Political Sideshow: It’s State of the Union Time Which Means the Circus Is in Town

The State of the Union is coming and so is the drama. This year the Democrats will reportedly be wearing black in support of the #MeToo slacktivists who are now against the sexual harassment they ignored for decades. This sort of crap is boring and frankly outright annoying.

A number of women in Congress are planning to wear black to the State of the Union later this month as a show of support for women affected by sexual misconduct.

The show of support echoes actresses who wore black to last Sunday’s Golden Globes to support the Me Too and Time’s Up movements.

…

The movement is being championed by the Democratic Women’s Working Group, which includes all female Democratic members of the House of Representatives.

The Constitutional requirement which has evolved into the spectacle we now call the State of the Union Address is very simple and concise.

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;

There’s no requirement to have a giant televised circus of grandstanding, duplicitous and pointless gestures or using humans as political props.

Long before we elected an actual reality TV star to be President, the State of the Union became little more than a reality TV episode for the inside the Beltway crowd. If the White House Correspondent’s Dinner is “nerd prom” then the State of the Union is absolutely “nerd homecoming.” It won’t be long before it involves a parade with floats and literally crowning a king and queen, instead of just recognizing a few people who most anecdotally support some piece of the President’s agenda..

Personally, I gave up on caring about the State of the Union Address in 2011 when the two parties started pairing up with dates from across the aisle to symbolize the imaginary #NewTone that followed the mass murder in Tucson, Arizona where 19 people died and Congresswoman Gabbie Giffords was shot. The Republicans played right into the hands of the Democrats and helped cement the erroneous claim that heated political rhetoric had something to do with Jared Loughner’s psychosis.

My own Republican Congressman at the time actually paired up with his “good friend” Nancy Pelosi (who would have carved out his liver with a letter opener and fed it to a hyena if she thought it would benefit her politically). I imagine that the corsage he bought for her withered and died at her touch.

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Leading up to the monotonous affair where the President’s head will hypnotically oscillate between Teleprompters with his right hand waving in the air, there will be hours and hours of breathless coverage and punditry over what the President will say, what he won’t say, what he must say, and what he must not say. Afterward there will be literally days of coverage where the usual suspects will declare that the address was much better than Cats and they will see it again and again or that it was literally the opening of the Seventh Seal in the book of Revelation.

During none of the discussion before or after the address, will any talking head point out that it’s just a campaign speech that will be forgotten as soon as they’ve milked it dry of ratings and blog traffic.

Even the running gag about State of the Union drinking games is getting old because politicians are so predictable that in virtually any configuration such a game would lead to mass alcohol poisoning. On the other hand, getting blind drunk may be the only rational option if you find yourself surrounded by political junkies who actually take this big top spectacle seriously.

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