HAS THE TELEVISED STATE OF THE UNION OUTLIVED ITS USEFULNESS

The U.S. Constitution mandates in Article II, Section 3, that presidents "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 Constitution offers no specifics on how that should be done. The practice of sending written notices to Congress was begun by George Washington and continued for more than a century, when Woodrow Wilson began the tradition of delivering the annual message in person on April 8, 1913.
Calvin Coolidge delivered the first speech broadcast on radio in 1923. Harry S. Truman's address in 1947 was the first broadcast on television. Lyndon B. Johnson recognized the importance of having a national audience when he moved the speech from mid afternoon to prime time in 1965 to attract the largest number of TV viewers.
The State of the Union Address, as it is now called, has become a partisan political event, No longer is the address an accurate reflection on the true “State of the Union.” The report has lost any sense of reality. Problems the nation is facing are not accurately reflected but are politically reported to affirm the that the party in power is performing in the best interest of the country while the other party is determined to destroy the country.
The State of the Union Address, as it is now delivered, has become a political spectacle. The less that the true state of the American people is reflected the less seriousness it receives. It is following the road that the entertainment self-glorifying spectacles have taken; no longer honest and truthful and less and less interesting to the public.
It is time to end the meaningless televised spectacles and once again fulfill the Constitutional requirement of a report in writing. Hopefully this will become an honest reflection of the state of the union so hopefully the situation can be dealt with honestly by honest and reflective individuals who truly hope to fulfill their duties of making our nation more secure from foreign and domestic enemies and more free for our citizens. We the people must elect individuals to be our representatives that understand their duty is to protect the American public from its enemies both foreign and domestic, while protecting and promoting a society that is more free from government regulations, strangulation's, and confiscation of the peoples assets and talents.