I used to treat the State of the Union as a civic responsibility. It was a moment to hear policy direction, to evaluate leadership, to judge whether Congress was doing its job.

Today it often feels like spectacle layered on spectacle. Counter events, boycotts, viral moments, and endless commentary can distract from the simplest and most revealing thing: letting people watch for themselves.

This piece is about how we got here, what changed, and why sometimes restraint is the most powerful political response.

#Politics #Democracy #PoliticalCulture #StateOfTheUnion #CivicResponsibility #AmericanPolitics

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