Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Why is the State of the Union always ‘strong’?
Why is the State of the Union always ‘strong’?
Jan 15, 2026 11:02 AM

I have a can’t miss prediction: tonight, when President Trump gives his first State of the Union address, he will describe the state of the union as “strong.” (I’ve made this prediction on this blog the past several years, so I’m hoping for a quadfecta of prescience tonight.)

Admittedly, predicting that the state of our union will be described as “strong” is about as safe a bet as you can make when es to politics. Over the last hundred years presidents have described the State of the Union (SOTU) in various ways — Good (Truman), Sound (Carter), Not Good (Ford). But it was Ronald Reagan who started the “strong” trend in 1983 by referring to the SOTU as “Strong, but the economy is troubled.” Since 1983, “strong” has been used to refer to the SOTU in 29 addresses.

Here is howthe state of the Union has been described over the past hundred years:

2016: Strong (Obama)

2015: Strong (Obama)

2014: Strong (Obama)

2013: Stronger (Obama)

2012: Strong (Obama)

2011: Strong (Obama)

2010: Strong (Obama)

2009: Stronger than before (Obama)

2008: Strong (Bush)

2007: Strong (Bush)

2006: Strong (Bush)

2005: Confident and Strong (Bush)

2004: Confident and Strong (Bush)

2003: Strong (Bush)

2002: Never been stronger (Bush)

2001: Strong (Bush)

2000: Strongest it has ever been (Clinton)

1999: Strong (Clinton)

1998: Strong (Clinton)

1997: Strong (Clinton)

1996: Strong (Clinton)

1995: Stronger than it was two years ago (Clinton)

1994: Growing stronger but it must be stronger still (Clinton)

1991-92: [Status of the SOTU not specified] (Bush I)

1990: Sound and strong (Bush I)

1988: Strong, prosperous, at peace, and free (Reagan)

1987: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Reagan)

1986: Stronger than a year ago and growing stronger each day (Reagan)

1985: Stronger, freer, and more secure than before (Reagan)

1984: Much improved (Reagan)

1983: Strong, but the economy is troubled (Reagan)

1982: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Reagan)

1981: Sound (Carter)

1980: Depends on the state of the world(Carter)

1979: Sound (Carter)

1978: Sound (Carter)

1977: Good (Ford)

1976: Better–in many ways a lot better–but still not good enough (Ford)

1975: Not Good (Ford)

1974: At peace with every nation of the world (Nixon)

1973: Sound, and full of promise (Nixon)

1969-1972: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Johnson, Nixon)

1968: Challenged (Johnson)

1966-67: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Johnson)

1965: Depends, in large measure, upon the state of the world (Johnson)

1950-1964: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson)

1949: Good (Truman)

1948: Reflects the changing nature of the modern world (Truman)

1928-47: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Coolidge, Hoover, FDR, Truman)

1927: In general is good (Coolidge)

1926: One of general peace and prosperity (Coolidge)

1925: One of progress and prosperity (Coolidge)

1913-24: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Wilson, Harding, Coolidge)

Note: Speeches given in 1989, 1993, 2001, 2009, and 2017 were not technically “State of the Union” addresses, which start a year after presidents have been in office.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Is the New Right Just the Old Left?
A collection of essays by New Right thinkers has a lot to say about what is wrong with the “establishment Right” and America itself. But their solutions ironically reflect a neglect of constitutional order that got us in our current state to begin with. Read More… In his introduction essay to Up from Conservatism, a collection of essays by “New Right” authors, editor Arthur Milikh remarks that “the goal of this volume is to correct the trajectory of the Right...
Lovers of Truth: C.S. Lewis and Elizabeth Anscombe
The great Christian apologist, scholar, and novelist C.S. Lewis died 60 years ago today. Among his many memorable exchanges was one with philosopher G.E.M. be. The legacies of both would inform the faith and intellectual contributions of generations to follow. Read More… It was a night that would live in infamy. The great debater and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis was defeated by a woman—and a young Roman Catholic upstart philosopher at that. Except that’s not quite what happened. The indefatigable...
The Little Corporal Gets a Little Film
Director Ridley Scott has made a film about Napoleon that will never be described as Napoleonic. The director of such film-fan favorites as Blade Runner, Alien, and Gladiator has apparently met his Waterloo. Read More… Among all art forms, the movies have the greatest propensity to glorify violence, brutality, and savagery of all sorts. Because the medium is inherently kinetic, cinema captures the thrill, terror, and barbarism of battle; and because it is empathetic, cinema trains audiences to identify with...
The Resurrections of Doctor Who: Why the Time Lord Has Endured for 60 Years
The beloved sci-fi TV show Doctor Who is entering its seventh decade. The secret to its success is surprising. Read More… The publicists at the BBC weren’t thrilled, one imagines, when their Doctor Who leading man spoke candidly about why he loved the program so much. “People always ask me, ‘What is it about the show that appeals so broadly?’” Peter Capaldi said in 2018. “The answer that I would like to give—and which I am discouraged from giving because...
Thank God for Virtue
To whom ought we to be thankful—and for what? Ask Abba Isaac. Read More… Each night, when it’s my turn to tuck in my littlest kids—Erin (5) and Callaghan (3) … and sometimes Aidan (6)—we say the same traditional prayers together: the “Our Father,” the “Axion Estin,” and the Creed. After the Creed, I ask them, “What are you thankful for tonight?” and “Who should we pray for tonight?” They’re always thankful for their mom. They’re usually thankful for each...
Put Down the Phone and Pick up the Psalms
The disembodied, unreal reality of our digital age threatens to rob us of an authentic existence. A new book offers solutions short of throwing our iPhones in the trash. Read More… Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age makes pelling argument. Its author, Samuel James, asks readers to consider how long it’s been since they’ve checked a phone for notifications, or whether they’re in the habit of checking email while talking with people in person—or checking texts while...
The Capitalist Manifesto
Entrepreneurs of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your quintiles! Read More… Fulton Sheen once remarked that “not over a hundred people” hate the Catholic Church, but “there are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church.” The same might be said for free market economics. While attacks on capitalism abound, many of them are in fact critiques not of capitalism but of a misunderstanding of capitalism. That is why every generation...
Reforming the Sword of Justice
A new book offers biblically based arguments for reforming the criminal justice system without succumbing to the Scylla of indifference or the Charybdis of “defund the police” utopianism. Read More… In Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal, Matt Martens has written an indispensable guide for Christians engaging with questions of criminal justice reform. While Dagan and Teles’ Prison Break: Why Conservatives Turned Against Mass Incarceration had outlined the hopeful story of bipartisan, and even conservative, criminal justice reform in 2016,...
Mental Illness and the Suffering Word
A searingly personal and poignant account of a battle with mental illness and how Word and Liturgy can calm the mind will speak both to sufferers and those who e alongside them. Read More… He knows. This John knows. How? Has he peered down into the bottomless pit in the middle of the Wilderness? Seen the Stranger trapped in a small iron Cage lowered on a long iron chain so far into the darkness that only a pinprick of light...
Religious Freedom Upheld in Finland—Again
A prominent Member of Parliament and a Lutheran bishop have been found not guilty of “hate speech” for publicly quoting Scripture and confessing their Christian faith in Finland. But is their trial really over? Read More… In Finland, a prominent politician and a Lutheran bishop have been acquitted of hate crimes for the second time in as many years. On November 14, 2023, the Helsinki Court of Appeals issued its unanimous decision that Finnish Member of Parliament Dr. Päivi Räsänen...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved