Revisiting President Barack Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Two Years Later

Tayon Kulos
Sep 3, 2018 · 3 min read

Our nation’s core has been shaken, but was Obama right in saying it is nothing we haven’t faced before?

Two years ago, former President Barack Obama delivered his final State of the Union address. This was before the primaries began, but shortly after the election took a dramatic and unprecedented turn. A Republican candidate for President, businessman Donald J. Trump, suggested that he would enforce a “complete and total shutdown” of all Muslims entering the United States if elected. Lawmakers and presidential hopefuls from around the isle called out the comment as racist and bigoted, including those who would go on to defend the President when he enforced a similar ban on Muslim majority countries.

When Obama delivered this final address, our nation was facing a pivotal moment, and pivotal questions it needed to answer, like would our nation really consider electing a President who called for an entire religion to be banned from the United States? Would said President actually go through with such a plan? Members of the GOP seemed to be keen on distancing themselves from Trump at this point, and still, pundits suggested that Trump’s campaign would get nowhere. The answer, to the first question, seemed to be: no fucking way. The second, who fucking knows?

Here we are, two years later, a day after the President went golfing because he wasn’t invited to the funeral of a respected United States senator, whom he declined to recognize as a hero, and often taunted for his bipartisan acts. Those same lawmakers who denounced Trump’s remarks as nasty or prejudiced have seemed to stay silent on many of his questionable statements or actions, their reasoning unclear (but we can assume the upcoming midterms have something to do with it).

Even so, President Obama’s remarks were powerful. They hit home. In fact, I wish he’d give a similar speech next week when he starts hitting the road for Democrats in the midterm elections.

He began in true Obama fashion, with a well tuned joke on the length of his previous speeches. “Tonight marks the eighth year I’ve come here to report on the State of the Union. And for this final one, I’m going to try to make it shorter. I know some of you are antsy to get back to Iowa.”

President Obama didn’t go on to make it a speech about all the great things he did in the past eight years, but instead delivered a focus on “the next five years, ten years, and beyond.” He didn’t strive to attack the other side of the isle, but insisted that our unique strengths as a nation — our optimism and work ethic, our spirit of discovery and innovation, our diversity and commitment to the rule of law — [give us] everything we need to ensure prosperity and security for generations to come.”

Barack Obama’s speech is under-appreciated. It was one of the last intense, honest and blunt speeches that our country needs every once in a while, and I think it’s the perfect push for us as Americans right now. We need this motivation as we strive to move forward and start putting our values back into place.

Most importantly, President Obama didn’t paint this nation as a dying country with nothing better to look forward to. He noted that “America has been through big changes before — wars and depression, the influx of immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, and movements to expand civil rights. Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control. And each time, we overcame those fears. We did not, in the words of Lincoln, adhere to the “dogmas of the quiet past.” Instead we thought anew, and acted anew. We made change work for us, always extending America’s promise outward, to the next frontier, to more and more people. And because we did — because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril — we emerged stronger and better than before.”

And with that, I invite you to take a listen, and as always, share your thoughts on his words.

Tayon Kulos

Written by

probably up watching obama crush someone in a debate, @timetoriseusa

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