
Every January, the sitting American president comes before the American people and their duly elected legislative representatives and gives a report about the State of the Union . A combination of constitutional requirement, national tradition, and political posturing, these moments also provide us with a reliable annual marker for how things are going. Say what you will about the institution itself or the various men who have held it, but the regular meeting of the chief executive with the mass public's representatives (and, through technology, indirectly with the people themselves) closes the democratic loop in an important and laudable [...]