Obama to declare nation’s future depends on fixing politics

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lamenting the nation’s persistently deep divides, President Barack Obama will declare Tuesday night that opportunity and security for American families “will only happen if we fix our politics.”

In excerpts released ahead of his final State of the Union address, Obama says that while better politics doesn’t mean all parties are in agreement, “democracy does require basic bonds of trust between citizens.”

Obama’s election-year call for political civility amounts to an admission that he’s failed to make good on the lofty promises to bring Democrats and Republican together that were at the core of his political rise nearly eight years ago.

The president’s address to Congress and a prime-time television audience comes three weeks before Americans begin voting in the race to succeed him. Seeking to put his imprint on the race, Obama will cast an optimistic vision for the future that builds on his eight years in office, while acknowledging that sweeping change has sparked anxieties for some citizens.

“America has been through big changes before,” Obama says in the speech excerpts. “We made change work for us, always extending America’s promise outward, to the next frontier, to more and more people. And because we did — because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril — we emerged stronger and better than before.”