State of the Union Address
The State of the Union Address (SOTU ) is an annual event at which the President of the United States , at a joint session of the two chambers of Congress , delivers a government statement giving his assessment of the state of his country. He also uses the opportunity to present his own upcoming legislative initiatives. Like the swearing-in ceremony, this speech usually takes place in January, but occasionally as late as February. In the years when a new President takes office, there is usually no State of the Union Addressin the Congress building, but instead a speech on the occasion of the swearing- in, which is held in the open air in front of the building.
In its origins, it is modeled on the British monarch's Speech from the Throne and follows a dictum from the Constitution addressed to the President:
"He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."
"He shall, from time to time, report to Congress on the state of the Union and recommend any action for deliberation which he considers necessary and useful."
The Constitution does not prescribe what form the report should take, what it should contain, or how often such reporting should be done. Just as each president's style of government had its own signature, so too did they use the freedom that the constitutional provision allowed them to deliver this speech.
story
The first State of the Union address was delivered by first President George Washington on January 8, 1790 in the provisional capital of New York . It was still under the impression of the recent founding of the state, with the revolutionary general of the War of Independence appealing for unity among the former colonies in the disputes over federalists and democratic republicans .
Thomas Jefferson , who ruled the country from 1801 to 1809 and always resisted any pomp and any appeal to old monarchical forms, introduced the tradition preserved until 1913 that the president no longer read his speech himself, but only wrote it down and the sent to Congress, where it was read by an official. Length, content and rhetorical forms varied in the episode; While domestic politics and the problems surrounding slavery and secession initially dominated, America's foreign policy role increasingly came to the fore from the end of the 19th century.
Woodrow Wilson's return to the old format of delivering the speech himself in 1913 was maintained by all subsequent Presidents. Up to and including 1934, the speech was given in December. With the passage of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution in January 1933, the Congressional legislature was brought forward from March to January and the time of the speech was moved to the beginning of it.
Today, the speech is usually given on the last Tuesday in January, although there are no binding regulations for this date and there are exceptions to this in individual cases. This has happened only twice in history: Ronald Reagan postponed his speech scheduled for January 28, 1986 by a week when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded around noon of the same day. Donald Trump 's speech in 2019 was postponed by almost a week due to disagreements in the budget dispute and the associated longest government shutdown in the history of the United States, as Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi did not officially invite Trump to hold a joint session of Congress.
In 1922, Warren G. Harding 's speech was broadcast over the radio for a small audience; that of his successor Calvin Coolidge in 1923 was the first to reach a national audience. In 1947, Harry S. Truman 's speech began to be broadcast on television. Lyndon B. Johnson 's 1965 speech was the first to be aired on evening programming to reach a larger audience. Since 2002, George W. Bush 's speech on the State of the Union has also been available as a live stream on the Internet.
Speeches of special importance
- In his State of the Union address on December 2, 1823, President James Monroe formulated the Monroe Doctrine of importance for future United States foreign policy .
- During World War II , President Franklin D. Roosevelt formulated the “ Four Freedoms ” on January 6, 1941 .
- On January 23, 1980 , President Jimmy Carter declared the Persian Gulf region a US " sphere of influence ."
- President Ronald Reagan introduced the doctrine that bears his name to the public in his speech on February 6, 1985 .
- On January 29, 2002, in his first State of the Union address after the September 11 attacks , President George W. Bush counted North Korea, Iran and Iraq as part of an " axis of evil ".
course of the speech
In the State of the Union Address, the President traditionally outlines the achievements of the past year and refers in optimistic tones to his plans for the coming year. Recently, important foreign statesmen or American citizens have often taken part in the event as guests in the boxes, to whom the President then refers in the speech.
The President is not authorized to enter the Chamber without the permission of Congress. From a formal point of view, he must therefore be invited to his speech by the Congress. Upon entering the chamber, the President is greeted by the Sergeant at Arms of the United States House of Representatives with the words: "Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States! " the United States! ) announced. Greeted by a standing ovation, the President then proceeds to the podium and, before the speech begins, hands one copy each to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and to the Vice President in his capacity as Speaker of the Senate . If one of the two persons is unable to attend, the next higher-ranking member will represent him at the meeting. You sit behind the President during the speech.
The Justices of the Supreme Court , members of the Cabinet and the Joint Chiefs of Staff attend the gathering, emphasizing the act of state character of the whole. In order to be able to guarantee the continuity of state leadership in the event of an accident, one member of the cabinet stays away from the speech as a so-called “ designated survivor ” (expelled survivor). Since the attacks of September 11, 2001 , it has also been customary for at least some members of Congress to remain in an undisclosed location for the duration of speeches, to be available in case the Capitol becomes a target.
When the loud reception from those gathered has died down, the Speaker of the House of Representatives gives a few bangs of his gavel to signal that the actual ceremony of the speech is about to begin. The President is introduced to the House by the Speaker, there is another brief round of applause before the President begins his speech.
The speech itself is now supported by the use of a teleprompter and lasts a little over an hour on average, with repeated pauses in which passages are commented on by applause from those present, sometimes by all those assembled, on more partisan topics mainly by the party of the President.
reaction of the opposition
It has been a tradition since 1966 for a representative of the opposition to respond to the President's speech. This is usually broadcast from a studio without an audience. In 2004, Bill Richardson , the Democratic Governor of New Mexico , presented his response in Spanish . President Barack Obama 's formal first State of the Union address on January 27, 2010 was answered by Republican Governor of the State of Virginia Bob McDonnell , the second on January 26, 2011 by Paul Ryan and the third (January 24, 2012) by the Indiana State Governor Mitch Daniels . Senator Marco Rubio responded to Obama's fourth speech . Cathy McMorris Rodgers responded to Obama's fifth speech (2014).
In the states
Based on the State of the Union Address, the governors of the US states also give annual speeches to the legislature at the beginning of the year . Within the framework of this State of the State Address , similar topics are dealt with in relation to the individual states in front of their parliaments.
literature
- Ryan Lee Teten, The Evolutionary Rhetorical Presidency: Tracing the Changes in Presidential Address and Power. Peter Lang, Cham 2011, ISBN 978-1-4331-1542-4 .
- Ryan Lee Teten: Evolution of the Modern Rhetorical Presidency: Presidential Presentation and Development of the State of the Union Address. In: Presidential Studies Quarterly. Vol. 33, No. 2, June 2003, ISSN 0360-4918 , pp. 333–346.
- Elvin T Lim, Five Trends in Presidential Rhetoric: An Analysis of Rhetoric from George Washington to Bill Clinton. In: Presidential Studies Quarterly. Vol. 32, No. 2, June 2002, ISSN 0360-4918 , pp. 328–366.
web links
- State of the Union Addresses 1790-2008
- www.whitehouse.gov/sotu
- https://de.usembassy.gov/en/report-on-the-state-of-the-nation-2019/
- www.usembassy.gov
itemizations
- ↑ Kaitlyn Schallhorn, Trump delays State of the Union: Other times the address has been postponed or not given at all. January 24, 2019, retrieved February 1, 2019 (US English).
- ↑ Robert Yoon, CNN Political Research Director: State of the Union firsts - CNNPolitics. Retrieved February 1, 2019 .
- ↑ Jimmy Carter : The State of the Union Address Delivered Before a Joint Session of the Congress. In: ucsb.edu , The American Presidency Project. January 23, 1980, retrieved July 14, 2018 (English).
- ↑ George W. Bush : The President's State of the Union Address 2002. In: whitehouse.archives.gov . January 29, 2002, retrieved July 14, 2018 (English).
- ↑ spiegel.de January 25, 2012: Obama switches to attack