Barack Obama on Tuesday night urged Americans to be “anxious, jealous guardians” of their democracy and to rediscover their common purpose as citizens, as he warned of the threats presented by corrosive political dialogue, economic inequality and fractious race relations.
Ten days before the inauguration of Donald Trump as president, Mr Obama declared in a farewell message that he leaves office more optimistic than when he was elected and renewed the mantra that accompanied his first run for the presidency. “Yes we can. Yes we did. Yes we can,” he concluded.
But his speech to a boisterous crowd in Chicago was shot through with anxiety about the increasingly vicious political scene that Mr Obama leaves behind him, the divisions that have opened up in society, and the uncertain prospects of a Trump presidency.