Lies, lies, and more lies

What every SOTU for the past 50 years has in common

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. - Constitution of the United States, Article II, Section 3

On Tuesday (Feb. 7, 2023), President Biden gave a State of the Union address. I am not going to analyze it or critique it for you. Sorry. Aside from a clip about five seconds long that I saw in someone else’s video, I have not seen or heard it. Despite not experiencing what I’m sure was a painful speech, I can say with a fair amount of surety that I know at least some of the content: lies about the economy, lies about inflation, lies about jobs, and lies about the Russia/Ukraine war. I know from the clip I saw that the President lied about guns (and I would have guessed this had I not seen the clip).

The State of the Union address is an interesting creature. The Constitution demands it be done from “time to time” by the President, to the Congress. Though the frequency and method are vague, George Washington set the tone for providing the SOTU on an annual basis, and he did so verbally. That changed in 1801 when Jefferson began submitting the SOTU to Congress in writing. It wasn’t until Woodrow Wilson held the presidency that the SOTU was once again delivered orally, and with only a few exceptions, it has been delivered verbally since.

In a way, the SOTU is much like a CEO of a public corporation providing an update on the business to the board of directors. The President is responsible to the Congress, as the CEO is responsible to the board, and the Congress is responsible to the people, just as the board is responsible to the stakeholders/shareholders. Generally, such a presentation of information is not televised or broadcast to the shareholders, at least, not until after the information has been tendered to, and fully considered by, the board of directors. Likewise, the State of the Union was not meant for consumption directly by the people - it is a report from the President to Congress (usually at the beginning of a new Congressional session).

If you consider the country as in a sense mimicking the structure of a public corporation, this arrangement makes sense. New board members come in and need to be brought up to speed on the state of the business and on currently known plans for the future and items for which plans need to be made and implemented. Similarly, new members of Congress need information about the state of affairs for the country, debts, needs, plans, etc. Thus, the President is to inform Congress of those things required during the new session that they might perform their jobs knowledgeably and diligently.

Unfortunately, the State of the Union is no longer the solemn speech it once was. Truman was the first President to give a televised SOTU address, and it has been televised since. As I was not around in 1947 to see that address, I cannot speak to the gravity of that broadcast. I can say that, for at least the past couple of decades, having the SOTU televised has not provided benefit. Unlike earlier messages such as those offered by the founding fathers, the televised SOTU has become little more than a platform for bombast and braggadocio. Instead of a dignified and decorous dissertation, it is now a pompous parliamentary pep rally.

With the whole country tuned in for such a spectacle, is it any wonder that prevarication and hyperbole dominate the discourse? The president is no longer concerned with actually informing Congress, as the Constitution exhorts, but instead seeks to both engage and enrage the populace. Rather than informing Congress with facts and figures whereby they can better legislate, the SOTU is used to lull the people into complacency or enflame them toward the opposing party. Looking back at early addresses this was not the case. The SOTU was handled with seriousness by early presidents and afforded dignity. A good example is Washington’s fifth State of the Union: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/fifth-annual-address-congress

His first four were just as stately, and I am sure that those that came after, as well as those of the several presidents who followed, especially those that were proffered in writing rather than by the spoken word.

The last three decades of SOTU speeches let me to my estimation of what was included in President Biden’s address this week. In addition, I’ll throw in a guess that he also mentioned energy and maybe the climate/environment. If I am wrong, well, I don’t think I am. Anyone who is not living in a cave knows what is happening in our country. I have no need of exposing my senses to the agony of watching a senile old man stumble through an oration cheering on a deluded distortion of his failures as successes.