15942012_G

By Briana Gomez

 

According to a poll conducted by Pennsylvania marketing firm, SSRS, the reaction to President Trump’s State of the Union Address, last Tuesday, received the poorest response in approximately 20 years. The poll takes place annually among a sample group of viewers of the televised address.

This is not surprising as the President took credit for creating 2.4 million new jobs with “200,000 in manufacturing alone,” as well as low unemployment rates for African Americans and Hispanics, both groups which he had directly and indirectly marginalized during his campaign. His wall-building rhetoric led many Latin Americans to feel they were targeted for proof of citizenship, while some members of prominent African American communities felt threatened by an influx of KKK attacks in the United States since the initial phases of the Trump administration.

News camera men and photo journalists in attendance juxtaposed Trump’s statement with reactions of the black caucus who were rolling their eyes, uninterested, or seemingly asleep.

In his address, Trump also mentioned sympathy toward the U.S Territory, Puerto Rico after being shattered by hurricanes, yet a few months ago he was seen throwing paper towels at a group of Puerto Rican residents in an attempt to mock them for what he deemed to be lazy clean-up efforts.

Meanwhile, Twitter blew up in a frenzy with photos and memes of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s reactions during the speech.

“I could only get through five minutes,” said ChiaHung, 25, an MBA student from the University of La Verne.

Many others took to Facebook and other social media to share their sentiments.

So, were the president’s claims of increasing employment even accurate?

According to politifact.com, an organization dedicated to verifying these claims, Trump’s claims were partly false.

While his message of unemployment lows for minorities is true, his claim of taking credit for the largest tax cut is actually false, as it is the fourth-largest since 1940, and his claim that the visa lottery was threatening the safety of citizens was also false – lottery recipients are still required to meet all other aspects of the immigration process, such as education and work experience, before being allowed to enter the United States.

Trump’s claims follow many of his previous ridiculous and unpredictable statements so it is no surprise that a majority of polled viewers or other members of the populace were dissatisfied.

In any case, we expect our politicians to lie to us, but as Americans we are forced to wonder how we let our society get to this point of division and dissatisfaction without making changes sooner.

Spread the love