The Chris Moeller Archives

The Inauguration Day Recap

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream had two phases. The first phase of the freedom movement involved integration, equal opportunity, and equal voting rights. The second phase was the demand for economic equality and included a challenge to the country's militarism that he said made America "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.'

Inauguration Day 2008 was a red-letter day for phase one. References to the principals of phase two were woefully inadequate in the new president's first speech, which was just cautious and vague enough in its advocation of "post-partisan" ideals to ignore the reality of the difficult decisions he'll shortly be forced to make between the separate, competing parts.

President Obama's speech made no mention of Palestine, despite the fact that Israel had used the occasion of our transfer of presidential power as a window of opportunity in which to launch a large-scale assault against Gaza with American-provided weapons, and he perpetuated the dangerous and long-standing myth that free markets equal freedom, saying that "Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched." (News, I'm sure, to peoples living today in Russia, South Korea, and Argentina.) Rather than challenging directly the enemies of freedom and instruments of destruction on Wall Street, he said only that "collective failure" has kept us from making the hard choices of late.The American Empire was never placed on notice.

The new president's speech was smoothly written, adroitly delivered, filled with some important historical comment on the question of race and the struggle for equality, while lacking in the malaprops and outright flag-waving pimpery we came to expect from his predecessor; but it was filled with its share of whitewash for our checkered history and still plenty of flattery for his adoring populace ("[our] tempering qualities of humility and restraint," really?). There were no promises of health care for all, or free education for every student. The bar was not set high.

For those of us who have chosen to adopt the more historically-justified "show-me" approach to the Obama Presidency, his opening address and the promises therein can be only that, accepted with openness but with a healthy skepticism towards one who has shown so little courage thus far on so many of the most important struggles before us. The job actually starts today.

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After I work through some feelings of ambivalence over the almost monarch-like images, I'm sure I'll find this video clip terribly charming.

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Dick Cheney as Dr. Strangelove. The transformation finally became complete.

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The Bush presidency ends in the dismal way it began and endured for eight full years. Thanks to the backing of a vengeance-thirsty public and the lack of any opposition party of consequence in Washington, a mental incompetent and underachiever, possessed of a crippling personal insecurity, was allowed to run roughshod over everything in his path, from the United States Constitution to large masses of innocent, wasted human life. May a God of unconditional love, patience, and mercy grant this country the sufficient wisdom and courage that it will never, ever allow this man to become commissioner of baseball.

posted by CM @ 2:13 PM