# Democrats Who Wouldn't Honor A 13 Year Old with Brain Cancer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [March 7, 2025, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230 "2025-03-07T04:01:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/61 "2025-03-07T21:11:14Z")
So now it is _some_ that weren’t applauding, which certainly doesn’t match up with what you originally said. Care to narrow it just a bit more? ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/62 "2025-03-07T21:18:13Z")
For those unfamiliar with history, there _is_ a clear precedent for Trump’s little stunt: [**QUICK VIDEO CLIP – NSFW - LANGUAGE**](https://youtu.be/jLO7VrRij_M) ---
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/63 "2025-03-07T21:25:12Z")
> [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > How do we feel about the Democrats who wouldn’t stand or applaud I stand by my statement. At no point did I say every Democrat did or did not do something, since I couldn’t see all of them. I asked about those who did not stand or applaud. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/64 "2025-03-07T21:33:47Z")
Wait, applauding at other points during the rambling BS, or during the particular bit with the child? Either way, from what I saw, the Dems were applauding during this bit. So, good for them! ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/65 "2025-03-07T21:36:40Z")
Answered already, it is just an issue with their conciences, but not a big one as the truly reprehensible acts of Trump and the right-wing blogosphere cheering the defunding of medical research and control of diseases, it includes cancer too. So, forgive me if I can’t be concerned much for a stunt from the bloviator in chief when real damage is being done to our health institutions by that same bloviator. [https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5297913/cdc-layoffs-hhs-trump-doge](https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5297913/cdc-layoffs-hhs-trump-doge) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/66 "2025-03-07T21:54:49Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > It won’t be a deciding factor in the midterms but it’s one more data point in the negative column. > > Recent election results seem to indicate that voters are not tallying up positives and negatives and voting accordingly. If they did, Harris would have won 50 states. The country is lost. The voters have spoken. None of this shit matters in the least. All we’re getting now is talking points from each side that won’t move the needle one bit. Of course voters tally positives and negatives. She lost because the tallies led too many people to not vote at all. The ones who willingly stayed home seem to be the type that would be more easily swayed by social media posts about not reacting to a kid with cancer. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/67 "2025-03-07T22:24:41Z")
> [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > I asked about those who did not stand or applaud. You asked and you were answered. > [@Cervaise](#): > > It’s cheap, manipulative, chain-yanking bullshit, and we can see that because we are not stupid. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/68 "2025-03-07T22:49:18Z")
> [@John\_Bredin](#): > > > [@msmith537](#): > > > > The Democrats looked like voiceless impotent weirdos and old women. What happened to the Democratic Party of Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Barack Obama? > > So nearly half the chamber at a joint session of Congress stayed seated during a presidential speech, which nobody’s done before as long as there’s been film or video cameras in Congress. But _they_ looked impotent, while the party that jumped up and clapped for every turd dropped from Trump’s mouth looked powerful?! 🤨 Yes. The Republicans may have looked like a-holes. But in that moment they at least looked like a-holes who were united in their victory. So the Democrats stayed in their seats and waved “resist” cards. So what? To me it didn’t project that they wielded any power. I don’t really have many alternative ideas. Maybe they should have just wore matching “Resist” pins and politely and unenthusiastically clapped when appropriate. Maybe they should have all handcuffed themselves to Al Green? But even all the Democrats don’t agree on his action. I don’t know really. Usually the SotU address is a boring speech by the President to the American people. So I’m not really sure what can or should be accomplished at such an event. > [@John\_Bredin](#): > > And what do you think Clinton, Gore, or Obama would have done differently? Well…won the election for starters (definitively for at least two of them). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/69 "2025-03-07T22:57:31Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I don’t really have many alternative ideas. Maybe they should have just wore matching “Resist” pins and politely and unenthusiastically clapped when appropriate. So “golf-clapping” would’ve been _more_ of a protest, shown resistance better, than what they did?! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/70 "2025-03-07T22:58:44Z")
