The State of the Union

The recent government shutdown did only one good thing. 

It didn't move America any closer to resolving our challenges.  Not even a little bit.  Not even an iota.  All that stress, all that fear inflicted on millions of American workers, for what?  Nothing.  It was colossally, impossibly foolish, yet another display of political malpractice on the part of a "dealmaker" who has no idea how to be the leader of a republic.

But there was that one good thing came of it:  the State of the Union was delayed.   Ideally, it would have been delayed for...well...ever.   But we takes what we can gets.

And it's not just because listening to a semi-illiterate compulsively mendacious serial adulterer clumsily deliver words that have been written down for him is painful, though it surely is.  Sniff.  Sniff. 

It's because the State of the Union is utterly unworthy of our time.  It's a pointless, empty, useless ritual, one that doesn't even feel American.

It's been well over a decade since I've watched the entirety of one.  I stopped early in Dubya's tenure, because as genial as he may be as a person, he isn't exactly a Shakespearian orator.  I listened to about ten minutes of Obama's first attempt, and then gave up, because it was just as terrible.

We all know why.  I mean, sweet Lord Jesus, we all know.  The endless interruptions for applause, which resonate with all of the authenticity of the Party rising before Stalin in those old Soviet speeches.  The "guests" who are carted out like props, to which there's more applause?  The regurgitation of obvious and painfully familiar talking points?

It's stale and empty and false, and that stale, empty falseness just goes on and on and on like a circle of Dante's hell.

As it exists now, it serves our nation poorly.  It tells us nothing we need to know.  More importantly, in the hands of a president whose primary skillset is fomenting division, dissent, and disruption?  It has no chance of uniting a nation in common purpose.

Unless you're a journalist and getting paid to endure it, there is no earthly reason to watch it.