I wrote about this last year at this time, and I still stand by it...That news outlets treat the "rebuttal" to the state of the union with equal validity and importance is utterly asinine.  So I ask again, why is there a rebuttal to the State of the Union address? 

 Why do news organizations run them as if they have to for "equal time" requirements? The State of the Union address is mandated by the Constitution.  The very idea of a rebuttal is asinine.  Here is what the constitution says, "He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the state of the union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."    How can you rebut a constitutional duty?  It is THE PRESIDENT talking to congress about the state of the country and recommending legislation and action.  It is not Democrats shilling their agenda, then Republicans get to shill theirs.  That is a political debate... that is what "equal time" during a campaign is for, this is not a campaign speech.   Giving equal time to another political party for a constitutional duty is a bastardization of our government.  As far as I know, the words "2-party system" are not written into the constitution.  Nowhere does it say we should make false equivalencies between two interchangable political machines. 

Which party is in power matters not to me at all.  It is not that I think a Republican rebuttal is anymore unnecessary or useless than a Democratic one. The whole concept implies that the other party has something meaningful and useful to say on the state of the union (which is seldom the case) and reinforces the idea that there are only 2 ways to think on an issue, the Republican way or the Democratic way.   As long as both parties get to go in and out of power on an endless cycle of outwardly fierce bickering, yet inwardly essentially agreeing on many major issue (corporatism, increasing military spending, warmongering, increasing the national debt, keeping 2 and only 2 parties in power, amnesty for elites, bowing to Wall Street and Banks).  They both win every time and we lose... every time.  

We need to open our eyes and see that if we want to get out of the hole we are in we have to stop thinking Repub vs. Dem, it gives the false sense that one is right and the other is wrong... one is working for America's best interests and the other is not.  Political parties work for their own interests, WE need to work for America's best interests.  We need to evaluate and listen to THE PRESIDENT in a state of the union address; we do not need to evaluate and listen to a political party or hear them shill their product... that’s what the other 364 days of the year are for.