A Moment of Clarity.

 words.

"This is not a conversation we can have until we can use all the words in our national vocabulary. To really reckon with something, it has to be named, called out, described—as the President has done with the plague of gun violence or obstacles to gay marriage. This is not to suggest that Obama, in his upcoming State of the Union address, should ask Congress for a renewal of hostilities with poverty, fifty years after Lyndon Johnson declared war. But it might be time for him to summon a little of Johnson’s indignation. Americans knew, listening to L.B.J., that he took almost personal offense at the existence of poverty; it was an affront to his sense of self, and, by implication, to ours as a nation. If President Obama sees it that way, let him say so, and plainly. Unemployment insurance, the minimum wage—these are important, but they are part of proxy wars. The larger battle is still on, and it won’t be won by stealth maneuvers.”

THE NEW YORKER: The “P” Word: Why Presidents Stopped Talking About Poverty