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Two States of the Union
It was like Trump couldn’t decide which speech to give, so he gave them both. At the same time.
The State of the Union is one of the few times in any given year when most people hear a public speech, much less read think pieces and rhetorical criticism about a speech. The contemporary “state of the union” address is a century old—meaning the presidential tradition of delivering what might be an epideictic (praise and blame) speech is a key part of what we’ve come to expect from the office.
When I listened to this year’s speech, I was struck by the emotional whipsaw of it. The highest possible highs trading off with the lowest lows. This seemed quite different from past addresses I have written about.
The general format of the State of the Union address involves the president being introduced by the Speaker of the House (Trump chose to launch right in this year—procedural style be gone), followed by a list of highlights and something like the phrase “the state of our union is strong.” This phrase is a cornerstone of any of these addresses, much like any Spider-Man film will include someone saying “with great power comes great responsibility.” The middle of the speech is usually a boring list of policy priorities. My prior research suggests that the middle of the speech is intentionally…
