"This is not a sectional issue. Difficulties over segregation and discrimination exist in every city, in every State of the Union, producing in many cities a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety. Nor is this a partisan issue. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics." In this excerpt from President Kennedy's 1963 Civil Rights Address the phrase "rising tide of discontent" most likely refers to:

a sectional issue
difficulties over segregation and discrimination
every State of the Union
a time of domestic crisis