The Presidential State of the Union Address is a famous tradition dating back to the first president, George Washington. The State of the Union is directly outlined in the Constitution, where it is stated that the president is required to regularly update Congress. In the address, the president reports on the past year, the status of the country, and outlines his policy plan for the next year. While President Trump’s speech before Congress on Tuesday was not technically a State of the Union address, since he hasn’t been in office for a year yet, it is being referred to as one and was even followed by another lesser known tradition, being the State of the Union response. Most people have probably heard about the State of the Union address, even if they’ve never seen it before. Most people probably haven’t heard of the State of the Union response, despite the fact that it has been a tradition for 50 years.

The State of the Union Response is a speech given by a chosen representative of the political party opposed to the sitting president, following the State of the Union address. In it, the opposing party outlines its rebuttal to the president’s agenda. The rebuttal to Trump’s Tuesday speech was given by the former governor of Kentucky, Steve Beshear, a democrat.

The thing that makes this rebuttal so important and so incredibly underrated is the fact that it creates something that is seemingly rare in politics today: a dialogue. It is so rare that the two sides present civil counter arguments to each other without it resorting to ad hominem attacks and other sorts of personal accusations that bypass the substance of the actual argument. The State of the Union is extremely important because it is the President’s plan for the next year. The response is equally important because it outlines the other side of the country’s plan for the next year. The public should pay as much attention to the rebuttal as they do the actual address.