Civility in politics is harder than you think

  When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up the text of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech in full public view, her supporters saw defiance of both his policies and his earlier refusal to shake her hand. But her political opponents cried foul, calling it “unbecoming” and “nasty.” This is yet another example of why U.S. citizens of all political stripes agree that politics has become unacceptably uncivil.

Trump has already broken all of the promises he made to workers during the State of the Union

  Tuesday night, President Donald Trump gave his first official State of the Union speech. The script was as expected: He bragged about his tax bill, repeated some promises about infrastructure, and promoted his administration’s latest wish list of anti-immigrant policies. He even claimed to be concerned for “America’s struggling workers.” But a lot was conspicuously absent from the speech—including all the ways his administration has harmed those very workers.

  When he was a candidate, Trump pledged to turn the Republican Party into a “worker’s party.” He claimed that each of his policy decisions would hinge on whether it creates “more jobs and better wages for Americans” and promised to side with workers instead of “special interests” and the “financial elite.” But throughout his first year, he sided with corporations and the wealthy instead.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1493: Is democracy dying on the vines in the United States?

  Is democracy dying on the vines in these United States of America? There are some pervasive signs. My one vote won’t make a difference. My vote doesn’t count. Voting doesn’t change anything. The situation raises the question: is democracy dying on the vines in these United States of America?

  In President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address, he said, “Most of all, democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn’t matter; that the system is rigged in favor of the rich or the powerful or some narrow interest.” Is democracy dying on the vines?

Sam Fulwood III: Saving the best for last

  As President Barack Obama delivered his seventh—and final—State of the Union address Tuesday night, I looked on with amazement that bordered upon disorientation. Did this really happen, a black president of the United States completing the circuit of his duties with a valedictory speech?

  Or have I spent these past few years on htraE, a Bizzaro world where everything is oddly opposite of all that we know to be true on this planet? After all, it was only a decade ago that I—and, dare I say, nearly every other person on Earth—believed it impossible that this nation, conceived with chattel slavery endorsed in its Constitution, would ever elect a black American as its leader.

Adam Hersh: Stable economic footing should focus agenda on inclusive prosperity

  Economic growth is returning the United States to more stable footing, but stronger growth is not translating into the dream of widely shared prosperity and opportunity for all Americans, articulated last week by President Barack Obama during the State of the Union address. U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP—the sum total of goods and services produced by workers and equipment in the United States—grew 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, following growth of 4.1 percent in the third quarter, according to new Bureau of Economic Analysis, or BEA, data.

A Step in the right direction on retirement

  In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Barack Obama announced MyRA, a new initiative to help Americans save for retirement. Under the president’s proposal, workers would be able to automatically save for retirement through U.S. savings bonds.

Christian E. Weller and Nick Bunker: A Higher minimum wage will not hurt U.S. businesses

  The minimum-wage increase President Barack Obama proposed in his State of the Union address—$9 per hour by the end of 2015—should be a dog-bites-man headline. It is a no-brainer. It would directly affect the lives of millions of the lowest-wage workers—mainly poor, single mothers and workers of color in service industries such as fast food restaurants, hotels, hospitals, and nursing homes—by giving them an average wage increase of about 10 percent. A hard day’s work deserves fair pay, and the proposed minimum-wage increase moves low-wage workers a step closer toward that reality.