The State of the State of the Union

The State of the State of the Union :: SteynOnline:
"The State of the Union is the opposite.
The president gives a performance, extremely animatedly, head swiveling from left-side prompter to right-side prompter, continually urging action now:
"Let's start right away.
We can get this done. . . .
We can fix this. . . .
Now is the time to do it.
Now is the time to get it done."
And at the end of the speech, nothing gets done, and nothing gets fixed, and, after a few days' shadowboxing between admirers and detractors willing to pretend it's some sort of serious legislative agenda, every single word of it is forgotten until the next one.

In that sense, like Beyoncé lip-synching the National Anthem at the inauguration, the State of the Union embodies the decay of America's political institutions into a simulacrum of responsible government rather than the real thing, and a simulacrum ever more divorced from the real issues facing the country."