[American Thinker] - Professor Jonathan Turley of Georgetown University Law School wrote in The Hill of the Speaker’s State of the Union behavior, "Pelosi has shredded decades of tradition, decorum and civility that the nation could use now more than ever." He also described her with the words "petty," "distempered," and "inappropriate." She failed to introduce the President properly, and then was particularly out of line when she tore up his speech after grimacing and showing petulant expressions throughout the President’s speech.Turley asserted that she should resign from office as the Speaker as her breaches of decorum at the State of Union were the worst of all those he has criticized over the years. For Turley, it is important because decorum is a kind of unifying glue. It is the fallback M.O., the detachment whereby differences of person and policy are transcended in our republic. He might just as well have called for the entire Democrat caucus to resign and be replaced by people of honor and integrity. It is at that point that the analysis seems to fade into fantasy.
Sadly, at this time in history, Turley’s view is a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. Instead of decorum being the way unity is maintained as in the past, decorum now serves mainly as a mask covering a profound dislocation, a profound disunity. Her lack of decorum and the unconscionable, implacable hostility of the Democrats of the House and Senate reveals the extreme political animosity that presently afflicts our country.
We are faced with an incredible disunity, so intense that no appearance of unity in the form of decorum can cover it up. The grim face of that disunity appeared at the State of the Union address, and was most visible in the egregious behavior of Speaker Pelosi.