall that Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, lost her life in August 2025 when a career criminal, enjoying the protection afforded his kind in Democrat-run cities, allegedly stabbed her in the neck on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Likewise, those same Democrats refused to stand in recognition of their primary obligation to American citizens over illegal aliens.

In short, one cannot believe that an entire political party presents itself in this manner. Do Democrats not care? Or have they grown smug because they know their minions in the establishment media will cover for them?

Either way, while Democrats’ unhinged base might love the theatrics, sane voters deserve better.

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