When the American Public wants a bigoted shitheal criminal to be President, there isn’t much you can do about it, unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/71 "2025-03-07T23:28:09Z")
The attitude of the original post in this thread is the same dishonest, both-sides crap that the media has been peddling for the last few decades – that it doesn’t matter what Republicans do, but Democrats must be _absolutely perfect in every scenario and all the time_, or else only Democrats are to blame for bad things that happen. It’s entirely bullshit. SOTU theatrics are irrelevant. We’re not in this situation because of mistakes some Democrats make. We’re in this situation because a plurality of Americans wanted what Trump was selling, and the media helped Trump make that case for the last 5 years. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/72 "2025-03-07T23:44:32Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > We’re not in this situation because of mistakes some Democrats make. We’re in this situation because a plurality of Americans wanted what Trump was selling, and the media helped Trump make that case for the last 5 years. Thank you. That’s my view. We can’t strategize our way out of this. Unfortunately, our country is not what he had hoped. We’re basically living in occupied land, and it will take some time to turn around (perhaps). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/73 "2025-03-07T23:52:36Z")
> [@John\_Bredin](#): > > So nearly half the chamber at a joint session of Congress stayed seated during a presidential speech, which nobody’s done before as long as there’s been film or video cameras in Congress. Oh yeah, it has happened- when Biden was president, the GOP stayed seated and some heckled. > [@GIGObuster](#): > > When that is dismissed and what the democrats did not do is considered a big mistake, **it is not the Democrats who have a problem with morals.** Yep. Political theater. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > The attitude of the original post in this thread is the same dishonest, both-sides crap that the media has been peddling for the last few decades – that it doesn’t matter what Republicans do, but Democrats must be _absolutely perfect in every scenario and all the time_, or else only Democrats are to blame for bad things that happen. Right. The MAGAs are bigoted, violent liars. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > We’re not in this situation because of mistakes some Democrats make. We’re in this situation because a plurality of Americans wanted what Trump was selling, and the media helped Trump make that case for the last 5 years. Yep. Voters didnt understand how economics or inflation works, so they believed the con man. Amd there was xenophobia and bigotry at play also. Right Wing Populists do that- they lie and make promises they CAN NOT keep… And the voters believe them- generally until next election, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/74 "2025-03-08T00:02:33Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > > > We’re not in this situation because of mistakes some Democrats make. We’re in this situation because a plurality of Americans wanted what Trump was selling, and the media helped Trump make that case for the last 5 years. > > Thank you. That’s my view. We can’t strategize our way out of this. Unfortunately, our country is not what he had hoped. We’re basically living in occupied land, and it will take some time to turn around (perhaps). I’ve posted it before, but I think it’s poignant and incisive: _“Obama Was What We Aspire To Be, Trump Is Who We Are.”_ – D.L. Hughley ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/75 "2025-03-08T00:10:33Z")
Given what the president had just done to cancer research funding, this stunt was the equivalent of pardoning a turkey before the Thanksgiving feast. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/76 "2025-03-08T00:11:18Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Democrats really need to get out the vote … by grassroots organizing, not by trying to lobby ‘low information voters’ via social media and certainly not by continuing to hug up to corporate donors. The Dem’s 2024 GOTV operation was solid, superior to the Republican GOTV. Brookings: > Trump’s gains in each of the seven swing states was smaller than the national figure, although his pickup in Arizona and Nevada nearly matched his nationwide improvement. > **[What the nation told us in 2024, state by state](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-the-nation-told-us-in-2024-state-by-state/)** > > Brookings senior fellow E.J. Dionne breaks down the results of the 2024 election and how much of a mandate it gives Trump. There are 3 facts to bear in mind about the 2024 election. 1) The swing to Trump was _weaker_ in swing states, 2) the demographic swing was _largest_ among Latinos (who still majority voted for Biden, but by a much smaller margin), 3) the final popular vote for Trump was 49.9% to 48.4%, just short of a majority and an historically mild margin vs the opposing party. