DOUG SCHOEN: Biggest winner and most lamentable losers from Trump's speech

The starkest impact made by President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress was the boldness of his vision and the absolute absence of any alternative from the Democratic Party. 

Whether you voted for Trump or not last November, it was hard on Tuesday night not to see someone seeking to put his agenda into practice. The president made clear to lawmakers and indeed the world, that his overarching goal is American renewal and the reinvigoration of the American Dream.

As an American patriot who remembers JFK’s inaugural address in 1961, and remembers Ronald Reagan’s inaugural address in 1980, it’s hard not to see the president’s speech in the same terms. 

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To be sure, the challenges the president faces are no less great. It remains unclear, at the very least, whether he will succeed in bringing down inflation, getting prices under control, ending the war in Ukraine and reasserting American strength both at home and abroad. There is no reason to believe, after his speech to Congress, that he is any closer to accomplishing his goals than he was before. 

Still, it is very hard for anyone who is a neutral observer to do anything other than recognize the forward-looking, expansive nature of Trump's vision. 

At the same time, it does not appear to me that the political party that I continue to belong to, with increasing difficulty, has any answers at all. 

The use of signage in the House Chamber, such as "false," "save Medicaid," "protect veterans," only underscored the absolute limits of my party’s ability to articulate differences. 

It is as if the Democrats have gone beyond even Clinton campaign strategist James Carville’s advice to stay silent and "play possum." They have become trivial and almost irrelevant. 

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I write this with sadness. I am not certain that there are any clear answers that we have to the challenges we face, despite a clear agenda for America and a clear set of policy prescriptions that the president outlined. While I was uplifted by his rhetoric, his promises and the use of personal examples, I was depressed that what I saw did not represent the best of what our country stands for. 

That the Democrats could only fuss and sit, mute, left me cold. And it left me thinking that our adversaries saw, dramatically, how polarized and divided we remain. 

I well understand that in praising President Trump’s speech, it appears that I, a mainstream Democrat of 50 years’ experience, have somehow changed parties. 

Nothing is farther from the truth. Nonetheless, anyone who cares about America has to support the president’s overarching goals on the economy, inflation, the southern border, on crime and embracing peace around the world.

Watching Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin deliver the Democratic response to the president’s speech, I felt saddened that she had to introduce herself, by dint of her credentials, and explain who she is. That is largely a metaphor for the challenges and divisions we face. 

We are no closer to solving our problems, as the polls have shown recently. But we did get a vision on Tuesday night. We did get a clear sense that we have a president who is a bold, transformational leader dedicated to revitalizing the American Dream. Whether he succeeds or not is still very much up to question. 

People of goodwill can and will disagree with his policy descriptions. But on this night, it was hard not to be proud of the vision he laid out for the renewal of the American Dream. 

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Douglas E. Schoen has more than 40 years of experience as a pollster and political consultant. He served as an adviser to President Bill Clinton and to the presidential campaign of Michael Bloomberg. Schoen is founder and partner of Schoen Cooperman Research.