Someone should tell the Democrats in D.C. that public service is not a piece of performance art.
But spectacle is Job #1 as several congressional Democrats, including our own Senator Ed Markey, plan to boycott President Trump’s State of the Union address next week. Instead they’ll join “The People’s State of the Union” on the National Mall. Why even attempt to reach across the aisle and pursue consensus when polarization plays so much better in the media?
“The State of the Union should be a reckoning with reality, but Donald Trump will use it to spin fiction and normalize the gross abuse of power. He will claim everything is fine while families struggle to afford health care and housing, immigrant communities live in fear, and his billionaire allies loot the country under the cover of chaos – I will not legitimize those lies,” Markey said in a press release.
That would have been a fine rebuttal after the speech, and he would be more than welcome to do so. It would have made a tidy soundbite for one of Markey’s campaign ads.
But this moment isn’t about continuing our country’s democratic traditions, it’s about resistance in front of cameras. With the exception of booing, that’s not as easily done from a seat in the House Chamber. Unless of course, everyone has a copy of the speech and does a Nancy Pelosi-esque synchronized shredding.
“The People’s State of the Union” isn’t a small gathering of the disgruntled before some mics. MSNBC personalities Joy Reid and Katie Phang will host, and Markey will be joined by at least a dozen members of Congress, and according to the press release, other elected officials, leaders, and advocates.
The New York Times reports that House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is encouraging Democrats to either boycott the speech altogether or sit through it silently, rather than splitting lawmakers between both events and creating “distractions in the House chamber.”
We’re way past “distractions.” This is the party where “disruption” is a given.
Here’s what the Dems are missing: the State of the Union is address is entrenched in our history. President George Washington delivered the first in 1790. It’s in the Constitution.Article II, Section 3.
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 members of Congress hearing this address don’t have to like it, they don’t have to agree with it or even admire the president delivering it. It isn’t about them. It’s about continuing a democratic tradition. They are free to criticize post-speech to their heart’s content, and rail against whatever policies the president puts forth.
But taking your ball and going home, or in this case down to the National Mall, is more petulance than statesmanship. Yes, voters will notice their rally, and that includes some of the 77 million people who cast their ballot for Trump. It also includes Independents, and others who are looking for strong leadership as we head into another presidential election.
Spiking the ball in the name of political polarization isn’t a good look.
