Obama needs to end divisive language

Who is pretending racial strife doesn’t exist? Nobody. Conservatives know it’s bad out there. They also know that cops who abuse their authority are a problem.

Look, when 6 in 10 Americans say race relations are bad and have only gotten worse – only 38 percent said the same a year ago – that’s a problem. President Obama surely did not create racial strife, but he hasn’t helped alleviate it, either.

The president is divisive. He has been from the moment he took the oath of office. He set the tone of his administration during his first Oval Office meeting with Republican congressional leaders: “I won.”

Yes, he did. Yet Obama has never understood that governing demands more than a mere assertion of his will. At its best, the president’s rhetoric can reach great heights. But that’s all it is – rhetoric.

The president proved it again when he spoke at the memorial for the murdered police officers in Dallas. He delivered a generally uplifting and unifying speech – until he decided to utter one of the most manifestly ridiculous lines to tumble forth from the lips of a U.S. president not named Jimmy Carter: “It is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.”

No, it isn’t. Not at all. That is a laughable lie.

But the president said it, and at a memorial service no less.

When we talk about healing racial divisions, the difference between liberals and conservatives is really a difference between culture and politics. Liberals have long looked to government to ensure not only equality of opportunity but also equality of outcome. Conservatives believe that equality of outcome is incompatible with freedom.

Obviously not everyone “lived happily ever after” after Congress passed landmark civil rights legislation more than half a century ago. But it isn’t 1965 anymore. There’s always going to be work to do.

“I’ve seen how inadequate words can be in bringing about lasting change,” Obama said in Dallas. “I’ve seen how inadequate my own words have been.”

Then maybe it’s time to give the divisive language a rest and meet the people where they are.

This story was originally published July 17, 2016 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Obama needs to end divisive language."