tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/nancy-reagan-37308/articlesNancy Reagan – The Conversation2020-02-24T13:44:30Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1301642020-02-24T13:44:30Z2020-02-24T13:44:30ZTrump White House goes 300+ days without a press briefing – why that’s unprecedented<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316632/original/file-20200221-92497-1ar3a2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C39%2C5138%2C3642&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The White House logo is displayed in the press briefing room of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 31, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-white-house-logo-is-displayed-in-the-press-briefing-news-photo/1197857412?adppopup=true">Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Journalists learn to adapt to current conditions, be they storms or tantrums, vagaries of nature or whims of officials. White House correspondents these days should be well past their withdrawal symptoms from the daily delirium of the once-regular White House press briefing. </p>
<p>Earlier this year, as <a href="https://www.poynter.org/newsletters/2020/300-days-without-an-official-white-house-press-briefing-audiences-forgive-advertisers-americas-best-sports-writing/">300 days passed without a formal briefing</a>, a bipartisan group of past administration press secretaries called for restoration of the daily briefings. </p>
<p>“Bringing the American people in on the process, early and often, makes for better democracy,” they said in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/10/opinions/ex-press-secretaries-open-letter-on-press-briefings/index.html">an open letter on CNN.com</a>. </p>
<p>“The process of preparing for regular briefings makes the government run better. The sharing of information, known as official guidance, among government officials and agencies helps ensure that an administration speaks with one voice,” the former spokespersons said, adding that this is particularly important in foreign and military policy.</p>
<p>Beyond the daily digest of the president’s activities, not all of which is public, reporters look to the briefings for depth and context for their reporting. They expect the White House press secretary and other officials to speak knowledgeably and authoritatively for the president and his administration. </p>
<p>For example, when the coronavirus outbreak was detected in China, reporters wanted to hear government officials explain what the U.S. government was doing to get Americans out of China and to keep the virus out of the U.S. </p>
<p>On another day, the press secretary could provide a corrective along the lines of “What the president meant to say….”</p>
<p>There is no requirement to hold White House press briefings, nor to have them televised. Now, what once was part of the routine of government in Washington is, in the Trump administration, barely seen at the State Department and Pentagon and a fading memory at the White House. The country is left with a singular voice – the president’s – but no idea whether he represents government consensus.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316643/original/file-20200221-92493-1pi3mbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316643/original/file-20200221-92493-1pi3mbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316643/original/file-20200221-92493-1pi3mbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316643/original/file-20200221-92493-1pi3mbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316643/original/file-20200221-92493-1pi3mbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316643/original/file-20200221-92493-1pi3mbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316643/original/file-20200221-92493-1pi3mbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316643/original/file-20200221-92493-1pi3mbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham (L) and Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley. Grisham has never given a press briefing as press secretary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/white-house-press-secretary-stephanie-grisham-and-deputy-news-photo/1198272429?adppopup=true">Getty/Chip Somodevilla</a></span>
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<h2>Protecting the president</h2>
<p>The relationship between the president and the press is now <a href="https://apnews.com/fa141b3b08f14921875f7719cd2ec942">more confrontational and more contemptuous</a> than it has been in decades. </p>
<p>But while the press and the presidency have a long relationship, it has <a href="https://www.cjr.org/analysis/the_president_and_the_press.php">not necessarily been a cozy one</a>. When Richard Nixon was president, for example, he had his <a href="https://thehill.com/capital-living/20243-journalist-recalls-the-honor-of-being-on-nixons-enemies-list">“enemies list” that included journalists</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/analysis/pundits.prose/bierbauer/index.shtml">I covered the White House for CNN</a> during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Reagan was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/14/magazine/the-president-and-the-press.html">well protected from the media by his staff</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/08/opinions/nancy-reagan-gergen/index.html">first lady Nancy Reagan</a>. We shouted questions at him over the whir of helicopters. Bush was affable and considerably more accessible.</p>
<p>Donald Trump dominates when he engages with the White House press corps. He chooses when and how, of course, but that’s always the case with presidents.</p>
<p>Regular press conferences had a protocol and, at least, a measure of decorum. The president still decides whose questions he’ll answer. Trump’s preference for impromptu exchanges, commonly on the White House driveway, makes the press look like a shouting mob, which sometimes they are. </p>
<p>Trump, by most assessments, functions as his own press secretary. Those who hold the actual title – <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/tracking-turnover-in-the-trump-administration/">three, so far</a> – learned it’s a foxhole from which one raises his or her head into the president’s verbal line of fire. </p>
