Obama-Montisque Ideas

Last week The President of the United States, Barack Obama, made his State of The union speech. Obama covered many important topics such as education, immigration, the economy, and many more. The president gave a great speech with many good points but there was something that many people probably didn't notice. This is that some of the things he talked about were ideas of the enlightenment era. Some of his ideas reflected those of enlightenment philosophers like John Locke, Voltaire, and Montesquieu.

President Obama talked about a bill he wanted to pass. While he was talking about it he said "Tomorrow I am asking congress if they will pass this bill." This sentence reflected one of Montesquieu's ideas. The idea he was reflecting separation of powers. Separation of powers is where the power of the government is split among three different branches. This is so all of the power wouldn't belong to one person or one group of people. His sentence reflects this because he cannot just pass the bill in his own, he has to have congress approve. Montesquieu's idea was revolutionary as it lead to a key part in the US constitution. In the US the government is split into the executive, judicial, and legislative branches. Separation of powers also lead to the system of checks and balances. Obama also mentioned something that reflects the ideas of another enlightenment thinker.

Also during his speech Obama talked about a bill that citizens would get to vote on. This directly reflects the ideas of John Locke. Locke came up with the idea that the governments power should come from the consent of the people. This means that the people should have a say in what the government does. Obama's words reflect this because he is saying that the people are voting on what the government is doing. The framers of the constitution also used this idea to limit the power of the government and create the representative government, where people elect someone to represent their city, state, country etc. One last enlightenment idea that the President reflected on was that of the great enlightenment philosopher Voltaire.

In the speech, Obama spoke about religious tolerance for Muslims. This reflects Voltaire's idea of religious freedom and tolerance. This idea was revolutionary during this time because in the pass there were wars over religion. People were also forced to practice the religion of their leader. Before Voltaire spoke his mind people were mocked, outcasted, and sometimes even tortured or killed because of their religion. This idea is big for the US because freedom of religion is in the Bill of Rights.

As you can tell by Barack Obama's speech, the enlightenment ideas were very important. Where would we be if Montesquieu never spoke of his idea of separation of powers? Run by a monarchy? A dictator? Would we even be here? No one knows but we are lucky to have separation