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/77 "2025-03-08T00:40:14Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > It was obvious that the brain-cancer patient was a stunt. So, even though cancer is sad, you can’t take the bait. Literally, not only can you, I think that a majority of Democratic members of congress did. Trump does not really like sick kids is IMHO bad messaging. The best messaging is probably to point to Trump administration corruption: > **[Murphy: Six Weeks In, This White House Is On Its Way To Being The Most...](https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-six-weeks-in-this-white-house-is-on-its-way-to-being-the-most-corrupt-in-us-history)** > > WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Thursday spoke on the U.S. Senate floor to expose the unprecedented corruption of the Trump... ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/78 "2025-03-08T01:12:29Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > The Dem’s 2024 GOTV operation was solid, superior to the Republican GOTV. I don’t mean just patent “Get Out The Vote” efforts; I mean actually making voters aware, engaged, and enthused about how their platform and policies will help those voters _and_ giving confidence that their candidate will actually do what they say. This, of course, assumes that Democrats actually endorse and follow through on proposals that do help voters, which may have been true once upon a time but too many times the majority of Democrats end up advancing and supporting policies that benefit their big money and corporate benefactors rather than their constituent populations. This kind of organizing is hard work because it means not only having volunteers who are well-informed and articulate about the matters that their candidate’s electorate is concerned about, but that the candidate actually has to do more than show up at pressers and rallies; they actually have to engage with civil and local business leaders, local union reps and public officials, and _build consensus_ among people who don’t always vote in blocks or that obviously fit together along ideological lines. It’s what Stacey Abrams is really good at (much to the ire of the DNCC), and how Katie Porter managed to get elected going up against an incumbent in a firmly Republican district. It also means that the candidate can’t just spend all day hobnobbing with wealthy donors and may have to run an uphill campaign from a financing standpoint but it also means building a solid network of word-of-mouth support versus just blasting attack ads and plastering name signs on every flat surface and open yard. Trump and the GOP won in part because people are disaffected even though what Biden was doing was objectively improving the economic and national security of the country, even if it wasn’t ‘curing’ inflation or fixing the lives of struggling Americans, and Harris (and Democrats in general) should have been able to draft on that. Unfortunately, they drafted a little too hard on how good the stock market and inflation indexes were doing, and not enough on how they were going to help the lives of people who don’t invest in the market and understand inflation from the practical standpoint of how much of their paycheck that never seems to increase is going to put food on the table and gas in their car tank. If you aren’t talking in those terms, you aren’t talking to those voters. Of course, Republicans also had the advantage of running heavily on the manufactured ‘culture wars’ outrage, which hits at a level below reason even though it has virtually no impact on most people except those who are marginalized by it. They’ve sold it as the reason that people aren’t doing better, and the fault of “Political Correctness”/DEI/Marxists/‘Antifa’ instead of how they’ve sold out their constituents for campaign funding. Democrats can’t compete in that game unless they are going to turn MSNBC into a complete propaganda machine which can spread lies and conspiranoia comparable to Fox News, which is a ‘cure’ worse than the disease. Instead, they need to make voters think about their choices at a basic level of bettering their actual lives versus attacking a phantom menace. When Katie Porter is talking about how much it costs to buy and repair a dishwaster or Liz Warren is grilling some pharma executive over how much of the price of insulin is actually in the manufacture versus various forms of egregious profiteering, they are highlighting the hypocrisy not in an abstract fashion but in a way that is literally taking money out of the pockets of her constituents in a way that anyone should be upset about. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/79 "2025-03-08T02:09:33Z")
Moderating: > [@msmith537](#): > > The Democrats looked like voiceless impotent weirdos and old women. As one of the “old women” on the Board, I found this statement rather misogynistic. I’m not the only one who did. Let’s refrain from indulging in cheap, easy casual misogyny, please. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230/80 "2025-03-08T03:03:27Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I feel that every single Democrat in the room should have either walked out or forced Mike Johnson to expel them all one by one when Al Green got kicked out. Every single Democrat in the room should have done exactly what Al Green did. The establishment Democrats are worthless. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-who-wouldnt-honor-a-13-year-old-with-brain-cancer/1015230.md?page=5)