<p>The first, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/us/politics/sean-spicer-resigns-as-white-house-press-secretary.html">Sean Spicer</a>, was out of sync on day one with <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/24/fact-check-inauguration-crowd-size/96984496/">disputable claims over the size of Trump’s inauguration crowd</a>. The second, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/24/us/politics/sarah-sanders-arkansas-governor.html">Sarah Huckabee Sanders, regularly battled with the press corps</a> – and the truth – from the podium in the briefing room. Sanders held her last briefing on March 15, 2019. </p>
<p>“I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway,” <a href="https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1087733867614781446?lang=en">Trump said</a>. </p>
<p>Sanders’ successor, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/477815-ex-white-house-press-military-officials-call-on-grisham-to-restart">Stephanie Grisham, has held none</a> as of this writing and shows no inclination to.</p>
<p>“The press has unprecedented access to President Trump, yet they continue to complain because they can’t grandstand on TV,” <a href="https://www.axios.com/press-secretaries-white-house-briefings-8776f868-e14b-462e-bf86-bea299d9c170.html">Grisham told Axios</a>. The most prominent reporters, especially from television, have the most visible front row seats in the compact briefing room and tend to ask the most questions.</p>
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<span class="caption">White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, surrounded by the media, answers questions Jan. 22, 1998 during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/white-house-press-secretary-mike-mccurry-surrounded-by-the-news-photo/51642325?adppopup=true">Getty/Joyce Naltchayan/AFP</a></span>
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<h2>‘Line of the day’</h2>
<p>When I arrived on the White House beat in 1984, the reporters’ pattern was to gather in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/reagan-spokesman-larry-speakes-dies-at-74/2014/01/10/2e113276-7a4f-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html">Press Secretary Larry Speakes’</a> office around 8:15 a.m. for an informal background briefing. It was a useful way to figure out where the day was headed. </p>
<p>By that time, the primary administration offices had decided what “the line of the day” would be. On a good day for the administration, they held the line. When other news broke, the discipline of the line tended to fall apart.</p>
<p>The formal briefing was around midday, on the record, but rarely on camera. TV was allowed to shoot only the start of the briefing just to get brief video for the day’s newscasts. President Clinton’s press secretary, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/july98/mccurry24.htm">Mike McCurry</a>, acceded to media demands for regular live televised briefings. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-white-house-press-secretaries-advocate-no-live-coverage-of-briefings/">McCurry later thought</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/the-white-house-briefing-has-been-dead-for-six-months">better of it</a> and joined former George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer in 2017 in saying the briefings should be taped and shown later, not live. </p>
<p>“Better for the public, the WH & the press,” Fleischer tweeted in what he called a “joint tweet” with McCurry. </p>
<p>Briefings could be chummy or churlish. <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/crossing-larry-speakes">Speakes had a habit of declaring reporters “out of business”</a> if he disagreed with their premise or line of questioning. “Don’t call; don’t hang around my office,” he’d say. It was a badge of honor for reporters. We’d call the chief of staff instead. </p>
<p><a href="https://journalism.ku.edu/marlin-fitzwater">Marlin Fitzwater</a>, who served both Reagan and Bush as press secretary, described us as just scratching at the surface of the iceberg. But he could be helpful by indicating what part of the iceberg to scratch at. </p>
<h2>White House retreat</h2>
<p>Press secretaries wear three hats, serving the public, the press and the president. It’s the president, of course, who has first claim on their attention.</p>
<p>In Trump’s case, it’s the press secretary who has been put out of business, or at least business as usual. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/stephanie-grisham-is-not-the-worst-ever-white-house-press-secretary-heres-why/2020/01/10/405340bc-33be-11ea-a053-dc6d944ba776_story.html">Grisham unapologetically serves him</a>. She’s not known for being particularly helpful off camera. Sanders had a better relationship with the press outside the combative briefing room.</p>
<p>This is not an issue rising from the First Amendment, which proscribes Congress from making any law “abridging the freedom of the press.” </p>
<p>The White House has, instead, retreated from the practice of preceding administrations. It’s a presidential prerogative to decide when and how to communicate to public constituencies. Other administrations have sought ways to circumvent the media filter. </p>
<p><a href="http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/firesi90.html">Franklin Roosevelt broadcast his fireside chats</a>. <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/presidential-documents-archive-guidebook/the-presidents-weekly-address-saturday-radio-from">Ronald Reagan began the tradition of delivering a weekly radio address</a>. Donald Trump tweets.</p>
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<span class="caption">In October, 1982, President Ronald Reagan made a radio address from his ranch in California’s Santa Ynez mountains.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/santa-barbara-calif-president-ronald-reagan-makes-radio-news-photo/515129218?adppopup=true">Getty/Bettman</a></span>
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<p>When the president himself talks to the media extemporaneously, it’s more difficult to complain that the press secretary won’t. What falls by the wayside, though, is the policy and detail that can be conveyed by officials responsible for either creating or communicating government’s business. </p>
<p>Context and accountability are lost. It’s a temptation for future presidents.</p>
<p>Fitzwater titled his post-White House memoir “<a href="https://www.scribd.com/book/387797866/Call-the-Briefing-A-Memoir-Ten-Years-in-the-White-House-with-Presidents-Reagan-and-Bush">Call the Briefing</a>.” No one on the president’s staff is calling regular briefings these days. There are other briefings that take place at the White House, but not the daily regimen of the press secretary’s briefing.</p>
