( CNN ) -- In Tuesday night 's State of the Union address , President Obama is expected to focus on the crisis of widening inequality in America . This is good . And it 's no surprise . Over the last few years , he has tried to draw attention to the decimation of the middle class over recent decades . He 's explained the scope of the problem -- that the severity of today 's inequality is akin to what preceded the Great Depression . He 's adopted a catchphrase -- prosperity from the `` middle out '' -- and forced Republicans to talk about the issue . And he 's proposed policies to address it . But in his SOTU speech , and in the bigger scope of his presidency , Obama must do more than unfurl a list of policy remedies . He first has to acknowledge and then reckon with the conflicting emotions Americans have about `` falling behind . '' To be clear , policy matters . Raising the federal minimum wage would be an effective way to lift people out of poverty . Doing what New York 's new mayor , Bill de Blasio , proposes -- raising taxes on the highest earners to pay for universal pre-K -- would help alleviate the effects of wage stagnation and wealth concentration . But outside the reliably liberal precincts of cities like New York , most people are n't ready to jump straight to policy fixes . Something blocks them -- a set of stories Americans have learned to tell themselves about success and struggle . These self-scripts influence the entire inequality debate : . -- If I 'm struggling , it 's my own fault ( and complaining about it is for losers ) . -- I may be struggling , but I work hard and I do n't want people who do n't work hard as I do to get handouts . -- If someone else is getting rich , it 's just sour grapes for me to complain that they have too much . It 's unbecoming , maybe even un-American . -- I may be struggling , but there 's nothing to be done -- it 's out of my control , and I do n't trust anyone , especially government , to help me . I 'm on my own . To point out these self-scripts is n't to validate divisive right-wing rhetoric about `` makers and takers , '' or the over-the-top comments by a prominent venture capitalist arguing that critiques of the 1 % feel like Nazi persecution of Jews . It 's simply to describe a political and psychological reality . Millions of Americans have internalized these beliefs , which are woven into our culture and go back at least as far as the Depression . Each script has an emotional core : shame , pride , inadequacy , helplessness . And so before he gets to the minimum wage or any other proposal , Obama would do well to speak directly to such emotions and neutralize them with a set of counter-scripts . He 's got to say things like : . `` If you feel the middle class has fallen out of reach and you need help , it 's not because you are a lazy moocher . It 's because sometimes we all need help , and there is no shame in that . '' `` There 's no substitute for hard work and grit . But some of the hardest working people in America are poor or barely hanging on to the middle class . We 've got to resist the temptation to kick the guy one rung below us on the ladder just to make us feel like we 're climbing ... . '' `` Envy is an ugly thing . But so is bullying . And when people use words like `` socialist '' or `` class warfare '' to shut down a conversation about whether our wealthiest citizens owe more to the society that helped to create their wealth , well , that 's bullying ... '' `` Franklin Roosevelt told us we have nothing to fear but fear itself . In this age , nothing breeds helplessness like believing you are helpless . We can turn this around together -- if we remember no man is an island and no community can improve its lot without using government wisely and well . '' I 'm not calling for Obama to channel former President Bill Clinton and conspicuously `` feel our pain . '' Obama just has to be Obama -- the author who acutely sensed and articulated the cross currents of ambition and anxiety around him ; the organizer who could navigate the unspoken tensions of identity that influence politics . Obama knows well that before the head can engage on a complex issue , the heart must be acknowledged and its pain and fear must be named . Whether Obama can get House Republicans to take action on inequality is not a matter of his willpower or assertiveness ; the most forceful president can not force Congress to enact a thing . What Obama can do is build public pressure on Congress to act . And the best way he can do that is to make more people feel truly heard . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Eric Liu .
Eric Liu : President Obama must do more than list policy fixes for inequality at SOTU . Liu : He needs to reckon with those who have mixed emotions about `` falling behind '' He says the heart must be acknowledged and its pain and fear must be named . Liu : Obama must tell those who feel shame for being poor to do away with self-blame .