On Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016, President Barack Obama delivered his seventh and final State of the Union address.
The speech began with a few jokes about the running length of his usual addresses. President Obama then acknowledged that a successful year of policy reform was unlikely, due to 2016 being an election year.
While a president usually begins the State of the Union by recounting a laundry-list of short-term goals, President Obama did something different this year. Rather than fixating on the short-term, he instead turned his gaze to five, 10, and 20 years into the future. President Obama urged the assembled who’s-who of the political sphere to acknowledge the breadth of change present in every aspect of the 21st Century. From medical breakthroughs, to accessible education possibilities all over the world, to an insidious system that connects terrorists on a global scale, President Obama urged Americans to understand that change is neither good nor bad, but merely inevitable.
When confronting possible calamity, President Obama played on American sentimentality, stating “we did not, in the words of [Abraham] Lincoln, adhere to the quiet dogmas of the past.”
He bolstered confidence, listing recent American successes, including the legalization of same-sex marriage, health care reform, and better services for veterans. President Obama urged Americans to continue embracing change. President Obama then laid out his next steps for America. First, he posited that the United States address the wage-gap. Second, President Obama urged Americans to consider using technology to address climate change. Third, he mused on global safety and America’s position as gatekeeper. Finally, in a heavily nuanced statement, President Obama questioned how Americans can change global perception of themselves and their policies. President Obama’s final State of the Union address was neither revolutionary, nor particularly thrilling. Like many of his predecessors, he paid brief attention to many of the same, though important, issues that inevitably come up in any executive speech: healthcare, education, foreign policy, etc.
As for his extremely vague four next steps for the United States, some critics have explained that President Obama’s ambiguity is an attempt at soothing the massive divide between Republicans and Democrats. By omitting his more controversial topics, such as planning to invest some $500 million into mental health services, and instead focusing on something more immediately threatening, like ISIS, President Obama is subtly aligning the two parties. Regardless of which party and which candidate wins the next election, President Obama has stressed that it is imperative that the bipartisan divide is bridged on certain issues. Despite his best efforts, CBS News reported that the Republican representatives applauded only once en masse—during a statement about greater support for troops.
As is customary for State of the Union addresses, President Obama assured the American population of the nation’s great strength. He bolstered his legacy with some statistics of the progress his government has made while in office. He routinely listed facts that were technically correct, but lacking in context. For example, he claimed that Americans had “cut carbon pollution more than any other country on Earth,” omitting of course, that this was true in terms of tonnage but not in terms of percentage reduction.
President Obama also truthfully stated that the United States spends more on their military “than the next eight nations combined.”
However, the United States invests less proportionally to their gross domestic capita than several other nations.
President Obama’s final State of the Union address was certainly about the future, the speech truly featured insight into how the President Obama legacy will be viewed in the future.