This is, indeed, the state of the Union

Let me make this absolutely clear: Nancy Pelosi, and Nancy Pelosi alone is to blame for her childish paper-tearing stunt last night. Nothing can be said to justify such juvenile behavior. To do it on national television, no matter how full of nonsense the President's speech was, was not only infantile but politically stupid.

In fact, it was positively Trumpian.

I'm not even going to get into Mr. Trump's equally juvenile refusal to shake her proffered hand. That's the kind of thing we've come to expect from our child president. But while I have issues of my own with Speaker Pelosi, I expected far, far better from her.

Having said that, last night's bipartisan temper tantrum sums up the state of the Union like no president in history has ever managed to do. Again, Speaker Pelosi is responsible for her own behavior. But Donald Trump has made infants of an entire nation. We are no longer people who value common courtesy. Or common sense.

We all should be ashamed of the antics the leaders of our nation's two dysfunctional political parties disgraced themselves with last night. I'm tempted to say that we deserve better. But when I think of the level to which most of us- myself included- have descended in the past three years, maybe we don't.

One thing is certain: if we as a nation are ever going to start behaving like grownups again, we're going to have to insist that our leaders set us a better example.