I didn’t watch last week’s State of the Union address, but I did read that there were some discourteous remarks from some of the “Honorable” members of Congress. NJ.com/Star-Ledger Washington correspondent Jonathan D. Salant wrote about it in another unlabeled editorial yesterday.
The recent comments brought to mind the incident in 2009 when, during another presidential speech to Congress, Representative Joe Wilson responded to one of President Obama’s comments, “You lie.”
Once one party does it, the other feels it has to follow. Even more egregious that these comments by individual members was the conduct of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi who ripped up the copy of the State of the Union address that President Trump handed to her. As Speaker Kevin McCarthy did not repeat the gesture, perhaps individual members thought they had to, what?, defend President Trump’s honor?
The State of the Union address is one of our few “state” occasions, with a bit of pageantry. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you must have realized that I am in favor of free speech. But that doesn’t mean that everyone is entitled to the same microphone. There is plenty of opportunity for the other party to respond, including prime time immediately after. And just because the government cannot forbid discourteous comments doesn’t mean that our elected representatives should engage in them. Let the President say his piece.
NJ.com used to allow readers to comment on articles. Every so often I feel a bit nostalgic about that feature, until I remember that most of the reader’s comments were . . . (well, let’s just say that they did not raise the level of public discourse).
The professional journalists are usually more courteous that the reader comments, but that’s to be expected. What I would really rather have is an actual discussion of the issues rather than the personalities. Ultimately name-calling does not advance the debate.
Jay Bohn
February 13, 2023