Did you watch this week’s State of the Union address? 

I sure as hell didn’t. I phoned a friend, played a computer baseball game (OOTP – I highly recommend it!) and cleaned some of the mess on my desk.

Three years ago, we were in Palm Springs when President Biden delivered the speech. His detractors – and even some supporters – wondered if he’d become too addled to stay focused. Biden proved to be pretty sharp and the speech bolstered his standing in the polls.

And that’s the problem.

Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution contains this line about the role of the president: “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.”

There are three things that are archaic about that sentence. The first was noticed immediately by any woman who reads this blog. The second was the unnecessary Capitalization of select Nouns.

The third is the whole damn speech.

Tuesday night was a spectacle. Trump spent a record one hour and 47 minutes telling us how great he is, how lousy Democrats are and tarnishing any glow the U.S. men’s hockey team earned by winning the gold medal in Milan.

But let’s be fair. It’s not just Trump who has made the State of the Union anything but what the founders intended. The speech has been a political event more than an actual government function for a long time. 

Republicans heckle Democratic presidents. Democrats heckle Republican presidents. The presidents get their speechwriters to deliver gotcha lines to garner headlines – back in the day of newspapers and broadcast news – and memes, for social media today.

But does any president actually give Congress information about what’s going on in or concerning the United States of America?

You and Congress already know. It’s on TV or online. It’s in the e-mails and texts you get from friends, family and organizations you support. 

All the president does is either repeat the facts or, too often in Trump’s case, tell you not to believe your eyes and ears.

That wasn’t the case when Alexander Hamilton was singing about taking his shot while helping to craft the Constitution in 1787 (OK, he probably wasn’t singing, but I’m having a fond flashback about seeing “Hamilton” with my daughter.)

Up until the early 20th century, the president probably did reveal things in the State of the Union about what was happening in this country. Of course, up until the 20th century, the president also didn’t generally deliver a State of the Union speech – it was Woodrow Wilson, in the first year of his presidency, who began a tradition of an in-person address to Congress.

Until that time, the president sent a letter to Congress meeting the requirements of Article II, Section III. 

But Wilson’s appearance came at the dawn of the broadcast age. It was on radio and it was a way to emphasize the second part of Article II, Section 3 – “and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”

Over the past 113 years, that’s what it has become. A free political ad for a president’s agenda. A chance to get his message to the American people without the filter of analysis or context that journalists provide.

What a waste of time and energy! Nothing was accomplished by Trump’s speech except that his supporters heard what they wanted to hear and we detractors found another reason – as if we needed it – to get ticked off that this buffoon holds the nation’s highest office.

Wouldn’t you rather have seen a new episode of “High Potential” on ABC or the season premiere of “NCIS” on CBS? Or a good college basketball game? Or the replay of a spring training game?

Because you were more likely to learn something about the state of the union from any of those broadcasts than from hearing Trump spew.

If there’s going to be an effort to amend the U.S. Constitution after the Trump debacle – and I’m beginning to think there really needs to be, since in many ways this document is failing a stress test – it might be that time to time has run out for the State of the Union.