On Tuesday, President Obama gave his State of the Union address at the House. This annual speech by the President describes the current state and goals of the country for the upcoming years. As a joint session, both Republicans and Democrats sit in the seats as the President gives his speech. Immediately following the speech is usually an opposing response, which is a brief speech from a member of the opposite party.
In my opinion, the delivery was excellent, and the hour long speech was overflowing with rhetoric. The tone was more conversational, and at times there were even some funny moments. One that has been called a “comeback to Republicans” comes to mind. President Obama says, “I have no more campaigns to run,” and the Republicans clap and cheer, likely because they are happy to see Obama leave office. Then he strays from his script and says, “I know because I won both of them,” and all the Democrats clap even louder, happy to have seen their candidate win two elections in a row. Obama flashes his classic smirk and gives a wink to the audience.
In his speech, Obama brought up several points that he would like to focus on in the future such as child care, free education, transparency in the government, improving the economy, stopping terrorism, and protecting the environment. Although there were many more topics that were brought up, the one that stood out to me was how he spoke about bipartisanship.
The divide between the political parties was clearly heard not only during the moment where he made a witty comment, but throughout the entire speech. Republicans and Democrats stood up, clapped, and cheered after they heard something that they approved of and supported. It could also be noticed just by looking at the screen. A blatant representation of how each party feels is sitting directly behind the President at all times during his speech. To the left behind Obama is the Vice President, Joe Biden, and to the right is the Speaker of the House, Republican John Boehner. Biden clapped and stood up in support of the President, and Boehner may or may not have been sleeping. So clearly, it was a relevant topic for the President to bring up. He concluded his speech by emphasizing the importance of the two parties working together. He said:
Imagine if we broke out of these tired old patterns… Understand – a better politics isn’t one where Democrats abandon their agenda or Republicans simply embrace mine. A better politics is one where we appeal to each other’s basic decency instead of our basest fears.
He continues by pointing out common ground in issues that parties have contrasting views on, and he encourages both parties to understand the other and compromise. He continues:
If you share the broad vision I outlined tonight, join me in the work at hand. If you disagree with parts of it, I hope you’ll at least work with me where you do agree. And I commit to every Republican here tonight that I will not only seek out your ideas, I will seek to work with you to make this country stronger… [W]e are still more than a collection of red states and blue states; we are the United States of America…Let’s begin this new chapter – together – and let’s start the work right now.
Immediately after the President of the United States spoke these words, the Republican response came on, which is meant to present the opposing opinion. Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa gave the Republican response. Although I strongly prefered the rhetoric and execution of Obama’s speech over hers, looking at the content as objectively as possible, I believe she took a similar approach as Obama did for the root message of her speech. She laid out plans that the Republicans intend to follow, and she said that they are willing and waiting to work together with the Democrats. Comparing these two speeches, it seems like both parties have certain issues that they remain firm on, but they are both entertaining the thought of compromising and working together. Perhaps they do not actually intend on compromising, but instead just want the other party to cooperate completely to get legislation passed. Unfortunately, we will not know if the two parties will be able to truly come together until they are actually doing it. However, throughout history, compromise between the two parties have proven incredibly difficult.
One of the biggest examples of this is how politicians run for office. According to Pew Research Center, voters have become increasingly more polarized, and the most ideologically oriented people are more likely to vote. For these reasons, it is difficult for a moderate or a third party politician to get elected. Instead, politicians become more ideologically pure, and lean toward the extremes of their parties to get votes. Once elected, their constituents are obviously expecting them to follow through with their ideas. With strongly leaning Democrats and Republicans, no wonder it is difficult to compromise and we experience gridlock.
Another issue is that politicians from one party benefit by getting voters to hate the opposing party, which also makes them tend toward ideological extremes. This can be shown by the lack of ticket-splitting in recent years. According to the Pew Research Center, 81% of voters will vote straight ticket. This means that the majority of voters do not want even one person of the opposite party at any level at all.
With an increasing polarization among American voters and politicians, will there ever truly be compromise? Do we believe what President Obama and Senator Ernst have said in their speeches about wanting to work together or was this only for show and votes? In the case that things remain the same and there is a strong partisan divide, will our country be gridlocked and stagnant? What do these growing issues portend about the 2016 Presidential election, and will a new President be able to give Americans “the better politics” that Obama spoke about in his speech? Only time and action will tell.