From unity to propaganda: When leaders address the nation but ignore the people

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak 

The lineage of monarchical practices in political communication—used to convey authority and dominance—was normalized in American democracy through traditions such as addressing the nation, presidential inaugural speeches, and the State of the Union address. These forms of political communication have since become universal practices, adopted by leaders in many countries around the world. Idealist leaders often use such occasions to unify people, highlight achievements, address challenges, and set goals for the nation’s future. Progressive leaders, meanwhile, seize these opportunities to empower citizens and promote values such as secularism, science, and solidarity, thereby strengthening democracy and advancing citizenship rights. These ceremonial forms of political communication serve as crucial milestones, shaping national agendas and laying the foundation for a progressive present and a collective future.

However, populist, authoritarian, and hardline leaders often use these occasions as tools of narcissistic propaganda—a display of power, personal glory, and division. They exploit social, religious, political, economic, and cultural fault lines to shift blame and outsource their failures onto others. Such leaders consistently use public communication strategies to conceal their shortcomings and divert attention from the everyday struggles of working people. For them and their parties, these occasions become instruments to manipulate the masses in pursuit of political and economic self-interest, while governing ruthlessly in the name of patriotism and territorial nationalism. Ultimately, these practices marginalize citizens, erode democracy, weaken everyday aspirations, and diminish trust in the state, governments, ruling parties, and political leadership.

Conservative leaders and their political parties operating within market-driven democracies use communication strategies to manipulate voters’ minds during elections. Their goal is to capture state power, advance regressive agendas, and safeguard the interests of capitalist markets. In such contexts, governance systematically undermines the working population while privileging the rich and powerful. Populist and authoritarian leaders, in particular, exploit the practice of addressing the nation to focus on abstract yet emotionally charged issues—such as migration, Muslims, terrorism, sovereignty, religion, and national culture. These narratives distract citizens from their everyday struggles and fundamental needs for survival and aspirations for growth.

During the era of liberalization, privatization, and globalization, democracies were severely undermined by capitalist market forces, which forged alliances with undemocratic and authoritarian leaders and parties. These developments eroded the conditions necessary for deepening democracy. Political communication became a tool to normalize illiberal forces within society, territorializing, deterritorializing, and reterritorializing populations according to the shifting needs of capital. The alliance between capitalism and authoritarian political leadership frequently deploys aggressive nationalism to justify wars and conflicts. Such strategies serve to stabilize capitalism and its relentless processes of accumulation.

The economic, political, and social marginalization created by capitalism has forced working people to migrate, either within their own countries or abroad, while imperialist conflicts and resource wars have turned many into refugees and destitute populations. These forced migrants are often used as pawns in political debates, deployed to manipulate public opinion and conceal the failures of conservative politics and capitalist economies.

In recent years, the everyday needs of the people—their empowerment, and their progress along the path of secularism, science, peace, and prosperity—have largely disappeared from political leadership’s addresses to the nation. These speeches have become strategies to speak at the people rather than for them. Instead of reflecting citizens’ concerns and lived realities, they often ignore those concerns in the name of patriotism, nationalism, and notions of racial or religious purity, all in pursuit of dominance and control.

“Politics sans people,” “economy sans labour,” “work sans workers’ interests,” “religion sans spiritual solidarity,” and “culture sans collectivity” represent five pillars of contemporary capitalism and its political environment, which undermine democracy, secularism, and citizens’ rights in the relentless pursuit of profit. Political communication today is often used by leaders to advance the strategies of capitalism, reinforcing its hierarchical and exploitative pyramid of wealth and power.

Digital capitalism and its platform economy have reignited divisive political propaganda, undermining the unity of working people. Political leaders, in collaboration with their capitalist allies, exploit these digital platforms to accelerate profit—often at the expense of people and their communities by promoting exclusionary projects. Therefore, it is crucial to listen carefully to leaders’ addresses to the nation, in order to discern which politics truly serve the working masses and to challenge propaganda across platforms. The hollowness of such political discourse—promoted by leaders in the name of “addressing the nation” and “national interests” while forgetting the people—must be exposed. Only then can democracy be reclaimed in a way that genuinely serves both the people and the planet.