Obama issues a challenge to a divided United States

In his final State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Barack Obama all but conceded that he had failed to keep his lofty promises of uniting the country politically.

Nonetheless, Obama, who will leave office next January having made history as the first black president of the United States, laid out an optimistic vision for the nation.

But to achieve a secure and prosperous future that he envisions, the Democratic president said Americans must work together and that we need to “fix our politics.’’

Standing before a Congress controlled by Republicans who have made no secret of their deep disagreement with the administration on a range of issues, including gun control and immigration, Obama called for “rational, constructive debates.”

“America has been through big changes before,” he said. “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.”

But his call to “fix our politics” was an acknowledgement that he was overly optimistic when he promised early in his presidency to bring Democrats and Republicans together. Indeed, the nation is so divided today that even the two parties themselves are confronting deep-seated ideological divides.

As is tradition, the State of the Union address is followed by a response from a member of the opposition party, and on Tuesday that task fell to South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, is seen by some Republicans as a potential running mate for the party’s eventual presidential nominee.

With immigration looming as a major issue in this presidential campaign, and the refugee crisis stemming from war-torn Syria hardening positions, Haley sought to distance the Republican Party from the heated campaign rhetoric of some of the candidates.

Trump’s proposal

Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner, has grabbed headlines nationally and globally by insisting that America should stop all Muslims entering the country until the war with Islamic extremists can be better defined.

“During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices,” Haley said. “We must resist that temptation. No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country.”

Those words echoed the warning from President Obama 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.”

Aware that his final year in office will be defined by his lame-duck status, the president made it clear that he does not intend to remain a prisoner of political circumstance.

While acknowledging that grand proposals probably won’t see the light of day in the Republican-controlled Congress, Obama did say there were important initiatives that should be viewed through the lens of bipartisanship. Among them are criminal justice reform and helping people battling prescription drug abuse and heroin drug abuse.

But he also served notice that he intends to use the power of the presidency to rally the American people to issues that Republicans in Congress won’t support. They include fixing the broken immigration system, protecting children from gun violence, equal pay for equal work, paid sick leave and raising the minimum wage.

“All these things still matter for working families,” Obama said, signaling his intention to undertake a nationwide campaign for support.

The president is well aware that his two terms in office will be defined not only by his record in office – the Affordable Care Act and the 18 million people who have benefited from it top the list – but by the deep political divide in this country.

“One of the few regrets of my presidency is that the rancor and suspicion have gotten worse, not better,” he told the overflow crowd in the House chamber.

But, all things considered, the speech was optimistic and inspirational and showed why Obama will be remembered as one of the most articulate presidents in the history of the nation.