<p>But there hasn’t been a lack of stories from and about the Trump White House.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130164/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Bierbauer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A longtime White House reporter describes what’s lost when the relationship between the press and the president is bad and once-routine press briefings aren’t held.Charles Bierbauer, Distinguished Professor and Dean Emeritus, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1311242020-02-05T17:13:44Z2020-02-05T17:13:44ZTrump’s excess and extravagance turned the State of the Union into an action movie<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313644/original/file-20200205-149738-g2rvg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address at the Capitol on Feb. 4, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-delivers-the-state-of-the-union-news-photo/1198670782?adppopup=true">OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>State of the Union addresses are supposed to be boring speeches. </p>
<p>Actually, they are not required to be speeches at all. <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii">The U.S. Constitution requires only</a> that the president “from time to time give to the Congress information on the state of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”</p>
<p>Before Woodrow Wilson, almost every president wrote this all up and then sent the document to Congress. After Wilson decided to deliver his as a <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/did-you-know-woodrow-wilson-and-state-union%5D(https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/did-you-know-woodrow-wilson-and-state-union">speech to Congress on Dec. 2, 1913</a>, every subsequent president did, too.</p>
<p>But most of these speeches were still boring, mostly lists signaling policy priorities, often organized by what the president had done the previous year, still wanted to do, and would need from Congress in the coming year. </p>
<p>What President Trump did in his State of the Union address was not boring or staid. He departed from some rhetorical traditions of the presidency, as audiences have come to expect from him.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313639/original/file-20200205-149738-1kczxy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313639/original/file-20200205-149738-1kczxy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313639/original/file-20200205-149738-1kczxy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313639/original/file-20200205-149738-1kczxy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313639/original/file-20200205-149738-1kczxy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313639/original/file-20200205-149738-1kczxy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313639/original/file-20200205-149738-1kczxy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313639/original/file-20200205-149738-1kczxy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">President Woodrow Wilson giving the 1913 State of the Union address to Congress.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2868007239/">Library of Congress, originally from Bain News Service</a></span>
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<h2>Looking presidential</h2>
<p>Because presidents after Wilson addressed members of Congress in person, they tended to say they needed help from all of Congress, and thus this speech became a time when even partisan presidents would be expected to call for bipartisanship. </p>
<p>This way, the speech could be used as evidence that a president was trying to reach across the aisle.</p>
<p>Almost everybody, especially Congress, knew that the reaching across the aisle was coming, even if almost no one, especially Congress, planned to follow through. It was part of the routine. Predictable.</p>
<p>What has been far less predictable has been the effect of the mass media – especially television – on this particular speech. </p>
<p>Calvin Coolidge was the game-changer on this point. In 1923, he became the first sitting president to make a national radio address, and the speech was his <a href="https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-6-1923-first-annual-message">state of the union</a> that he delivered to a joint session of Congress. </p>
<p>Especially after the rise of television– and even more so in an era of social media’s quick takes and visual focus – the president could increasingly be <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/eloquence-in-an-electronic-age-9780195063172?cc=us&lang=en&">expected to sound and look presidential</a>, including by making calls for bipartisanship. </p>
<p>But the exciting part was to watch the live audience, which is to say, Congress. Today viewers expect a partisan Congress to engage symbolically and act for the screen: to coordinate colors of attire, to stand up, sit down and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/09/joe.wilson/">even talk back to the president</a>, as Republican Congressman Joe Wilson did to President Obama in 2009. </p>
<p>Historically, then, while the speech itself can still expected to be boring and staid, the audience participation is not.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313784/original/file-20200205-149762-g5700q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313784/original/file-20200205-149762-g5700q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313784/original/file-20200205-149762-g5700q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313784/original/file-20200205-149762-g5700q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313784/original/file-20200205-149762-g5700q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313784/original/file-20200205-149762-g5700q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313784/original/file-20200205-149762-g5700q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313784/original/file-20200205-149762-g5700q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sgt. Townsend Williams (R) waves alongside his daughter and his wife Amy (L) after returning from deployment in Afghanistan during the State of the Union.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sgt-townsend-williams-waves-alongside-his-daughter-and-his-news-photo/1198674116?adppopup=true">MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hyperbole rules</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH0a-2Vi3O4">President Trump turned up the volume</a> of his own rhetoric and audience engagement so much so that I would argue he symbolically stepped out from behind the podium and became part of the cheering section. He did this in two main ways.</p>
