It begins with a lie. An annual lie, repeated year after year, by President after President, whether Republican or Democrat. The President stands before a joint session of Congress and begins the State of the Union emphatically: “The state of our union is strong!”
We know that the President is lying, but we feel good about it all the same. The representatives and senators know he is lying, but they stand and applaud all the same. The President knows he is lying too, but he really has no choice. We, the people, insist that he lie to us, or risk being replaced by someone who will. It would be bad enough for us to realize that we are people who are addicted to the rush we get from being lied to, and that the President is our pusher. But there is a deeper problem.
In the effort to feel good about ourselves, we may have forgotten what “strong” really means. We may be confused because “strong” is a good word, and we are surely good people, so we feel we must be strong. But when the feelings pass, as feelings do, we are left with a word devoid of any real meaning, a word that needs to have meaning if we are going to carry on a serious conversation about how we, as a nation, should act.
We know in our hearts that our economy is not strong, no matter what gaudy Dow numbers crawl across our televisions. Seventy percent of GDP depends on consumer spending, while 45% of consumers are living paycheck to paycheck, and 70% have saved less than $1,000. As we have seen twice in the past twenty years, one serious shock to the system, and a massive government intervention is necessary to avoid a complete collapse, an intervention that inevitably results in a crippling debt burden for us, and for future generations. Still, we say our economy is strong.
We know in our hearts that our health care system is not strong, no matter how huge the profits of the big drug companies and big insurance companies, and no matter how many expensive medical procedures we now have available in our teaching hospitals. We spend twice as much on health care as any other developed nation, for inferior results. We have more COVID deaths that any nation on earth, a per capita death rate three times higher than Canada. Still, we say our health care system is strong.
We know in our hearts that massive defense spending does not equal a strong defense. We spent $1 Trillion in today’s dollars on the war in Vietnam, carpet bombing jungles in Southeast Asia, and lost to farmers riding bicycles, pulling rickshaws, and digging tunnels with picks and shovels. We spend billions of dollars on weapons systems the Pentagon does not need, or even want, because it will increase the chances that a politician will be re-elected. Hostile foreign governments hack into our most secure networks. On January 6, 2021, rioters broke into our Capitol, sent our elected leaders running for their lives, and triumphantly carried Confederate flags into the House and Senate chambers. Still, we say our national defense is strong.
Worst of all, we know that, aside from issues with our economy, our health care system, and our national security, our union is not strong. We are more divided than we have been since the Civil War. Each side foresees disaster if the other side holds the reins of government. We have learned that Daniel Patrick Moynihan was wrong – not only can we have our own facts, we insist on it. And still, we say that the state of our union is strong.
The lies we tell ourselves are worse than the lies we make our President tell us. When we use a word to hide from the truth, the truth gets blurrier. Have we gotten to the point where we don’t really know what strong means? Where a President is strong if he talks tough, makes grandiose promises he can’t keep, routinely lies to prop up his brand, never shows genuine emotion, and never admits a mistake? Maybe, in the end, we get the leaders we deserve.
