One more time, with feeling
by Tom Sullivan
President Obama makes his final State of the Union address tonight. Word is his speech will be aspirational, not the usual laundry list of policies that make up such speeches. Whether the aspirational speech will be inspirational is another matter. The Washington Post writes that the speech will attempt to address the “fear and anger” driving both candidates and the 2016 electorate:
To that end, the White House has promised a “non-traditional” speech that, in the president’s words, will cut through the “day-to-day noise of Washington” and celebrate the country’s capacity “to come together as one American family.” Instead of a to-do list of policy proposals that have little chance of passing Congress, he has said he plans to deliver a speech that will describe “who we are” as a nation — or perhaps more accurately, whom Obama, in the last year of his presidency, would like us to be.
Coming together as one American family? That is aspirational. Politico had more background:
The president initiated the State of the Union draft-writing process two months ago with instructions to his staff that he wanted this speech to be different from all the rest: no legislative agenda to set himself up for failure in front of a GOP Congress, no reflective legacy-thumping that would make him start to seem like the lame duck he’s desperate not to be.
Democrats no doubt would rather have a cheerleader-in-chief in an election year and hold the reflection. The country is not in the mood.
A South Carolina Democratic state representative, John King, was expected to introduce a resolution in Columbia after a Muslim woman protesting silently was ejected from a Donald Trump rally in Rock Hill on Friday:
On Saturday, King said that he was “sick to his stomach” at Trump’s treatment of the woman. According to The Herald, King planned to file the resolution against Trump on Monday to take a stand on behalf of the residents of York County and all of South Carolina.
“Donald Trump is a race-baiting, xenophobic bigot and is not welcome in the state of South Carolina,” the proposed resolution read, echoing the words of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Kumbaya, y’all.