Part of the excitement of this moment, no doubt, is due to the arrival of a much-anticipated national break with the incompetency, obstinacy, and overall mediocrity that has been tragically exemplified by the Bush administration. To clarify, I do not in any way identify myself with the pusillanimous crowd at Move-on.org or with anyone else prone to making foolish, sweeping claims that blame Bush for all the world’s ills. I cringe when I hear people make blanket accusations against “Bush and his cronies” or when they sardonically joke about “moving to Canada” whenever anything doesn’t go their way. While I may sympathize with most of their frustrations, I continually find such rhetoric to be crass, lazy, and simply foolish.
To the best of my ability to tell, George W. Bush seems to be a well-meaning and amiable man. Yet, to be as terse as possible, he quite simply should never have been President of the United States. Even acknowledging some of his successes (AIDS treatment funding in Africa, and dare I say, the ousting of Saddam Hussein, one of the most manifestly sadistic figures of our generation) the Bush administration as a whole has been largely characterized by a continuous series of unfortunate events. We watched as a city drowned, as an economy collapsed, and as the world as a whole looked at us with increasing bewilderment, skepticism, and even distain. Clearly, none of these realities lie solely on the shoulders of George W. Bush. Yet that said, it has been a painful eight years to watch. At the same time then, we must also recognize that many of the dire problems that we now face are also due to our own failures as a people to step up and start thinking more seriously about the long-term effects of many of our short-term oriented actions.
This here inauguration day, it seems more appropriate than ever to reiterate the point that what matters now is not the failures of the past, but rather the way in which we move ourselves forward in the future. As of noon, the twentieth of January, 2009, I would like to collectively invite everyone (myself included) to spend a little less time reciting stupid Bush quotes, and to start putting a little more thought into what we can all do to rise to the challenges of this moment and start the difficult work of making this country great again. In his inaugural address, President Obama hit upon a timeless truth when he said that “Greatness is never given, it must be earned.” From this point onward, it is on us as a people to ensure that it is greatness that we are striving for.
To be honest, it is my personal opinion that Obama’s inaugural address was a bit tepid. Perhaps this is a somewhat predictable reaction, given all the dramatically high expectations and sloppy allusions to Lincoln, FDR, and JFK made by countless political analysts. After reading the aforementioned Presidents’ inaugural speeches recently, it seems to me that Obama’s did not quite match up with many of the principle elements that made these speeches memorable. First off, I can’t help but be slightly turned off to most of the Obama-Lincoln comparisons, in part due to the fact that Lincoln himself makes it manifestly clear in his first inaugural address (and in many other documented occasions) that he had neither the “intention…nor the inclination” to change the status of the Southern man’s “property” (to be read: black slaves). The idea of Lincoln as the “Great Emancipator” or the leader of a moral movement against the fundamental injustice of slavery seems to be, at best, a nieve and revisionist version of history. We can save that conversation for another day, but suffice it to say that I find the apathy that Lincoln displays towards slavery in his first inaugural address to be hardly comparable to Obama’s ongoing theme of adherence to universal virtues of fairness and justice.
Perhaps Lincoln’s notion of appealing to “our better angels” or even attempting the task of seeking to unite a “divided nation” is more of a legitimate comparison to what Obama sought to accomplish with his speech, but it still feels like a bit of a convenient stretch to me. Furthermore, I also found it challenging to draw parallels between the speeches of other watershed Presidents and that of Obama’s. At first view, it seemed that there was no single epic line that will be forever enshrined in history along with FDR’s “…Fear itself” or JFK’s “Ask not…” In my view, the strongest part of Obama’s speech was definitely in the communication of his foreign policy stances. He was firm and assertive on terrorism, but without being bellicose or showy. This may prove to be a fine-line to manage in the future. He was clear in annunciating that America will turn its back on the dubious and sometimes criminal shortcuts that have been taken in the “War on Terror.” He declared that we “see as false the choice between our security and our values.” Furthermore, Obama said that America is a “friend of each nation” and that we will be willing to “extend a hand [to historically less friendly foreign governments] if [they] are willing to unclench [their] fists.” I can only imagine the enthusiasm those lines must have engendered in much of the crowds watching the speech everywhere from Paris, to Nairobi, to Tehran.
To be sure, aside from its foreign policy implications, it already looks like the speech is being billed as one introducing the theme of an “era of responsibility.” Yet perhaps my biggest disappointment with Obama’s speech was not the lack of a sound-bite to be immortalized, but that, for whatever reason, he failed to fully capitalize on the opportunity to ask the American people to stand with him in this new era, and to make some of the individual choices and sacrifices that will be absolutely crucial to the restoration of the renewed generation of American prowess that we all seek. He did speak vaguely of responsibility and hard choices, but I was honestly waiting for a more direct line to the effect of, “America, the challenges that we face are great, but I need you to be with me in this. I need you to start spending a little more of your free time volunteering to better your communities. I need you to turn your lights off when you’re not using them. I need you to start making smarter choices about your health. Parents, I need you make sure your children are reading some books at night, and not just plugging themselves into the TV. And children I need you to work hard at school and to never stop dreaming big dreams.”
Despite being slightly underwhelmed with the inaugural speech as a whole, I still find myself caught up in the spirit of the moment. We truly seem to, at very least, have the potential to be on the verge of a new era in which the national zeitgeist is one of mutual respect and responsibility, rather than of asinine partisan rancor and unbounded individualism. I was living in Washington DC during the climactic final weeks of the election, and was there the night of November 4th when the victory of Barack Obama was announced. Walking through the streets and over to the White House at about midnight that night will certainly remain as one of the most memorable experiences of my life. There was a certain unguarded and long-suppressed enthusiasm on people’s faces that I have simply never seen before. Cars honked incessantly, celebratory chants erupted, and perfect strangers exchanged high-fives and hugs.
I’m not one much for blind adulation or mindless cult following. We must remember that Barack Obama is in fact a sentient human being, and only one at that. He will not save the economy, health care, energy, or education over night. Nor is he realistically likely to do so in the “first hundred days,” the first year or possibly even the first term. Yet I see this not as cause for cynicism. Barack Obama, though merely mortal, has now become the voice and symbol of a nation and a larger global community which has long been awaiting the unique combination of confidence, vision, equanimity and leadership that he has come to embody. Today he has become our President, and it is my hope that as a nation we will collectively understand both the extraordinary burdens and enormous opportunities that now await us. Let us capitalize on this intersection of both daunting and exciting challenges, and move forward with grace from this great American moment.
