Maschochists and the State of the Union Show

There has always been something very weird about State of the Union speeches in our time. A sitting president who, inevitably, has many enemies as well as friends in government assembles both groups in one large room. He then proceeds to orally whip his enemies in front of his friends and national television, and to suck up to his friends while snarling about his enemies right in their face. His friends applaud wildly. His enemies visibly suffer and scowl for the cameras; yet, now and then, the enemies also rise and applaud the president while being sure to maintain facial expressions that convey their contempt.

It's a very sado-masochistic scene. Not just for the congress-persons, every one of whom thinks he or she should be the one up there on the podium, dressed in leather and wielding a whip. It also must be tortuous for the president -- and his spouse.

As the president looks out and around the great hall of Congress no doubt he sees congressmen, senators, and supreme court justices he knows to be sniveling idiots, political cowards, shameless liars, sociopaths, crooks, and hateful proto-fascist monsters. And he has to smile at them. For the cameras. For us, the viewers.

It's but one more way illustrating how television is bringing ruin to America. The 'TV timeout' cripples football. The 'designated hitter rule' awkwardly alters baseball. So-called 'reality shows' that are anything but real distort reality in an era when even irrefutable scientific facts are disputed. And, then there is Fox News -- 'nuff said.

But ask yourself this: if all the swells on the Tee-Vee screen last night are masochists willingly submitting to pain in this grotesque prime time special, who do suppose are the sadists who like to watch?

The State of the Union address has become our equivalent of a Roman Coliseum show, pitting a courageous gladiator against the ignorant, vicious lions for the entertainment of the masses. That's us. The president acts courageous and at times magnanimous; the tortured metaphorically bleed on camera for our enjoyment. Last night, the only new wrinkle was that a right-wing Supreme Court justice joined in the unseemly fun.

As in ancient Rome, nothing much will change. Today, the lions will be back to being dumb beasts just hoping to make the president their next meal, and the president will be back to plotting how to rid himself of those meddlesome masochistic beasts.

It remains only for commercial television to insist that the President of the United States take a few commercials breaks every few minutes during the State of the Union Address. Then the show will be complete.