We live in a dangerous world. Civilizations rise and fall in the span of a few hundred years, earthquakes and giant waves change the face of landscapes, and some people wear hats made of tinfoil to ward off government surveillance. The United States, a country born from rebellion, knows just how easy it can be to topple their government. On nights like the State of the Union address, when all of Congress gathers to listen to the President, they make sure that at least one person takes a sick day.
We have all seen the tropes from Cold War America’s defence plans. Infamously, they created defence strategies for everything, including the potential invasion of Canada, just in case we canoed across Lake Superior and tried to burn down the White House (again). In addition to their aggressive defence plans, they implemented another precautionary measure in the farfetched, yet presumably plausible, event that the Soviet Union were able to massacre the top brass of congress and the subsequent members of concession in one stroke; the designated survivor.
The designated survivor is an appointed member of Congress who, when the whole of Congress meets, is arranged to be far away from the proceedings in the capitol. If the worst is to happen, and all the people in the presidential line of succession are to perish, the designated survivor takes the reins as Commander-In-Chief of the United States of America.
There are some very convoluted rules regarding the appointment of the survivor. For example, if there is a secretary of the cabinet also absent at the time of the disaster, that member, not the designated survivor, will take the reigns as president. Whoever becomes president in this circumstance will be granted highly classified information such as nuclear launch codes—traditionally contained in a briefcase nicknamed “the nuclear football”—what really goes on in Area 51, or maybe even the colonel’s secret recipe, because America would definitely be at war.
During the State of the Union address on Jan. 12 2016—most likely President Obama’s last—81-year-old Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah was the appointed designated survivor. In a picture posted by TIME in an article on the subject the amused look on Sen. Hatch’s face says it all. The likelihood of something traumatic happening of the same calibre as the looming nuclear winter that was feared during the Cold War is unlikely. Hatch’s sly smile seems to be showing reporters that he was going to be much more comfortable while he watched the address from a couch somewhere far away than anyone else attending the address that evening.
In the event that the position of designated survivor is needed, we will most likely have a lot more to worry about than who is hiding in one of the government’s many bunkers, but for now, we can all share in Hatch’s mirth in this hangover from the war that thankfully never happened.