Trump's State of the Union address and responses

I really don't like the pompous imperial show business event that the annual State of the Union (SOTU) message has become. The speeches themselves range between pompous and maudlin. The introduction of various guests to allow the President to make some political point or take a patriotic posture normally borders on being mawkish. Presenting crime victims or surviving family members as special guests ranges from tasteless to downright exploitive.

Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats did a good job of political theater to distract from Trump's applause lines. But I find the whole event tiresome. I hope the next Democratic President goes back to Thomas Jefferson's practice of sending a written State of the Union message rather than the current approach that looks more like an Oscars awards show than the fulfillment of a Constitutional responsibility.

The State of the Union developed out of article 2, Section 3, which says 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." The Constitution doesn't even say that it needs to be done annually, or specify the scope of it. A one-sentence email that says, "The state of the union is okay" would presumably be enough to satisfy that requirement. It was George Washington that first established the precedent of delivering a formal message in person before a joint session of Congress.

CBS provides a brief historical sketch, How the State of the Union address turned into a prime-time event CBS News 02/05/2019:

Here is the PBS Newshour video of the SOTU itself, Trump delivers 2019 State of the Union address 02/05/2019:

Here's the Transcript: Trump’s State of the Union, Annotated New York Times 02/05/2019.

And here are The Young Turks videos Bernie Sanders' response. Stacy Abrams of Georgia delivered the official Democratic response, a good speech but as forgettable as most of these responses are. (Stacey Abrams delivers Democratic response to State of the Union PBS Newshour 02/05/2019)

Bernie Sanders State of the Union Response 02/05/2019:

Bernie Sanders 2019 SOTU Response: TYT Analysis 02/05/2019: