The Presidential address to Congress is the “After School Special” of American politics.
In the course of over two centuries of representative government, the President sometimes summons both houses of Congress to deliver an address that contains a “very special message.” It usually involves a “national crisis” or an “urgent threat” which “imperils our national character.” At the same time, the President asks to “stop bipartisan bickering” in order to “find a solution” so that “America can be strong again.”
In the end, we all learned an important lesson (cue the Full House moral music). Both sides decide to settle their differences. More often, they wait until the President stops spouting and continue business as usual. Besides, everyone hated that “Just Say No” episode of Punky Brewster, anyway.
I was thinking about these addresses as I was reading about the hubbub from President Obama’s recent address to Congress concerning health care reform. You would think that such an address would be effective, considering the exalted office and the rare instance of both houses sitting together.
History has proven otherwise.
Giving speeches to Congress is one of the few tasks of a President that is spelled out specifically in the Constitution.
“He 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;” – United States Constitution, Article 2, Section 3, Clause 1.
The “State of the Union” is the only speech the President has to do by law, and he doesn’t even have to show up. Notice that the Constitution doesn’t say “give a speech”, but rather “give to the Congress Information…” Thomas Jefferson thought giving a speech from the “Throne” was too much like the British monarch opening Parliament, so starting in 1801, he wrote his address to be read by clerks. This practice continued until Woodrow Wilson reverted to speechmaking in 1913.
Presidential addresses to Congress apart from the “State of the Union” were extremely rare. According to the clerk’s office of the U.S. House of Representatives, the President has only addressed both houses 61 times in American history. 60 of these speeches were given after 1913.
The first joint-session address was John Adams’ address of May 16, 1797. He addressed the legislature about the worsening relations between the United States and Revolutionary France. Since many of the legislators were pro-French, the address fell on deaf ears. This would not be the first time. Between 1797 and 1913 not a single speech was made by a sitting president to a joint session of Congress. Not even Abraham Lincoln—although the guy was painfully shy, so he gets a pass.
The real maelstrom of hot air begins in 1913 with Woodrow Wilson. The guy had it all: bookish snobbery, rabid racism, and a dipstick diplomacy that opened up for a second world war. Oh how he shared his book learning with the world: his 18 speeches before Congress is still a record, and it doesn’t even include his State of the Union addresses. He touched on everything: tariffs, currency reform, Mexican relations (before WWI, the Mexican Revolution was a big problem. The 1914 message was probably about Pancho Villa alone.), railroad disputes, and of course, that little problem out there called World War I.
Chief executives have been comparatively mum since old Woody left us in 1921. The following are some important Presidential speeches since 1913. You can judge how effective they are.
April 2, 1917 – Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Germany. On December 4th, just for good measure, he sneaks a war declaration against Austria-Hungary into his State of the Union address. You know, in case Germany felt lonely.
January 8, 1918 – Wilson again, this time at his dipstick best. Here he outlined his plan for peace in postwar Europe: his famous “Fourteen Points.” When the final treaty came up a couple years later, the Republican Senate, led by Henry Cabot Lodge, rejected it. This was probably the last time a Massachusetts senator voted against a Democratic President.
February 7, 1923 – Warren Harding addresses Great Britain’s mounting indebtedness to the United States. This is unremarkable, except to remind Americans when our money was actually worth something.
December 8, 1941 – Franklin D. Roosevelt asks Congress to declare war on Japan following Pearl Harbor. This time, Germany decides to jump the gun and declare war on us. You know, in case Japan felt lonely.
March 1, 1945 – Roosevelt delivers the results of the Yalta Conference, where FDR feebly called Stalin “Uncle Joe,” while Uncle Joe molested his nephews by keeping Eastern Europe for himself.
November 17, 1947 – Harry Truman outlines US aid to postwar Europe. Postwar Europe responds by purchasing tight-fitting sweaters, smoking filterless cigarettes and developing an anti-American attitude that would make Uncle Joe proud.
March 17, 1948 – In his address about European security, Truman told a packed House chamber: “Uncle Joe took WHAT??!!”
January 5, 1957 – Dwight Eisenhower delivers speech on the state of the Middle East. He says two words: “Fucked up.” He then corrects himself, “Sorry. Fucked up royally.” Ike makes his tee time at Congressional with time to spare.
May 25, 1961 – in his only non-State of the Union speech, John F. Kennedy addresses a host of “urgent national needs,” such as foreign aid, national defense, civil rights and the space race. He urges speedy resolution, as he senses he’s “on the clock.” In fact, he’s just being fellated by a stewardess under the podium.
March 25, 1965 – Lyndon Johnson addresses Congress on the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Southern legislators put fingers in their ears, pretending not to hear. An hour with Huey Newton and a ball-peen hammer makes them whistle a different tune—and it ain’t “Dixie.”
June 1, 1972 – Richard Nixon reports on his trip to Europe: “Yep, they still hate us.” Continues covering up Watergate.
October 8, 1974 – Gerald Ford speaks on the economy, learning the hard way that oil-rich Arab sultans do not accept mood rings as collateral.
April 20, 1977 – Jimmy Carter pleads with America to conserve on energy. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Mazda are the only ones who listen.
February 18, 1981 – Ronald Reagan wants to talk about economic recovery, but can’t remember.
April 28, 1981 – Reagan remembers what he wanted to talk about in February, inflation. His solution involves inflating Moscow with radioactive waste. Tip O’Neill chuckles politely.
September 11, 1990 – George H. W. Bush addresses Congress and the nation about the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. Bush can’t stand letting that precious crude go to waste. September 11 passes insignificantly for another 11 years.
March 6, 1991 – Bush comes back to announce that the war is over: he got his crude back. Good boy, Schwartzkopf.
September 22, 1993 – Before both houses of Congress and with the economy in the shitter, Bill Clinton takes a stab at health care reform. America goes ballistic and elects its first Republican Congress since the Truman years. Bill sticks to riding the coattails of a surging tech bubble. He also keeps his stabbing to young interns from now on.
September 20, 2001 – George W. Bush addresses a shocked nation reeling from the horrors of 9/11. He announces the creation of a “Director of Homeland Security.” At first, he wasn’t sure what this meant. After reading up on Heinrich Himmler and the Gestapo, Dick Cheney got the hint. He then filled in the boss with the details.
September 9, 2009 – Barack Obama takes another stab at health care reform, with an economy in the toilet and Americans disgruntled at his policies. Sounds a lot like 1993, doesn’t it?
The announcement of our winner of “History’s Greatest A**hole” contest will have to wait, as Mr. D needs to wax nostalgic about today’s anniversary.
Bring Back Social Studies – From the Pages of The Atlantic
The beginning of the end: President Bush signing NCLB at Hamilton H.S. in Hamilton, Ohio. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Even if you’ve said it a thousand times, it doesn’t hurt to say it again.
Mr. D’s much more industrious little sister, Dr. D (yep, she finished that doctorate!) drew my attention to this recent article from The Atlantic. The article advocates stopping the current trend towards neutering social studies as a distinct discipline in American education.
While the article itself breaks no new ground, it encapsulates the history and status of the issue well so that newbies to the struggle get an eye opener–whilst the veterans get a refresher course in the shitstorm that is No Child Left Behind.
Jen Kalaidis opens with the decline of student time spent studying social studies, to a whopping 7.6 percent. More importantly, she details the history of this decline–and contrary to popular belief, it didn’t happen in the Cold War.
Kalaidis does mention the 1957 Sputnik launch as a “Pearl Harbor” moment in American education. From that point on, millions of dollars poured into math and science programs to keep up the space race against the Commies. Yet to assume education was a zero-sum game at the time would be false: social studies did maintain its status through the Cold War, in fact peaking in 1993-1994 at 3 hours per week on average in US classrooms.
The reasoning is simple: the Cold War was more than just a technological race. It was a battle of ethics and morals, of hearts and minds. Social studies was at the center of that struggle, for better or worse. At its worst, social studies channeled jingoistic American patriotism into half-truths and propaganda. At its best, social studies provided the historical foundations, civic structure and critical analysis that helped shape a better America–one that could hopefully achieve that moral high ground against the Soviets.
The real decline came with No Child Left Behind–and here is where the article gets mundane.
To old-timers of the education wars, Kalaidis’ retread of the decline of social studies–the sacrifical lamb at the altar of Common Core, ELA, and STEM–is an old argument shouted out in hundreds of teacher lounges, conferences and workshops across the country. The emphasis on reading, math and science pushed social studies to a secondary discipline–one that was often not subject to standardized testing. If you couldn’t use a number 2 pencil, it wasn’t worth knowing.
We also all know how important it is to develop critical thinking and analysis skills, something social studies was designed for. If taught well, social studies makes students take ownership of history, of civics and economics, leading them to their own ideas, conclusions and opportunities.
One aspect of this decline that Kalaidis did mention–and should be mentioned more–is the “civic achievement gap.” The lack of civic education has created an underclass not only ignorant of their own government, but wholly unable or unwilling to vote, to participate in local politics or pursue careers in public service. As much as we rag on the government, we need one–a competent one–and that involves competent people working in all levels. To ignore the civic gap in low-income Americans is tantamount to disenfranchising them.
Lastly, Kalaidis does mention steps to move social studies back to the forefront. Obama has decried the lack of civic education in NCLB. So has Arne Duncan in a half-hearted article in the NCSS journal in 2011 (I ripped him a new one about it). Yet most of this is lip service, or that dreaded word integration (as in subject integration, not race).
The reality is that there is no concrete move to make social studies important again in American schools. And I hate to admit it–but the conspiracist in me thinks the decline of social studies is deliberate.
When the lunatics run the asylum, they make sure no one figures out they’re really lunatics. Without proper social studies education, there’s no way to tell the difference.
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