Which America

Do we live in the America described by President Obama; a hopeful nation with the world's strongest economy and military where citizens look out for each other and politicians strive to include everyone in their plans.  Or do we live in the nation inhabited mostly by Republican candidates for President and their base;  a depressingly dark place where everyone is armed and fear is the watchword and America can only be great again by imposing its will on the rest of the world by force of arms.  The President did not directly portray this dichotomy in his State of the Union Address, but he left it to his listeners to fill in the blanks.  I got the feeling he finally decided to call out the flock of republicans who would like to become the next president.  The relentless negativity without any specific plans to revitalize the nation aside from "bombing the shit out of them" finally cracked the usually urbane Mr. Obama and allowed him to show the earnest idealist who has finally confronted the reality of a irreducible core of racist, misogynist old white men who drive most republican policy discussions.  After laying out the achievements of his years in office, he challenged his successor, democrat or republican to build on the policies of inclusion and compassion in domestic matters along with the realism he has displayed in foreign affairs.  Considering most of the television audience was probably believers already, I doubt last night's address will change any minds, but the effort was made by a man who has fought the good fight for all of us.