Here's why Trump's State of the Union might be more civilized, have empty seats

Democrats never miss an opportunity to don costumes, throw tantrums, and protest while President Donald Trump is addressing Congress.

For instance, some of the Democrats who refused to clap for Trump during his Jan. 30, 2018, State of the Union address also signaled their protest by wearing Kente cloths — the garb of a slave-trading African tribe. At the February 2019 SOTU, some Democrat women wore white to protest the president's support for the unborn and other positions congressional feminists apparently find intolerable. At the president's joint address to Congress last year, some Democrats wore pink in protest and/or booed the president.

While Trump derangement syndrome might still be colorfully displayed Tuesday evening, at least 30 Democrat lawmakers are planning to take their circus outside — which might make for a more peaceable State of the Union.

'I don’t think that what we saw in Congress last year was particularly helpful.'

The leftist organizing group MoveOn and the propaganda outfit MeidasTouch are hosting a "counterprogramming" rally at 8 p.m. on the National Mall.

Democrat Sens. Ed Markey (Mass.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Tina Smith (Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), and Adam Schiff (Calif.) are planning to attend, along with a horde of House Democrats including Reps. Yassamin Ansari (Ariz.), Becca Balint (Vt.), Greg Casar (Texas), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), and anchor-baby Rep. Delia Ramirez (Ill.).

Merkley suggested that attendance at the SOTU would serve Trump's supposed effort to "tighten his authoritarian grip."

Van Hollen, among the Democrats who stuck to a similar script, claimed, "Trump is marching America towards fascism, and I refuse to normalize his shredding of our Constitution & democracy."

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Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

"He uses his speeches to pillory his political enemies and spread lies — not to mention they're long and boring," complained Smith.

Schiff recycled similar talking points and added, "This isn't business as usual."

The organizers for the "counterprogramming" event hinted that Democrats will concern-monger about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents' execution of their duties, the termination of public health workers, rising costs, and other matters.

"Trump wants the attention and the ratings, but we cannot treat this year’s State of the Union like business as usual," said MoveOn program chief Sara Haghdoosti. "That’s why MoveOn is hosting the People’s State of the Union, where we will hear directly from the people facing the consequences of Trump’s disastrous administration."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) may be relieved that his colleagues are planning to rage remotely on Tuesday.

After all, their booing and incivility were so bad at Trump's address to the joint session of Congress last year that one lawmaker, Rep. Al Green of Texas, was later censured. Most Democrats also remained seated while Trump honored a cancer-stricken Texas boy, Devarjhaye "DJ" Daniel, and announced his deputization as a U.S. Secret Service agent.

Jeffries made clear last week to his fellow Democrats that they had two options — and more ugly protests in Congress aren't one of them.

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"The two options that are in front of us in our House [are] to either attend with silent defiance or to not attend and send a message to Donald Trump in that fashion, which will include participation in a variety of different alternate programming that is going to take place in and around the Capitol complex," Jeffries said on Wednesday, reported The Hill.

Jeffries is not alone in wanting his colleagues to exercise some restraint.

"I don’t think that what we saw in Congress last year was particularly helpful. I think it made us the story," Rep. Sarah McBride (Del.), the cross-dressing Democrat formerly known as Tim McBride, told NOTUS. "I think this president's unpopular policies should be the story, not sort of gestures from our side."

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