The State of the Union is tonight. This will be President Trump’s next to final address to the nation unless he wins another term later this year. A tabulation of all television “news” broadcasts in the final two months of 2019 shows 93% of all stories about President Donald Trump and his administration were negative (worse than 2017 and 2018, both at 90%). Very little has been said about the economy, about employment numbers, about historic employment across every minority demographic or the positive new trade agreements put into place. Nothing has been said about the number of Federal Court judges confirmed in the last three years. We hardly hear about our newfound energy independence and being the number one exporter of energy. There was some news about the USMCA finally getting through the House and some about the phase 1 China deal. However, the last five months of 2019 and all of 2020 thus far have been almost solely focused on impeachment. Oh, and maybe a little bit about the debacle taking place in Iowa on the Democrat side of the aisle. Even Chuck Todd got caught on a hot mic calling it, “an F’ing disaster!”
To be clear to my friends on the Left, we have fun with this annual event and this associated blog post. Since we are called Freedom Cocktail, we enjoy coming up with new rules and requirements around our annual drinking game. And to top that off, for the first time, I will be broadcasting live on WSB 95.5 in Atlanta immediately following the close of the SOTU until 1AM, taking callers and giving my personal analysis of the speech. For those interested, WSB streams on it’s free WSB Radio app, the iHeartRadio app or by telling your Alexa to, “Play WSB radio.” It’s quite an honor to be on the number one station in Atlanta, which is the 7th largest market in the country.
Tonight ought to be interesting, given how badly the Democrats have bungled the impeachment process and the Iowa caucus. It will also be interesting to see if the president mentions either of those events over the course of the evening. Personally, I’m going to bet Nancy Pelosi is already three sheets to the wind drunk just to be able to stand being within a few feet of President Trump.
Within a few minutes following the SOTU, we will be treated to the Democrat response, usually written ahead of time. It’s always fun to see how much they get wrong. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has the unenviable task of delivering that response. Whitmer has embraced expanding health care as one of her top priorities. That should be fun.
So, let’s get to it! What is the State of the Union drinking game? It’s simple. Take a moment and think about all of the words/phrases you might expect the President to use during his State of the Union and put them down on paper. As an option, you can choose to add a second column, detailing just how much you drink each time that word or phrase is uttered. Maybe it’s a shot! Maybe just a sip. You decide. You can also add things like the number of times Nancy Pelosi sneers or fails to clap. Consider adding how many times you hear boos or cat-calls coming from the Democrats. Let your creativity wander and have fun.
Here’s the list I’ve been working on for tonight:
Words, phrases or actions that result in taking a sip (liquor or wine) or a swallow (beer):
- Buh-lieve me
- Any use of the phrase “it’s the greatest”, “never been greater”, “greatest ever” etc…
- Horrrible (as in deal, candidate, person, etc…)
- Takes a deep breath or an obnoxious sniffle into the microphone
- CHI-nah
- Mentions the number of judges confirmed by the Senate
- Mentions taking out any terrorist leader
- Pulling troops out of Syria and other places
- Putting an end to “endless wars”
- Appears to go off teleprompter
Items that require a shot (or several large swallows of wine or beer):
- For each boo or cat-call or other opposition shouts from Democrats
- For every scowl/head shake Nancy Pelosi gives to any of Trumps stated accomplishments
- Anytime he can get the Democrats to stand and clap — for anything outside of his entrance or his exit
- If we catch Ruth Bader Ginsburg or any of the SCOTUS nodding off in the front row
I’ve said this before. I wish we would go back to when the President would simply write out his State of the Union, present it to Congress and then have it shared on social media for all of us to read at our leisure. It’s likely never going to go back to that. But, on the brightside, if they did go back to the old way, we wouldn’t have an excuse to get totally hammered!
For supporters of the president, this will be a way to celebrate. For his detractors, it’s a way to cope with your sorrows.
Finally, if you are interested, I’ll be real-time tweeting as much as I can throughout, so follow me on Twitter (@alanjsanders) and see how bad my typing gets by the end! I’ll just blame it on Siri. Then tune in to WSB 95.5 and AM 750 to hear first reactions.
Cheers!
Freedom Cocktail 