Opinion: Obama’s State of the Union address: The narrative of the past and future
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Narrative was a big buzz word in the run-up to the State of the Union, with Democrats insisting that President Obama needed to explain how the United States got into the doldrums of bitter partisanship and the slough of despair that comes from economic recession.
The president tried to climb out of that rut by first looking backward, and Janus-like, then looking forward.
After explaining his efforts to create jobs, Obama added that even with the best of work, it won’t be enough.
“These steps still won’t make up for the 7 million jobs we’ve lost over the last two years,” Obama said.
“We cannot afford another so-called economic ‘expansion’ like the one from last decade -- what some call the ‘lost decade’ -- where jobs grew more slowly than during any prior expansion; where the income of the average American household declined while the cost of healthcare and tuition reached record highs; where prosperity was built on a housing bubble and financial speculation.”
After establishing the past, he turned forward.
“From the day I took office, I have been told that addressing our larger challenges is too ambitious -- that such efforts would be too contentious, that our political system is too gridlocked, and that we should just put things on hold for awhile.
“For those who make these claims, I have one simple question: How long should we wait? How long should America put its future on hold?”
-- Michael Muskal
Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal
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