The State of the Union Address Should Go Away Forever
Presidents didn’t always deliver the speech to Congress in person, but just sent a written message. Pelosi is right to revive the practice.
That’s so last year.
Photographer: Win McNamee/Pool via Bloomberg
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a keen sense of history. By demanding that President Donald Trump wither postpone the State of the Union address until the government shutdown ends or deliver a written statement, she has raised the possibility that we might finally get rid of a ritual that has devolved into empty political theater.
The speech takes its name from the clause in the Constitution stipulating that the president “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.”