Recalling Obama's Optimistic Vision of America

The heart of the American project is self-governance and inclusion, he explained, not demagogic rule

“Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order,” President Barack Obama said in 2016 at the Democratic National Convention. “We don’t look to be ruled.” (Photo by Paul Morigi/WireImage via Getty Images)

Looking back eight years might seem like entering a time warp—to a long-lost world where Hillary Clinton was the frontrunner and Donald Trump had not yet touched the levers of power. But by July 2016, President Barack Obama already saw clearly the danger America would face if Clinton were to lose the election.

While this week’s Super Tuesday contests will not change the obvious trajectory, President Joe Biden can count on a focused national audience to freshly assert his vision for America at Thursday’s State of the Union. With that in mind, I revisited Obama’s address at the Democratic National Convention, delivered on July 27, one week after Trump’s grievance-filled, carnage-obsessed “I alone can fix it” speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

What I found was both an accurate portrayal of Trump’s hateful, un-American message and Obama’s deeply optimistic articulation of what makes America a special place. Reading it now offers a bracing reminder of Obama’s inclusive belief in the American democratic experiment and the hopeful energy that belief inspired. Yes, it was not enough to ensure Clinton’s victory then, but engaging it now may help deepen our commitment this fall to fight for America’s democratic future.

First, his bullseye on Trump’s message: “What we heard was a deeply pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against each other, and turn away from the rest of the world. There were no serious solutions to pressing problems—just the fanning of resentment and blame and anger and hate.” (He also noted later that Trump is not much for facts and not much of a businessman either: “I know plenty of businessmen and women who’ve achieved success without leaving a trail of lawsuits, and unpaid workers, and people feeling like they got cheated.”)

While Obama missed how much Trump’s malignant view was already percolating in the GOP—he didn’t think Trump’s speech was “particularly Republican”—he understood the stakes. The 2016 election, he said, is “not just a choice between parties or policies; the usual debates between left and right. This is a more fundamental choice—about who we are as a people, and whether we stay true to this great American experiment in self-government.”

Rather than focus on the chaos and darkness that motivates Trump, Obama told the Democratic delegates in Philadelphia (and the millions watching on television) about the America he knows, one that is “full of courage and optimism and ingenuity.” He continued:

The America I know is decent and generous. Sure, we have real anxieties—about paying the bills, protecting our kids, caring for a sick parent. We get frustrated with political gridlock, worry about racial divisions; are shocked and saddened by the madness of Orlando or Nice. There are pockets of America that never recovered from factory closures; men who took pride in hard work and providing for their families who now feel forgotten; parents who wonder whether their kids will have the same opportunities we had.

All that is real. We’re challenged to do better, to be better. But as I’ve traveled this country, through all fifty states; as I’ve rejoiced with you and mourned with you, what I’ve also seen, more than anything, is what is right with America. I see people working hard and starting businesses; people teaching kids and serving our country. I see engineers inventing stuff, and doctors coming up with new cures. I see a younger generation full of energy and new ideas, not constrained by what is, ready to seize what ought to be.

Most of all, I see Americans of every party, every background, every faith who believe that we are stronger together—black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American; young and old; gay, straight, men, women, folks with disabilities, all pledging allegiance, under the same proud flag, to this big, bold country that we love.

Obama also insisted that Trump’s fear-mongering was “selling the American people short,” that “we are not a fragile or frightful people.” And he described his vision of American democracy, an inclusive, bottom-up vision that doesn’t depend on some fake golden-haired guy scaring people and pumping up himself:

Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order. We don’t look to be ruled. Our power comes from those immortal declarations first put to paper right here in Philadelphia all those years ago: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”; that together, We, the People, can form a more perfect union.

That’s who we are. That’s our birthright—the capacity to shape our own destiny. That’s what drove patriots to choose revolution over tyranny and our GIs to liberate a continent. It’s what gave women the courage to reach for the ballot, and marchers to cross a bridge in Selma, and workers to organize and fight for better wages.

America has never been about what one person says he’ll do for us. It’s always been about what can be achieved by us, together, through the hard, slow, sometimes frustrating, but ultimately enduring work of self-government

In the end, Obama described the values of his Kansas grandparents and what they taught him when he was growing up. They didn’t like braggarts or bullies, and didn’t respect mean-spiritedness. “Instead,” Obama said, “they valued traits like honesty and hard work. Kindness and courtesy. Humility. Responsibility. Helping each other out.” Values that “weren’t limited to small towns” and cherished by “every race and every faith.” These are “true things. Things that last. The things we teach our kids.”

And it’s this vision—what America is and can be—that has united Americans and has made the country a beacon to the world. “That’s why,” he said:

…we can attract strivers and entrepreneurs from around the globe to build new factories and create new industries here. That’s why our military can look the way it does, every shade of humanity, forged into common service. That’s why anyone who threatens our values, whether fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues, will always fail in the end.

That’s America. Those bonds of affection; that common creed. We don’t fear the future; we shape it, embrace it, as one people, stronger together than we are on our own.

I don’t know what Donald Trump will say after he likely wins all 16 states on Super Tuesday, but I am absolutely sure this wannabe dictator won’t offer a rousing vision of self-governance. I don’t know exactly what Joe Biden will say on Thursday, but I hope his State of the Union will not only detail his significant achievements but also provide a vivid picture of why and how we must ensure a democratic future.

What I do know is that if most Americans would read or listen to Obama’s inspiring words from eight long and sobering years ago, they would not lose sight of their obligation to their country, to all the men and women who sacrificed to secure our freedom, and to the ideals brought forth by our founding fathers that have yet to be fully realized.

As Abraham Lincoln reminded us about those who fought and died at Gettysburg in 1862, every American has a responsibility to their “unfinished work,” that they “shall not have died in vain,” and to fulfill the promise that our “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The existential danger Lincoln warned about 161 years ago represents the heart of the matter facing America now—a danger from within that each of us has the ability to help overcome.

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