Trump’s audience in the House chamber isn’t the one that matters

OPINION — Let’s start with the fact that I’m writing this before, not after, the State of the Union. (Deadlines are sometimes inconvenient.) So, with that caveat in place, I’m going to suggest that whatever Donald Trump said in his speech, whatever antics the Democrats planned to distract and disrupt the proceedings, what matters most isn’t the reaction in the House chamber or the post-speech punditry. What matters is whether the president’s words and his vision for the future connect with a decidedly divided American public.It’s an understatement to say that there isn’t much that partisan America seems to agree on these days. Still, most voters — Republicans, Democrats and independents — would probably agree that State of the Unions are usually long, dull laundry lists of accomplishments and proposals, preceded in the days leading up to them by great expectations, at least inside the Beltway. Ask anyone on the street six months after Barack Obama[1]’s last SOTU or Donald Trump’s first to tell you what either said, and you’ll probably get more blank stares than recollections, good or bad.Historically, State of the Union speeches rarely deliver memorable presidential rhetoric, in part because they try to please so many audiences, each one judging the speech’s merits through a very different lens.Congress — Republicans and Democrats — will define the success or failure of the speech based on their partisan and ideological beliefs, and in the case of Trump, their personal feelings toward this controversial leader. If a president proposes lots of new spending to fund a rash of new programs, Democrats and the media, another audience, will praise its substance and vision.If the speech takes a turn to the right by looking to limit government and federal spending, Republicans will see the speech as a great success, while their opposition and the mainstream

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