Obama’s challenge to you in the State of the Union address.
Did you hear the president this week? That’s the U.S. president. The one that counts.
And if you doubted it, there was President Obama in his final State of the Union address to let you know. “The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period. It’s not even close.”
So why do I think the speech was filled with what I call the rhetoric of regret?
Because this was not an “I have a list,” speech outlining an agenda. It was bigger than that.
This speech was about how Americans, including American Filipinos, need to think about themselves in the context of our changing democracy.
And while we’re at it, Filipinos in the Philippines ought to think about what democracy is about.
Because one of the molds of modern democracy is going through some questions.
And Obama raised it in his final SOTU.
Despite all the great things the president has done since he took office in 2009, there is this gnawing sense of how he could have accomplished if the nation wasn’t in the grips of a politics that needs fixing, a politics of fear.
He could have just focused on a list of accomplishments. There are many. But there could have been many more besides health care, climate change, the freedom to marry, cheap gas, the economy.
Remember back to 2008 when the world seemed to be falling apart, and Chicken Little was Chicken Big. Unemployment was around ten percent, mortgages were underwater. And people were scared of banks.
Well, in America we haven’t jailed any bankers. But the economy has gotten a lot better.
Now we’re just scared of terrorists and each other.
It was the speech’s two key themes for me: Fear and diversity.
America has become a phobic nation.
That’s why we got this speech for Obama’s final State of the Union.
The nation’s great. Our politics? Do you hear a giant sucking sound?
The speech was a vision of what our democracy and our politics could be like in a new America.
The president had to remind us, as if we were a country that had forgotten its civics lessons.
“We the People,” said the president. “Our Constitution begins with those three simple words, words we’ve come to recognize mean all the people, not just some; words that insist we rise and fall together. That brings me to the fourth, and maybe the most important thing I want to say tonight.
“The future we want–opportunity and security for our families; a rising standard of living and a sustainable, peaceful planet for our kids–all that is within our reach. But it will only happen if we work together. It will only happen if we can have rational, constructive debates.
“It will only happen if we fix our politics.”
We know what that means, as Obama seemed to point a finger at GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
“That’s why we need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion,” the president said. “This isn’t a matter of political correctness. It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong. The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith.”
The president continued: “When politicians insult Muslims, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid bullied, that doesn’t make us safer. That’s not telling it like it is. It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. And it betrays who we are as a country.”
Who are we? In state of the union addresses, the president usually likes to slip in what I call “the diversity litany.” More than a shoutout, it’s the reminder in these speeches that we are all one.
But this year, it came with a twist.
He talked about a future when he is no longer in office, when he’ll be one of us, a citizen, inspired by those who help see ourselves in a certain way and “who help us see ourselves not first and foremost as black or white or Asian or Latino, not as gay or straight, immigrant or native born; not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans first, bound by a common creed. Voices Dr. King believed would have the final word–voices of unarmed truth and unconditional love.”
Was he talking about us?
I like to call myself an American Filipino, and identify American first. But was Obama really lamenting the hope that never was, our faux post-racial America? After Obama, what kind of post-racial will we get?
In the framework he gave in his speech, getting things done in his remaining year isn’t enough. He’s thinking 10,15, 20 years from now.
And he’s putting it on the good people of the U.S.
If you are an American Filipino how will you answer Obama’s call?
With more politics of fear? Or in a politics that takes the word “united” seriously?
For someone so accomplished as Obama, this has become a standard refrain.
Working together. Bipartisan appeals. Fixing our politics. It has been an appeal throughout the Obama presidency.
Seems like I heard it first in 2009, when the president came to Washington.
I remember standing in the cold of Washington in January covering the inaugural, and wondering how long the euphoria I was witnessing would last.
Had that proverbial time come to American politics? Was the hell of politics freezing over? Or was any sense of achieving some new political plateau just temporary?
That inaugural week was a Washington I hadn’t seen before. People were high-fiving and excited. There was a kind of giddiness and a genuine spirit of cooperation. It was a country that had elected its first black president.
The feeling didn’t last long. But Obama’s still done a lot.
That’s what I was thinking throughout his final state of the union speech. Imagine how much could have been done if the country were truly united?
That would have made this last year a real victory lap.
Instead, we’re looking at the future, trying hard not to backslide into our fears.
Emil Guillermo is journalist and commentator based in Northern California. His book, “Amok: Essays from an Asian American Perspective” won an American Book Award. Contact: https://www.amok.com ; https://www.twitter.com/emilamok
