The State of the Union Stage Show

Notes of Concern…
….Jackson Blair


THE ANNUAL STAGE SHOW


Blame Woodrow Wilson!

He started the practice of going down Pennsylvania Avenue to personally present his view of the state of the union and to discuss his legislative plans for the coming year.

Of course, like many things in our history, this idea came from the British. The Queen opens Parliament in a ceremony elaborate and historical. She does it with lots of pomp and circumstance with crowns, scepters, long robes, plentiful little pages, the Duke of Edinburgh on her arm, ceremonial knocking on the door of the House of Lords by the lowly other House of Parliament, a fellow who studies and practices how to back away from the Queen and go down a set of stairs without falling, and a great deal of other folderol.

Well readers, I am afraid our own annual State of the Union Address is beginning to look as useless and as staged and as silly as the Brit practice.

Two very scared looking guys come down the aisle, their eyes twitching along with their hands, because they have a really big job. They say something along the lines of “Madam Speaker, I have the great honor to present the President of the United States.”

They actually share this line. Either neither of them can memorize it all or there is a power play taking place, or both of them are somehow related by birth to the guy planning the show.

Then the President comes down the aisle, escorted by a couple of people he really likes (Democrats) and a couple he doesn’t particularly like (Republicans). Everyone is all smiles and the President stops to greet individuals he never invites to tea, or for a beer, or even for a State Dinner.

It is all about the staging friends.

As he mounts the podium in the House Chamber he greets his Vice President and the Speaker of the House as if he hasn’t had the pleasure for some time. Of course, he has been chatting them up outside the chamber prior to the big show. And it is probably true that someone has coordinated the color of suit and tie to be worn by the Prez and the Veep and also made sure the Speaker would have a complimentary color for her dress.

It is all staged.

For instance, did you know the Veep and the Speaker are told to always look at the President during the speech because if they look around they will seem bored (not good) or caught watching the interesting action in the chamber rather than being attentive to the President. I actually read this in a newspaper the other day.

The President looks out over his audience and begins to deliver what has already been distributed to all of the news media and discussed in advance of his speaking. Before starting to speak makes a big deal out of handing the Vice President and the Speaker each their own copy which, if you were watching, they do not open and they immediately give to an aide to carry away.

And so the drama unfolds.

The First Lady always has a group of people with her who can add a photo-op to something the President will say somewhere in his speech. They wear name tags because she has no idea who they are. It isn’t like she had them all in for tea that day. They were assembled in an anteroom immediately prior to the speech and then were led out into her box on her arrival at the capitol.

Of course, the television people have been prepped to turn their cameras to the First Lady’s box when these points in the speech are reached so that she can smile at these strangers and make nice.

I should add here that this process occurs whether the president is a Democrat or a Republican. It doesn’t matter which party is in power. They all act in this ridiculous manner.

The members of the loyal opposition, this time the Republicans, have been briefed on when to applaud and when to sit on their hands. They have it pretty easy when a Democrat is in The White House.

The other guys, the Democrats, have been briefed to applaud loudly and often. They have a tough time because their hands get tired.

The military have the best deal, they don’t have to clap for anyone because they are supposed to be neutral and ready to support whoever is Commander in Chief.

Right behind the military in ease of expectation are the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. They don’t clap because they wouldn’t want to give anyone a clue as to how they might eventually vote on any legislation that is challenged. Also, recently, they have had to decide some presidential elections and chair some impeachments. So they play the role of Caesar’s wife.

Both the Democrats and Republicans have to be very careful to watch the cameras because the TV people are always trying to catch them picking their noses, grimacing, scratching or as was the case this time, nodding off. They learn how to do this by watching baseball players on the field.

The President typically proposes whatever the pollsters have indicated the people want to hear. It was difficult this time because, if we believe what we read, the speech he had prepared and was practicing couldn’t be given because people in Massachusetts pulled the rug out from under the ideas.

This means he proposes things he cannot do, he might do, or the Congress might do whether he likes it or not. When the President talks about what he plans to do it is easy for those watching television to assume he means it. Even if he does, he cannot do it unless most of the other people in the room agree to do it also.

Sometimes even his own party doesn’t agree, for example the infamous health care legislation. Sometimes he can get some things passed with Republican votes, usually from Republicans who are about to lose elections back home to Democrats and think such a vote will help them.

Everything is very pragmatic here in Congress.

The best thing about the annual State of the Union Address is that you really don’t need to watch, or even listen, because television news people will gather afterwards and tell you what you heard, what you were thinking about what you heard, and what a nut case you are if you think differently than they are suggesting.

As I mentioned in my opening line, we need to put this farce at the feet of old Woodrow Wilson.

Have you ever wondered (or cared) why he went down the street to talk to these folks? People who have studied Wilson know that he was an accomplished orator. He was considered an inspired speaker. So he probably just decided to play his long suit. How was he to know every Jimmy, Bubba, Harry and Ike that came after him would do it, too. Even though some of them were not nearly as persuasive.

All the Constitution has to say on the subject of the State of the Union and the President delivering the report is found in Article II, Section III:

“ He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. ”

Nothing here about giving it every year.

Nothing here about speaking it.

The framers, I would argue, assumed the President would send a note down to Congress letting them know how things were going and what he hoped they could accomplish at a later date. That is exactly what the early presidents did.

How did we get from that to where we are today?

Unless the Speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, is going to walk down the stairs backwards and make the Republican Minority Leader stand outside and bang on the door demanding admission next January (like they do in Britain), I think we ought to just call the whole thing off.