Circulating around all news outlets currently are the videos of President Donald Trump not shaking Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s hand. Along with that is the video of Pelosi tearing up her copy of Trump’s speech in front of the camera as the speech came to a close. As I watched these actions partake last night, the only word on my mind was “petty”. 

What is supposed to be a speech addressing and informing the public turned into a continuous spiral of dramatics between Democrats and Republicans. The faces on Democratic officials and overwhelmingly loud claps from Republicans spoke louder than words as the President gave his speech. Even President Trump was not exempt from this, as he criticized the previous administration during his speech, something that is never surprising. I felt as though the focus of the State of the Union address was not even to lay out to the people what our government is working on. 

Instead, all it did was show me how politics are more divided than ever. How can our government convince me that they will make changes for the better of the country when politicians cannot even get through an annual event without conflicting with each other? 

Besides the drama that occurred during the speech, there were some better moments. For example, when a soldier was reunited with his family everyone in the audience became emotional. Though those few sweet moments were taken over by the actions of the politicians.

If you were to turn on the news or go on a social media outlet right now, you would not be informed of the hopes and goals that were discussed in the speech, you will only see the drama that took place in the Gallery. What took place on the floor last night was nothing but another reality show.