I'm a digital pack rat of sorts; I've still got clips of George W. Bush's weekly radio addresses, never mind his SOTU addresses. I don't even think I listened to most of the weeklies a first time because of time constraints. I wasn't hoarding for its own sake. I always intended to work on the backlog of clips as time permits (much like I'm doing on GML podcasts). The problem is I never really find the time.to whittle down the stockpile, not to mention they become stale and irrelevant over time. And the stockpile only grows over time.
So besides the obvious need for digital spring cleaning, one clear lesson is deciding which clips to retain in the first place. And one of these is the annual State of the Union address. I probably stopped watching them during Obama's first term, judging by my tags over the history of the blog. I think I just snapped when Obama called out SCOTUS (in response to the Citizens United decision). If I'm really vested into a speech or debate, I may parse the transcript and discuss an abridged number of talking points in detail. Over the last decade or so in the blog I simply wrote a few tweets about soundbites or clipped some review videos. I may have watched a few without comment, maybe while writing a blog post. I do recall seeing Pelosi ripping up her copy of Trump's 2020 speech. This year I intentionally avoided it--and/or pulling up a readily available transcript.
Brion McClanahan will tell you for much or most of our history we haven't had one delivered in person. Jefferson started sending written addresses, until Woodrow Wilson revived in-person. There were/are occasional gaps, e.g., Coolidge through FDR and post Presidential change election years, e.g., last year.
Why have I tuned out? In part it's because they have become predictable and formulaic, but mostly it's been my emerging libertarianism and disdain for the imperial Presidency. You have the typical invited visitor with an inspirational story, the planted applause lines, a partisan policy wish list, etc. These speeches rarely break new ground. There''s also a recency bias, i.e., the focus on the invasion of Ukraine. Constitutionally I think policy should originate from the Congress; the Presidency has a vested interest in an unconstitutional delegation of authority. He needs to focus on his limited enumerated authority of faithfully executing the laws and protecting the nation.
I surprised myself by not watching a second of the Winter Olympics, not even the opening or closing ceremonies, which I often find compelling. No, this wasn't a political statement against the Chinese repression of the Uighurs, which of course is unconscionable. And I didn't like the diplomatic posturing, i.e., the Biden diplomatic boycott. I see the games as more individual/team accomplishments than "USA! USA!" nationalist orgasms.
In the past I had some mild interest in women's figure skating, speed skating, and the occasional hockey game, especially when American athletes were in contention (although I break the stereotype of hockey-obsessed Franco-Americans: I've never been on skates). Not even the doping allegations surrounding Russian female figure skater Kamila Valieva got me to tune in to her later competitions. But to be honest, I don't watch the competitions outside the Olympics anyway, so really I'm just being more consistent.
