State of the Union? Pity the Messenger in the Dark Cave

The State of the Union gathering tonight was not a pretty sight. President Barack Obama did his best under difficult circumstances -- difficult in the sense that a malaise has settled in over the body politic.

An entrenched, cynical political establishment, particularly the two houses of Congress, have managed to subvert whatever hope and goodwill the American people sent to Washington a year ago in the form of their rhetorically gifted young President.

But idealism in the face of moneyed interests faces a jarring comedown and that has been the reality of Obama's first year in office. His speech tonight, accordingly, lacked most of the uplifting notes he can so easily strike as a speaker when the topic is hope.

I would not go so far as to conclude he has lost his own sense of hope about what he can do as President, but clearly his faith has been seriously shaken. I won't bother going into the substance of his speech, because I assume many pundits are already doing so. Instead, I am reacting only to how the President's talk made me feel.

It made me feel sad for him and for the lost promise of what he brought to Washington. Is our political culture so ingrown, corrupt and out of touch with the lives we ordinary people live that the bickering and gridlock of the past year is the best they have to offer?

Because if so, expect most of a generation of young Americans not to follow Obama's example and go into public life, but to turn away in disgust and boredom. The pragmatism that governed most of his talk may be of interest to policy wonks, who get excited slicing and dicing nuance, apportioning the implications out along a spectrum from Republican to Democrat, which is a narrow political spectrum indeed.

But little of this struck me as relevant or important. Only near the end of his long speech did Obama attempt to reclaim higher ground. Then, briefly, he spoke in more inspirational terms, exhorting his audience in Congress (and us) to be better than we have proven to be so far in his still-young term in office.

I was vaguely moved by this portion of his talk, but it was too little, too late, from my perspective. We need Obama to be that leader who inspires us, even as those around him (Democrats and Republicans) desert our common principles to their own disreputable ends.

I'm left feeling sorry for him, for us, for our country. If this is the best we can do -- fight as a people over scraps of policies that barely address the true problems in our deeply unequal class society, than we are in far worse trouble than the President articulated.

He said he is more hopeful than ever, but I'm not buying it. He didn't say that like he meant it. There was a notable lack of passion in his presentation. He seemed (to me) tired, depressed, dispirited.

After listening to him, so am I.

I'd grade it a C-, but with all due respect to Obama, it was not his fault that he failed. It takes an honestly engaged audience for a speech like this to be great, yet he was surrounded with the detritus of American politics, the worst audience one could imagine.

For the next State of the Union, he should dis-invite Congress (let them watch from home) and fill a large chamber with real people. Then perhaps he could give (and be rewarded for) the speech he should have given tonight.

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