The Porcupine Tribune

Now that the Government has reopened, 800,000 federal employees are ambling back into their offices after being furloughed for 35 days. As an ostensible olive branch, Speaker Pelosi has reversed course and has invited President Trump to deliver his State of the Union (SOTU for you beltway insiders) address within the House chambers on February 5th. Trump accepted Pelosi’s invitation in a letter, stating that it was his “great honor” to give the address and that “we have a great story to tell and yet, great goals to achieve!” Hurrah! The Republic is saved! The show will go on!

I’d like to offer a divergent take…let’s not have it at all! Having spent numerous years of my life studying and writing about government, there is no tradition (in my opinion) more archaic and monarchic than the annual State of the Union. In its current form, the SOTU has no place in the American political sphere because it adds absolutely nothing to the modern discourse. It is devoid of substance, favoring instead pomp and circumstance. Applause lines are scripted as are the camera pans to capture the opposing party’s perfectly timed “harrumph”.

Kevin Williamson puts it best:

The annual State of the Union pageant is a hideous, dispiriting, ugly, monotonous, un-American, un-republican, anti-democratic, dreary, backward, monarchical, retch-inducing, depressing, shameful, crypto-imperial display of official self-aggrandizement and piteous toadying, a black Mass during which every unholy order of teacup totalitarian and cringing courtier gathers under the towering dome of a faux-Roman temple to listen to a speech with no content given by a man with no content, to rise and to be seated as is called for by the order of worship — it is a wonder they have not started genuflecting — with one wretched representative of their number squirreled away in some well-upholstered Washington hidey-hole in order to preserve the illusion that those gathered constitute a special class of humanity without whom we could not live. It’s the most nauseating display in American public life — and I write that as someone who has just returned from a pornographers’ convention.

What is so often overlooked is that the SOTU in its modern form does not harken back to the traditions put in place by the founders. One needn’t feel a sense of nostalgia when watching our Commander and Chief list off platitudes and overt calls for the legislature to line up and march lockstep to whatever the president is pushing for that week.

In Article II, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution it states that the president “shall from time to time give the Congress information on the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient”. That’s it. No additional details or prescriptions are provided, such as the definition of “time to time” or what information to provide.

George Washington interpreted “time to time” to mean an annual address. He and Adams both addressed the legislature, but it was hardly the spectacle it is today. In fact, the annual address in person was short lived. Thomas Jefferson, viewing the practice as being too closely resembling the behavior of the King of England, delivered the SOTU via written message. This tradition was followed by subsequent presidents and was viewed as the norm until the early twentieth century.

Who was the POTUS who decided to shuck tradition? None other than Woodrow Wilson. It seems almost too fitting that the sordid pageantry serving as the modern foundation of the SOTU came by the hands of one of the most narcissistic and monarchical presidents ever elected. The same man whose absolute disdain towards the constitutional limits on his power, and believer in governing by “expertise” (even if the expert was of the unelected variety), has led to the bureaucratic swamp we know and love hate today.

Wilson’s poor example has gone on to inspire a modern tradition of “throne speeches”, as Wilson’s biographer A. Scott Berg put it. Spurred on by advancements in technology, and a general level of one-upmanship, these speeches have grown considerably in length and done away with any substance which is not “soundbite” quality. Prior to Wilson, addresses tended to be dry and administrative, consisting of reports, budget figures, and other administrative documentation (i.e. an actual State of the Union as compiled by the head of the bureaucracy). When Wilson gave his first SOTU address in 1913, it came in at roughly nine minutes. Today they average forty-five minutes or longer.

Now more than ever, I believe we can finally close the door on this monumental waste of time, energy, and resources. Declining viewership and plummeting Nielsen ratings call for a change. I’d go as far as to argue the country would be better served by another episode of The Bachelor/Bachelorette than to have to suffer through another tired SOTU address.

While television may still be the dominant resource for news, online outlets are quickly taking over market share according to a 2016 Pew Research Center study. No president before has had the cornucopia of communication mediums to choose from. For better or worse, President Trump is a master of media. His tweets beget administration policy.

Every day his followers on Twitter receive their very own State of the Union, crafted by the very thumbs which lead the free world. What will President Trump say that he hasn’t already tweeted?

Just imagine a SOTU twitter thread from @RealDonaldTrump followed by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez providing a response via Instagram live video while showing her followers how to make cocktails? It’s a content creator’s world, we’re just living in it.

As former Governor and now President of the Purdue University, Mitch Daniels put in his opinion piece in the Washington Post, the State of the Union has long since passed its sell-by date, and no longer fulfills the purpose that once justified its existence. I’m calling on President Trump and all future executives to do away with the theatrics and find a more authentic way to connect with the American citizenry.

- William F. Buckley Jr. Jr.