In his final State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Barack Obama deployed many of the rhetorical tools standard for such a speech: He recounted the country’s achievements over the last year, laid out an agenda for the future and admonished Congress to help him with this work. The president departed from tradition, though, by setting his sights beyond policy goals and achievements and called for a nationwide reconnection to the values that shaped our democracy and cultural identity.
Those values are essential to transcending divisive discourse and achieving the many and varied tasks we envision as individuals and as a nation. There are personal and political lessons in Obama’s rhetoric that we each – as individuals, families, communities, states and countries – are well-served to heed.
Like many presidents before him, Obama came to office promising to end the partisanship that plagues Washington, D.C. And, like many of his predecessors, he has failed to do so. In the State of the Union, Obama acknowledged that shortcoming, taking ownership for his role in the growing beltway gridlock. He minced no words: “It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency – that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better. There’s no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office.”
But admitting to the problem is only a first – albeit crucial – step. Obama did one better and articulated the lessons drawn from this intransigent political atmosphere.
“Democracy grinds to a halt,” Obama said, “without a willingness to compromise or when even basic facts are contested, and we listen only to those who agree with us. Our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get attention. Most of all, democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn’t matter; that the system is rigged in favor of the rich or the powerful or some narrow interest.”
That truth informs discourse at the personal and political levels, from the municipal to the federal and every nexus along the way.
Too often, dogma of any variety – political, religious, ethnic, administrative – overshadows the issues that must be addressed in a given debate. That occurs in our community and in conversations with a global interest. Adhering to an exclusive belief system without listening to the views of others does little to advance dialogue, and the policy results often bear the mark of entrenched division. Good people often disagree, and when they do so civilly with a mind toward reaching a solution, the results embody that spirit of collaboration. Our national politics possess precious little of that spirit – indeed the temptation to listen only to those with whom we agree is difficult to resist – but where we have fostered it, good things have happened. The same is true in state conversations and those we have in La Plata County.
Obama’s State of the Union address included a recognition of his limitations, and in doing so reminded Americans – politicians and mere citizens alike – how essential it is to listen during debate, not just shout until it is over. This attitude will not, on its own, solve the world’s problems, but it is a crucial component of the methodology.
