What should we expect from President Obama's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night? Probably talk of our economic difficulties, but talk of how we are going to fix them through more public spending (especially on health care), less military spending (especially in Iraq), and eliminating the Bush tax cuts. And bi-partisanship. And hope. And by getting past ideology.
But I have to ask: why are State of the Union speeches a big deal? Presidents deliver speeches all the time, but these speeches are rarely covered lived on by all major television, Internet and radio news outlets. Within the professional political world of D.C., the SOTU not only is worthy of an acronym, but its annual parties are second only to changes of partisan power in Congress and / or the White House in terms of celebratory atmosphere. What is it about the SOTU that generates such intense coverage from major political and media institutions?
The answer, I'm pretty certain, is that over one-quarter of Americans actually watch the SOTU (possibly because many have no other choice). This makes it second only to Election Day in terms of popular engagement in politics. So, of course, it is a big deal in political and media circles. For all the cynicism and snide comments made about politics, the word derives from the Greek polis, which pretty much just means "place where many people live together." In other words, politics is simply the business of figuring out how people should live together. It is also why politics remains just about the only highly esteemed, creative class profession for which no real qualifications are required. In the final analysis, almost anyone is qualified to hold an opinion on how people should live together--and on how to convince them they should live together. So, of course, people in politics and media take this event seriously.
But this begs a more fundamental question: why do so many people watch the SOTU? (More in the extended entry)
Part of the reason is, of course, that they don't have any other choice. For example, even I didn't have cable until today, when I moved (the move is why I didn't blog on Monday).
Tomorrow night, part of it will be Obama himself. Not only does he have a huge following (I mean, when is the last time you saw the President's picture hanging up in local shops?) but, to keep speaking anecdotally, yesterday a friend of mine remarked that she wanted to watch Obama's speech because "we might actually get real information this time." Although I haven't dug up the numbers to prove this, I bet that, over that past 15 years, there has been a direct correlation between presidential approval ratings and SOTU ratings.
However, and this may sound strange coming from an avowed atheist such as myself, but mainly I think it is kind of like people who only go to church on Christmas. Apart from voting, watching the SOTU is an annual, ritual form of political engagement for many Americans who are otherwise disengaged. Even nine months from an election, even in an odd numbered year, even when we basically already know what the President will say (which is every year), many still tune in just because, well, for the same reason people go to church only on Christmas. It is just something you do to show you are a part of the team, even if you can't stand and / or can't be bothered by the trappings for regular engagement.
Anyway, that's one theory. Why do you think the SOTU gets such big exposure, and such a big audience?
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