<p>First, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/us/politics/state-of-union-transcript.html">he used his characteristic combination</a> of self-references and superlatives, patterns mastered on the campaign trail. That language made the State of the Union much more excessive linguistically than this speech’s tone typically is. </p>
<p>Dropping in short sentences about what you have accomplished as points for partisan applause is expected. Making these claims drip so heavily with adverbs and adjectives and action verbs is not. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313785/original/file-20200205-149747-mw66z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313785/original/file-20200205-149747-mw66z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313785/original/file-20200205-149747-mw66z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313785/original/file-20200205-149747-mw66z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313785/original/file-20200205-149747-mw66z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313785/original/file-20200205-149747-mw66z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313785/original/file-20200205-149747-mw66z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313785/original/file-20200205-149747-mw66z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rush Limbaugh gestures after being awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump as he delivers the State of the Union address.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/radio-personality-rush-limbaugh-gestures-after-being-news-photo/1198673112?adppopup=true">MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“From the instant I took office, I moved rapidly to revive the U.S. economy — slashing a record number of job-killing regulations, enacting historic and record-setting tax cuts, and fighting for fair and reciprocal trade agreements,” he said shortly after the speech began. </p>
<p>A few minutes later, when discussing his administration’s impact on the economy, he added, “(and) very incredibly, the average unemployment rate under my administration is lower than any administration in the history of our country.” </p>
<p>Note that nothing here is merely an accomplishment or point of pride for Republicans to share. The tone instead is closer to an action movie, with a hero who “slashes” and “very incredibly” performs feats never before seen in the “history of our country.”</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313648/original/file-20200205-149762-6644wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313648/original/file-20200205-149762-6644wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313648/original/file-20200205-149762-6644wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313648/original/file-20200205-149762-6644wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313648/original/file-20200205-149762-6644wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313648/original/file-20200205-149762-6644wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1170&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313648/original/file-20200205-149762-6644wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1170&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313648/original/file-20200205-149762-6644wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1170&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Old days: Page 85 of President Abraham Lincoln’s Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862, which was read aloud not by Lincoln, but by the Secretary of the Senate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/sotu/lincoln.html">Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, RG 233.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This language is characteristic of Trump’s campaign rallies but not State of the Union addresses. </p>
<h2>Extravagance is key</h2>
<p>The second choice he made on Tuesday made clear he wanted to be in and with the crowd and its frenzy rather than behind a podium. </p>
<p>From a symbolic standpoint, he actually went into the crowd to give out amazing, unexpected, and big prizes: an “opportunity scholarship” for Philadelphia fourth-grader Janiyah Davis; the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh; and an Army sergeant’s emotional homecoming to his young family, the Williamses of North Carolina. </p>
<p>While Ronald Reagan started the tradition of telling the <a href="https://theconversation.com/look-out-for-the-skutnik-during-trumps-state-of-the-union-109762">stories of invited guests</a> in the gallery, Trump went further, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/special-guests-for-president-trumps-3rd-state-of-the-union-address/">reaching up into the gallery</a> visually with the presentation of these surprises to make his presence – and his impact – known.</p>
<p>[ <em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131124/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanessa B. Beasley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The self-references and superlatives used by President Trump made his State of the Union much more excessive linguistically than this speech’s tone typically is.Vanessa B. Beasley, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/747992017-03-30T02:17:27Z2017-03-30T02:17:27ZWhy it’s important to just say no to bad drug policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162778/original/image-20170327-3308-bvh42r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Attorney General Jeff Sessions</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump/e24f1f52cced452b87ad2005c72cf0f9/4/1">AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In all the discussions about the proposed health care law, it was easy to overlook a statement made by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 15: “I think we have too much of a tolerance for drug use – psychologically, politically, morally… We need to say, as Nancy Reagan said, ‘<a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/just-say-no-ag-sessions-cites-old-school-anti-drug-n733961">Just say no</a>.’”</p>
