State of the Union and standing ovations?

[Adde]

I saw a couple of minutes of the state of the union speech for the first time (usually no big coverage here in Sweden). What's the deal with the repeated standing ovations? Ok, it's for show, but to me it looked plain silly and embarrassing, and made me switch channel very soon. Way to demagogic. Please explain it to me as if I were not from the US (I'm not).

Adde

[tek]

I think their parents taught them that from their Hitler days, but I'm not positive...

[Dynasty]

It's simply the culturaly established way to show strong support for a political statement during a speech.

[Koller]

[ QUOTE ]
It's simply the culturaly established way to show strong support for a political statement during a speech.

[/ QUOTE ]

Josif Stalin®

[lastchance]

It's kinda dumb, though, isn't it? It more than doubles the length of any State of the Union.

[Adde]

It's simply the culturaly established way to show strong support for a political statement during a speech.

Stupid culture. Support means nothing when it is programmed like this. As for the procedure, it reminds me of the tale of the emperors new clothes; no one dare to tell how stupid it looks.

Adde

[Dynasty]

[ QUOTE ]
It's kinda dumb, though, isn't it? It more than doubles the length of any State of the Union.

[/ QUOTE ]

So what if it doubles the length of the speech. The speech's goal isn't the economical use of time. It's to move forward politcal goals.

As for the "stupid culture" and other radical responses, I get the impression you guys simply haven't got a good grasp on how to persuade people in a political environment.

[Adde]

As for the "stupid culture" and other radical responses, I get the impression you guys simply haven't got a good grasp on how to persuade people in a political environment.

Not unthinkable. I'm a rookie in OTP. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Nevertheless, if it looks stupid, if it feels stupid, if it tastes...

Adde

[_2000Flushes]

[ QUOTE ]
It's simply the culturaly established way to show strong support for a political statement during a speech.

Stupid culture. Support means nothing when it is programmed like this. As for the procedure, it reminds me of the tale of the emperors new clothes; no one dare to tell how stupid it looks.

Adde

[/ QUOTE ]

Adde, the ovations may indeed be grossly inefficient, but you discredit yourself with uninformed comments like the one above.

The applause isn't to show support of the president, rather to show support for what he just said. His opponents may at times applaud while his own party sits or even jeers. Basically, it is a system that has developed over the years through which Congress indicates how likely they are to comply with the president's objectives in the coming year. If you follow Congressional politics closely, then you can actually learn a lot from the applause.

What amazes me is that the media express surprise every single year when the speech goes twenty minutes longer than it did in rehearsal.

-2kF

[andyfox]

It's the tradition. Always been that way sinc ethey started televising hte speech. Same thing with introducing the President twice and the handshakes when walking out the door.

It played better, I think, before Vietnam and Watergate.