Obama to stand by 'resurgent America' theme in State of the Union
During racially tense moments that have beset the nation recently, many Americans have longed for President Barack Obama to display some of the passion and soaring rhetoric that made the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a civil rights legend.
But the messages of restraint that Obama has given in response to outcry over police violence are the same ones he has been dispensing for 20 to 30 years, echoes of thoughts he has had ever since he was a young community organizer in Chicago. His central tenets: Dont give in to anger and violence; work to improve, not destroy, the legal system; and accept that change will come and things are getting better, albeit more slowly than many would like.
Though Obamas views have shifted on issues such as gay marriage or national security during his six years in office, his views on race have remained remarkably consistent, and recent events appear to have affirmed rather than altered those views.
The president is likely to touch on race again Tuesday in his State of the Union address, and if so, he will probably acknowledge that on race, as on the economy, a resurgent America has made great progress but still requires greater inclusiveness.
Rather than making pressing demands for economic justice like those that defined Kings crusade, Obama will make a pitch for a tax package that will aid lower- and middle-class households and serve as modest tools for economic advancement for both whites and blacks.
Yet on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, nearly 47 years after the assassination of the civil rights leader, the nation and the president are still struggling with issues of race and discrimination, issues Obama has never denied but has long sought to de-emphasize.
Power changes things
In 2009, Obama replaced a bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office with one of King.
A study by University of Pennsylvania researcher Daniel Gillion, however, found that Obama talked about race less in his first two years of office than any Democratic president at least since John F. Kennedy.
They share the gift of oratory, James Campbell, an American history professor at Stanford University, said of King and Obama, but one of the things that made Kings oratory so indelible is that it never had to be put against the grain of political power.
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Obama to stand by 'resurgent America' theme in State of the Union