Kevin Williamson is absolutely correct. The State of the Union (STFU) is a sordid spectacle of self-congratulation and excess more appropriate to an Imperial Autocracy than a Constitutional Republic.
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. It’s worse than the Oscars.
Ted Cruz has the right idea, he’s skipping it. (But Marco Rubio, who blew off the budget vote, will be in attendance, applauding with everyone else.)
Outside the Court of Versailles, the Preezy is not loved or adored. His little staged anti-gun propaganda show lost in the ratings to reruns of ‘Family Guy’ and ‘American Dad’.
The STFU is just another occasion for the Democrat Media Complex to treat President Boyfriend the way Eddie Murphy’s Bath Maidens treated his prince character in ‘Coming to America.’
A more appropriate venue — considering the content and the context — would be the from the Truman Balcony while wearing a Red, White and Blue sash to a hand-picked horde of sycophantic well-wishers and co-coreligionists filling the South Lawn. Those exhibiting insufficient enthusiasm and group-think to be taken aside afterwards for political re-education at an undisclosed location off-the-books.
TSA Gate Agents to fill the ranks of uniformed honor guards and the band since strangely all 6-branches of the US Military plead pressing last-minute engagements elsewhere, “…so sorry.“
What would be cool is for all the Republicans to have a fact checker, with known lies told by the POTUS on a sheet, an any time during the SOTU if he mentions these lies, all Republicans say, “YOU LIE!!” at the same time. Afterward, during the response, you detail the lies told, and the clear explanation as to why it is a lie.
Instead of the audience yelling — what? are we British? — how about using those colored lights like they use in Congressional hearing and at the Nuremberg Tribunals.
– White for little white lie.
– Yellow for blatant bending the truth.
– Red for great big stinky-fart lie with no relation to reality.
For my sanity and the safety of my television set or radio, I never listen to the State of the Union Addresses. I read the speech afterwards, a page at time/day as I can tolerate it.
It’ll be a sleeper with the same old BS. I have no intention of watchingit.
I’ll put on a video, Abbott & Costello, in Buck Privates, or Airplane.
“My fellow Grifters, the State of the Union is still ripe for the fleecing. You do it your way, I do it my way, we all do it everyday in everyway including loose. 2015 is gone, but 2016 is upon us. I know not what grifting others may partake, but as for me, I have but year to get everything I can get my paws on.
I will arise and go now to the land of whats-in-it-for-me where the handouts grow on bushes and the MSM have to tip their hats and all the watchdogs are blind. This gig is your gig and this gig is my gig from California to the New York Island, this gig was made for you and me. Nobody living can ever stop me as I go grifting on the public highway, nobody living can ever make me turn back, this gig was made for you and me.
As the storm clouds gather from across the seas, let us swear allegiance to the scheme of how we flimflam, let us be thankful for a land so inane that they keep electing us again and again.
God bless America, land that we fleece, stand behind her and guide her to the light we shine from above, from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam, God bless America where crooks like us can screw the little people in the comfort of their homes.
Give us your huddled and tired masses willing to be bled, I lift my lamp to light the gold behind the treasury door. Follow me, olly olly oxen free, everything’s in it for you and me.
I am getting mine, now you go get yours. I pray Heaven to bestow the best blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but rapacious and self-centered men ever rule under the roof of power here and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Let the games begin and I say unto you, keep your grubby mitts out of my cookie jars. I have taken the gold, but there is plenty more to spread around. Don’t worry, be happy, and kiss my ass as I go out the door.
Why can’t the President just write his thoughts on the State of the Union and submit them to Congress? Congress can post it on their website.
If he feels he must speak, he can record a YouTube video from the Oval Office or the East Room and put it up there. Congress can also put it up on their website.
I don’t get why this is made into such a “grand” event like the Oscars?
A Speaker with spine could stipulate that the president not decide seating for dramatic theater, i.e., an empty slot for “gun victims”, which would stop the pretense of adulation in the chamber as if the president is the sole authority & power in the US. We don’t have people in Congress willing to stand up for the principles of the Republic.
I won’t be watching, will be reviewing points remotely & yes, Rubio will be applauding as a fellow minority & flake to the president.
To be fair, the SOTU show was a crapshow long before BHO ascended the throne. I watched GWB a few years back and the recitation of random promises (fuel cell vehicles) reminded me of Romper Room where the hostess looked through her magic mirror and called out random names.
“Why can’t the President just write his thoughts on the State of the Union…”
That’s the way it used to be until Wilson decided he wanted the spotlight. Washington gave a speech, but Jefferson simply wrote his remarks and forwarded.
Woodrow Wilson had a LOT of bad ideas that he introduced as President that are accepted (grudgingly) as part of the everyday American Fabric. Like a lot of new taxes, the incipient growth of the Federal Bureaucracy, The League of Nations (The UN), and the basis of FDR’s New Deal Democracy… He also institutionalized segregation at the Federal level.
Also, unlike Machiavelli, Obama is neither loved nor feared.
@ Holding My Nose: No, Obama has managed that third reaction that everybody forgets that Machiavelli warned against eliciting: hatred.
Paul @ 7: In fact, that’s how the SOTU USED to be done; a written address to Congress. I say we bring that back. This spectacle is a disgrace.
Nice work, Heliotrope ($6)
The empty chair at the SOTU is for Kate Steinle.
If I were President, I would prepare the State of the Union Address like a College Paper – no more than 10 pages, with references, and a Bibliography at the end. Copies to Congress and the Press Corp.
Ted B. (Charging Rhino) wrote, “Instead of the audience yelling — what? are we British? — how about using those colored lights like they use in Congressional hearing and at the Nuremberg Tribunals.”
No. Up twinkles and down twinkles!
Oh, terrific. The Won has placed the cure for cancer in the hands of Joe Biden. There is a metaphor lurking in there somewhere.