One of the things that always surprised and confused me about teacher college was that there was never a speech course required. Don't get me wrong, I personally found great value in paying thousands of dollars for other courses where I was trained how to use outdated software on a computer that was obsolete a decade prior. But it has always seemed to me that effective communication – the ability to actually transmit the material you want someone to learn and understand – is among the most important skills a prospective teacher can acquire. Yet it's not centered in the coursework of any education major, and it often shows.
I'm beginning to think the same thing is happening within the current state of American politics. I don't remember a time in my life where I've been so slack-jawed at the incredible paucity of effective communicators who so regularly climb the dais and leave us all feeling like Mark Wahlberg:
This reality doesn't find universal application, obviously. Barack Obama was a fabulous orator, comfortably commanding the stage. No, I didn't swoon or find myself persuaded by any of his speeches, but I always knew what he was conveying. Even if his content was vacuous, his ability to articulate points, to make a person believe both he and they understood one another, to convince disinterested parties that he knew what he was talking about, was unrivaled in our current era.
On the opposite side of the political spectrum, I don't know that I've ever seen as polished and prepared of a State of the Union Address response as Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered last Tuesday. Again, the Left may disagree with what she was saying, but how she said it was as impressive as it was effective.
But while there are bright spots on both sides of the aisle, there is a dark specter of incompetent oratory that hangs over our political world like a lead balloon. There's the obvious embarrassment that pours from the lips of the president himself with depressing regularity. I can't imagine there has ever been a less precise, less crisp, more poorly articulated State of the Union Address than President Biden's last week. It was an unholy mess - some freakish combination of slurred words and speed-reading, all with a relentless cycle of repeated phrases. I'm told that his 12 declarations to "finish the job" was an intentional rhetorical device. And that's what I mean about complete lack of skill – it was delivered in such a way that it seemed more of a nervous, verbal tic.
His second in command is somehow even worse, having forged a reputation as an oratorical hobo, meandering through the fields, unsure of where she is, what she's doing, where she's going, or how she's going to get there. For instance:
Or more recently:
No one can fairly assume she sounds this way because of an intellectual deficiency. She may know what she's trying to say, or what the speechwriter who put it on the TelePrompTer is trying to say. But she simply can't communicate it.
Some could argue, I suppose, that a man or woman can still be an effective leader even without being a great communicator. Others have pointed to Calvin Coolidge, who was a legend in the White House, presiding over one of the greatest eras of economic prosperity in history. "He never spoke," they contend, so what's the big deal? Well, the big deal is that while Coolidge was often silent, when he did have an occasion to speak, he did so effectively and succinctly.
But even if this "they're elected to lead, not speak" argument was a reasonable excuse for Biden and Harris personally, how do we explain this:
This woman, Karine Jean-Pierre, has one overarching job description: communicate. Yet this woman, Karine Jean-Pierre, has one glaring weakness: communication.
How does that not reflect horribly on her bosses – meaning Joe Biden, yes. But also meaning us, the American people. This is who we are paying handsomely to communicate effectively and efficiently to the media and the world about our nation's priorities and projects. Good heavens.
If that isn't a perfect representation of the lack of competence and clarity Americans now suffer under, I don't know what is.
