Why Do We Watch the State of the Union Address?

If the past is prologue, President Biden should not expect to see significant results from his State of the Union speech. According to Gallup’s Jeffrey M. Jones, “Historical data suggests these speeches rarely affect a president’s public standing in a meaningful way, despite the amount of attention they receive.”And yet the Washington Post reports that the president had “the largest audience any US politician will have all year, absent some catastrophe that would require him to give a very different kind of prime-time address.” Why do so many of us watch? The answer is actually relevant far beyond last night’s speech.