By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.
It just keeps getting worse and worse. That was my initial reaction after reading in the newspaper that Speaker Nancy Pelosi had blocked President Trump from giving the State of the Union address because of their disagreement over the government shutdown.
Upon further reflection: If it doesn’t happen, will anyone really miss it?
If the SOTU were an annual description of national challenges and solutions, it would be worthwhile. Instead, it is boring and pointless political theater.
Year after year, Americans are subjected to the same show. The president makes his way through the crowded aisles. He offers a laundry list of policy proposals, most of which have no chance of passing and often serve mostly to satisfy his base or some political interest group. His party’s members interrupt constantly with standing ovations while the opposing party’s members sit stone-faced. Then the opposing party gets its own speech.
That’s an hour-and-a-half we never get back, and of course it must be followed by pundits – which I guess I’m one – telling us what it all means.
It doesn’t have to be this way, and it wasn’t for much of the nation’s history. Continue reading
