Overcome fear, renew belief in change, Obama urges Americans
President’s last State of the Union address optimistic about future
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama, entering the final year of his presidency, urged Americans on Tuesday night to rekindle belief in the promise of change that first carried him to the White House, declaring that the country must not allow fear and division to take hold.
“It’s easier to be cynical, to accept that change isn’t possible and politics is hopeless,” Obama said in his final State of the Union address. “But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future.”
At the heart of Obama’s address to both chambers of Congress and a prime-time television audience was an implicit call to keep Democrats in the White House for a third consecutive term. He struck back at critics who have challenged his economic and national security stewardship, calling it all “political hot air.”
In a swipe at some Republican presidential candidates, he warned against “voices urging us to fall back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don’t look like us or pray like us or vote like we do or share the same background.”
His words were unexpectedly echoed by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was selected to give the Republican response to Obama’s address.
Underscoring how the heated campaign rhetoric about immigrants and minorities from Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump in particular has unnerved some party leaders, Haley called on Americans to resist the temptation “to follow the siren call of the angriest voices.”
“No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome,” Haley said in excerpts released ahead of her remarks.
Seeking to shape his own legacy, Obama ticked through a retrospective of his domestic and foreign policy actions in office, including helping lead the economy back from the brink of depression, taking aggressive action on climate change and ending a Cold War freeze with Cuba.
Obama dismissed the idea that ISIL threatens America’s existence. He said that’s the story ISIL wants to tell and the message it uses in propaganda to recruit.
The president said ISIL is made up of killers, fanatics and twisted souls and he repeated his declaration that the U.S. would hunt them down and destroy them.
Democrats cheered loudly when the president mentioned fixing a broken immigration system, protecting kids from gun violence and raising the minimum wage. Republicans remained in their seats, some even avoiding any applause.
Obama avoided the traditional litany of policy proposals.
He did reiterate his call for working with Republicans on criminal justice reform and finalizing an Asia-Pacific trade pact, and he vowed to keep pushing for action on politically fraught issues such as curbing gun violence and fixing the nation’s fractured immigration laws.
Yet Obama was eager to look beyond his own presidency, casting the actions he has taken as a springboard for future economic progress and national security. His optimism was meant to draw a contrast with what the White House sees as doom-andgloom scenarios peddled by the Republicans.