<p>It seems obvious. When someone offers you drugs, just say no. Yet research has shown that this slogan and accompanying campaign from the mid-1980s, spearheaded by then <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQXgVM30mIY&list=PLxXhRidY1cGX2-467e3lK2dbpFKcVGlpn">First Lady Nancy Reagan</a>, was not only ineffective, it was also closely aligned with the War on Drugs, which gained new traction under President Ronald Reagan. This effort to prevent and reduce substance misuse and addiction <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/cron/">focused on white, middle-class children,</a> and wound up demonizing others, particularly African-Americans.</p>
<p>This War on Drugs movement, punctuated by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 signed by President Reagan, also brought with it the enactment of <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/cron/">mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses</a>, which further criminalized drug use, even low-level drug offenses. Furthermore, mandates under this act were racially fueled, creating and perpetuating racial and economic disparities in incarceration rates related to <a href="http://newjimcrow.com">drug use and addiction</a>. These disparities continue today.</p>
<p>Attorney General Sessions’ statement aligns with his stated commitment to increase the number of private prisons, as in February 2017, he revoked the directive by President Obama to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-revokes-plan-to-cut-use-of-private-prisons-1487896642">reduce the number of for-profit prisons</a>. President Obama also was working on <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/05/politics/obama-commutations-sentencing-reform/">reducing prison time for nonviolent drug offenses</a>, moving toward a model of treating addiction more holistically, rather than criminally. Between Sessions’ statements about our country being too tolerant of drugs and his plans to expand private prisons, we appear to be heading back toward criminalizing addiction, rather than treating it. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162779/original/image-20170327-3279-13hnrgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162779/original/image-20170327-3279-13hnrgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162779/original/image-20170327-3279-13hnrgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162779/original/image-20170327-3279-13hnrgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162779/original/image-20170327-3279-13hnrgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162779/original/image-20170327-3279-13hnrgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162779/original/image-20170327-3279-13hnrgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From 1987, then First Lady Nancy Reagan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/YE-Deaths-2016/8ac5a0e690fa4d678eb5ee6abd9112ab/1/0">AP Photo/Scott Stewart</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ineffective substance misuse prevention strategies</h2>
<p>Over the past three decades since the “Just Say No” campaign was initiated, the science behind effective strategies to reduce and prevent substance use initiation has strengthened. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, for example, has a Strategic Prevention Framework that identifies multiple <a href="http://store.samhsa.gov/shin/content/SMA10-4120/SMA10-4120.pdf">evidence-based prevention principles</a>. </p>
<p>The science has also demonstrated that pure education and knowledge-based efforts, which is the premise of the programs that came out of the “Just Say No” campaign, <a href="http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.94.6.1027">are not effective</a>. At best, messages that came out of this era are too simplistic; at worst, they demonize people who use illegal drugs, which is shortsighted, given that in 2016, almost half of 12th grade students in the U.S. reported having used <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/trends-statistics/monitoring-future/monitoring-future-study-trends-in-prevalence-various-drugs">illicit drugs</a>. </p>
<p>This tactic also ignores the reasons people start using drugs or become addicted to drugs in the first place, which may include genetics, trauma and other risk factors. That’s why effective strategies must include more than knowledge – they are skills-based, interactive and recognize that different approaches are necessary for different age groups and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027273581500152X">stages of development.</a> </p>
<p>Treating drug use and addiction criminally is misguided. Addiction is complicated and getting off of drugs takes more than willpower. Because the brain changes in response to continued drug use and dependence, it <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/addiction-science">becomes very hard to stop.</a> But addiction can be successfully treated through various methods <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/treatment-approaches-drug-addiction">(for example, medication, behavioral therapy, etc.)</a>, and should be. </p>
<h2>Not the answer for drug use prevention</h2>
<p>“Just Say No” is clearly not the answer to the current opioid epidemic, either. Prevention strategies need to do so much more than tell young people to literally just say no to drugs. </p>
<p>This mantra is part of movements that treat addiction as a <a href="https://consumer.healthday.com/mental-health-information-25/addiction-news-6/drug-addiction-seen-as-moral-failing-survey-finds-692298.html">moral failing</a> rather than a medical and social issue. In my opinion, going back to this philosophy will set the work in substance misuse prevention back decades.</p>
<p>I agree with Attorney General Sessions that we should “just say no,” but I disagree with the target. </p>
<p>We should just say no to antiquated, ineffective and regressive strategies and policies for drug misuse prevention, and to demonizing complicated behaviors that are often initiated out of trauma, for capital gains in the prison system. Sessions, it seems, wants to further stigmatize and criminalize trauma. To this, I just say no.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74799/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margie Skeer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently echoed the 1980s philosophy to ‘just say no’ to drugs. It’s important to remember, however, that the policy was ineffective.Margie Skeer, Associate Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.