Until the early 20th century American Presidents used the word ‘I’ more than ‘We’ in their State of the Union addresses, but since the 1920s most Presidents have taken care to use ‘We’ more than ‘I’.
While Truman’s 1951 & ’52 speeches had a higher % of ‘We’ than ‘I’, Washington (1796), Madison (1810) & Arthur (1882) did not use a single ‘We’ in their respective State of the Union speeches.
What do you think could have triggered this change in the pattern? Was it the atmosphere of war? Economic ambitions? What else could be the reason?
Here’s another version with a blend of comic elements.
