Yet Democrats should not get too excited. Speeches can be moving and they certainly can inspire, but the situation on Capitol Hill remains dire for proponents of liberal reform. Republicans are in firm control of the House and Senate, and the GOP has steadily drifted to the right. Congressional Republicans have proven that they know how to employ procedural tools to obstruct the President’s progress.
There are almost no indications that Republicans are preparing to do some sudden about face and begin negotiating with the White House. The tax proposal will most likely get stifled in Congress, or the president will be forced to trade away the increases on the wealthy and end up simply giving tax cuts to all. Hardly the stuff of progressive politics.
The erosion of Democratic strength in Congress since 2010 has been devastating to the party. The Democratic Congress was the driving force behind President Obama’s success in his first two years. Even in his most spirited moments, the President has found little room to maneuver. The situation is not any different today. In fact, it is worse.
Republicans are also ready for a fight and, with control of Congress, they’ll be able to hit back hard.
Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and a New America fellow. He is the author of the new book, “The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress and the Battle for the Great Society.”
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Maria Cardona: Can GOP meet him halfway?
Tonight the President delivered a speech that was strong, bold and inspirational. He challenged the Republican Party, but was conciliatory as well. It should have been called the Audacity of Progress. With a new pep in his step and rising poll numbers, President Obama finally talked more freely — more assertively — about the economic progress that has been slowly revealing itself to the nation over the past several months.
More importantly, he described how the middle class can partake of that progress; he laid out sensible proposals and tools that the middle class can use– tripling the Child Care Tax Credit, giving $500 tax credit to couples that work, offering paid sick leave, helping families pay down a mortgage and incentivizing workers to save for retirement.
Many of these are proposals have had GOP support in the past. Can the Republicans finally put politics aside and prove to the nation they have more in their legislative vocabulary than just “no?” Will they reject their well-known, yet destructive path — that of a party that puts middle class voters, those who need the most, aside, and fights for those at the very top who need the least?
The President laid out the Audacity of Progress and an agenda for the future. For the sake of the nation and the survival of their own party, Republicans should have the audacity to at least meet him halfway.
Maria Cardona is a political commentator for CNN, a Democratic strategist and principal at the Dewey Square Group. She is a former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton and was communications director for the Democratic National Committee. She also is a former communications director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
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LZ Granderson: Emboldened and delivering good news
President Obama delivered arguably his best State of the Union address since the first one he made. It was not only passionate but it delivered moments of humor and more importantly — good news. For the first time he said, “the State of the Union is strong” something many Americans are still slow to feel and Democratic candidates in November failed to bring up.
The unemployment rate is down, more than 150,000 American troops are home and 10 million more Americans have health insurance than did when Obama took office. He was optimistic and he had the metrics to support it, especially on his domestic policy. And while no one believes all of the proposals he outlined will fly unharmed through the new Republican Congress, there appeared to be enough bipartisan morsels mentioned to challenge the idea that the two parties won’t get anything done.
Like trade. Like getting new authorization to use force against ISIS. Like legislation to encourage companies to hire veterans. But the crowning moments of his speech were the last three minutes or so. This is when Obama showed again the man who won the presidency and re-election in historic fashion.
He defended religious freedom and included Muslims in that conversation. He repeatedly spoke about equality for LGBT people and pointed out 7 out of 10 Americans live in states where same-sex marriage is legal. He brought up the racial tension in Ferguson, the concern for safety with our police force and again replaced the notion of a red America and a blue America with one of the United States of America — something he did when he first burst onto the scene in 2004 at the Democrat National Convention in Boston.
At the end I found myself asking, “Didn’t the Democrats lose in November?” Wasn’t Obama rebuked in an election where the Senate flipped from Democratic to Republican?
And yet, there he was — confident. Emboldened. Optimistic. Something we haven’t seen in quite some time. But then again, the country has not had some of the positive economic numbers it currently boasts in quite some time either. Democrats in November fumbled the good domestic news. Obama in January did not.
LZ Granderson is a CNN contributor, a senior writer for ESPN and a lecturer at Northwestern University. He is a former Hechinger Institute fellow, and his commentary has been recognized by the Online News Association, the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. Follow him on Twitter @locs_n_laughs.
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