The Inauguration Speech I would have liked to hear

I admit that I spent an hour this morning only pretending to work (should anyone from work read this, please know that I will be making up for that hour by staying later). I pulled up a word doc, gave it a generic title—so to avoid suspicion—and listened to the inauguration ceremony online. I will go ahead and say that my frame of mind was not one of excitement, awe, blind infatuation etc. for the President and his forthcoming speech, but rather an interest to see whether or not he would deviate from the pomp and circumstance of previous inaugurations (not likely considering the $150 million or so that he spent on the event), and give a ceremony that reflected all of this change hullaballoo he was touting for the past year. Here are some thoughts.

Firstly, a quick comment on Pastor Warren’s prayer. A nice invocation, to be sure. Very predictable, very uniform, very Christian. But I was startled a bit when he started blessing Obama’s children, not because of the fact that he blessed them (an honorable gesture, as those kids will surely need a boost of Spirit), but because of the manner in which he breathily said their names. Ali-YAH, and Sa-SHAH! As I was only listening to the event and wasn’t able to actually see the pastor, I would not be at all shocked to learn that Pastor Warren was unavailable for the prayer and was replaced by William Shattner. I’ve never cared for theatrics like this during supplication. Where is the humility?

Anyway, I tried my best to take notes on Obama’s speech, and I just want to comment on a few things he said. Note: all of this will be paraphrased, as I am writing this post only moments after the actual speech was given; tried to find a transcript of the speech online, but I guess even that wouldn’t be posted so shortly after the event.

Obama says:

"America carries on during crisis because people remain faithful to our founding documents; so it must be with us."

I certainly hope you mean this. Our founding documents—regardless of whether or not you support the Federalist, Monarchist or Nationalist arguments of the day—painted quite a different picture of the government we should have, one that is quite in contrast to the programs and goals you outlined during your campaign. It would be a wonderful eye opener to see you revert us to the wisdom of those men who established this nation. Forgive me if I am doubtful.

"Promise an end to the false promises and dogma typical of today’s politics."

Ouch…. Remember when you made a bunch of promises and plans during your campaign and then only a few weeks ago announced that you likely won’t be able to DO all of those things you promised? Remember, Mr. President? Seems like the same old politics to me… Where’s that change you mentioned?

"Greatness must be earned, no shortcuts, no settling for less, do not seek leisure over work"

Agreed. So what the %&*$ was with pushing for more bailout money for industries who need to earn their greatness? It’s #1 on your agenda! Well, you may have messed up here, and I guess that’s okay. I mean, Bush did it too (change, anyone?), and he lived, so I guess we’ll let it slide. But please remember that you said this whenever any new tax legislation comes across your desk, and keep the far-reaching hands of the IRS out of our pockets. Greatness is earned, right? No shortcuts? We must take work over leisure or laziness?

"Our workforce no less productive than before the crisis..."

True...

"We need to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and remake America..."

Agreed… so how do we do it?

"The state of economy calls for action."

Ah… like your bailouts! Okay, so our workforce is still productive, they just need some assistance, and we need to pick ourselves up and get out of this recession, and your solution is more economic regulation and bailouts? Now that’s change! Wait a minute…

"The question is not whether gov’t is too big or too small but whether it works."

Um… only half true, Mr. President. The real question is whether government works, and the real answer is that small government works (not perfectly, mind you, but better than an over-bloated imperious socialist nation with a bureaucracy the size of Texa… erm… Alaska).

"Without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control."

Last I heard, over-regulation in the industry caused the current spin out you mention. If the market could be truly left alone, it’d be a far different case. But we haven’t had such a market for well over a century. So you’ll just be perpetuating the very things that harmed the economy in the first place. Change, change, change-ity-change!

"Our founding fathers drafted a charter to declare the rule of law and rights of man… we will not give them up for expedience’s sake."

A nice knock on many of Bush’s/Congress’ flagrant disregards for the Constitution and the rule of natural law it defends. Now, will you live within the limits this charter defines for you, Mr. President? If you do, I will forever be in awe of your love and respect for both your office and for this nation and never speak ill of you again.

"We pledge to work along poor nations, feed bodies and minds."

Acknowledged, and I hope we can do just that. Just promise me you’ll leave this task to charities and churches and other non-profits (who have a better track record of doing these things correctly) and abolish the taxes and regulations that impede said organizations from doing so. Please please PLEEEEEASE don’t let the government execute such a task. It will only make things worse.

"We must return to our old truths; must create a new era of responsibility."

I agree. So again, why is a bailout #1 on your agenda? That act seems to fly in the face of responsibility. If you won’t let us fail, you’ll forever stand in the way of our success.

Truth be told, I found myself—for the first time ever—understanding why people are so captivated by Obama when he speaks. The speech was eloquent, indeed, and carried with it an exciting and motivating spirit. The problem for me was that the speech lacked anything of real substance and reflected the same traditions, policies, goals etc. of previous presidencies. Again, WHERE is the change? $150 million dollars spent on a ceremony for the President of change… and it looked and smelled like every other inauguration for the past 100 years. Actually, with the exuberant cost of this ceremony coupled with Obama’s own promises of making an even bigger, bloated government with forced servitude and wealth spreading and what not, I suppose this did deviate from the norm. It didn’t look at all like an inauguration for an American President. It looked like the coronation ceremony for a conquering dictator, throwing himself a lavish party at the expense of his peasants, making beautiful promises that he cannot possibly keep and spending the nation’s wealth on nice things for himself. Okay, it wasn’t quite that bad, but it was in that direction.

Now, if Mr. Obama REALLY wanted to deliver a speech that reflected all this change he’s been talking about, I think it would have been very short, and might have gone something like this:

My fellow Americans, I am honored and humbled to stand before you as your 44th president. You may recall that my campaign talked much of change, and I meant every word of it. But talk is cheap; Congress talks all the live-long day and accomplishes nothing. I am now the President of the United States of America, and we’re going to stop talking and start doing. There will be plenty of time later for long-winded pep assembly speeches after we’ve done some work. Right now, we need action. So, with the hundreds of millions of dollars we collected for this ceremony, I have purchased shovels, sod, trash bags, rakes, hammers, nails, wood—let me just say I put Home Depot back in business. There are millions of you here right now, so right NOW, let’s get to work. People are homeless and hungry, homes are falling apart, city streets are lined with trash, parks are in disrepair. Come up to the podium and grab some tools. Mr. Biden and I will lead you as we go start cleaning up and servicing Washington D.C. Then we move to Philly, then to Boston, and so on and so on, and our actions will hopefully—God willing—inspire the entire nation to join in and donate his money and his time—of his own free will—to repair broken fences, broken bodies, and broken hearts. Then, when that work is done, we can have a nice speech, full of bells and whistles and big words and clapping and cheering. This is day one, and we have much to do. Let’s not waste this precious time. God bless us as we go forth.

Indeed, THAT would be change I could believe in.