Inauguration Day

Every American should honor and cherish what happened today.  The fact that every four years we either peacefully transfer power or reaffirm the power that is already resident, and that we limit the number of terms of the Chief Executive, is a wonderful testimony to our democratic experiment.  It is a great thing that hundreds of thousands of people can witness the event and relish in the orderliness of our republic.  Although some other countries have similar ceremonies, we were the first and ours endures through the decades and centuries.  It is really quite something!

The other half of the equation is the guy taking the oath.  The tone he sets, the direction he wants to go, the address to all the population of this day should be inspiring.  Now I know these speeches are tough.  Not many are rememorable.  In fact, really only two inaugural speeches have earned an immortal place in history...Lincoln's second and Kennedy's only.  Both were speeches for the ages.

But not today.  I'm glad I was at work and didn't see/hear it first hand.  When I heard him later in the day I couldn't believe how disappointed I was.  This was not a speech to our people.  It was a speech to his factions, his constituencies.  This was not unifying.  It was dividing.  I've thought that he spent way too much of his time and political capital in his first term dividing us.  Now he starts his second term with more division.  He had a chance to reach out, to say out loud that he wants to achieve consensus.  But no.  My way or the highway.  He could have been specific, but he was vague.  Grand ideas that mean nothing.  The thing that struck me was the reference to "social justice".  That is a code word for redistribution.  After this speech he's going to have a monumental battle on his hands.  Finally, nothing on national security or our place in the world.  Under his leadership we have lost our leadership position in the world.  I know most are war weary.  I'm not talking about war.  I'm talking about diplomacy, leverage, economics...really how we survive in what is a big, bad, ugly world.

I'm a guy who looks at things with an open mind and some optimism.  But not in this case.  I have to say that for the first time in my life I really fear for our future.  And for my kids and their kids future.