Barack Obama's Inaugural Speech -- An Analysis
He's No Ronald Reagan
There were attempts, to be sure, of grand rhetoric in Obama's inaugural speech. They just didn't work very well. There were no great lines that will be remembered in history. No "Ask not what your country can do for you..." and no "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." This is a bit sad, because Barack Obama is capable of much better. During the campaign he had them swooning in the aisles. During Barack Obama's inaugural address, he had them fighting not to snooze on the Washington Mall.
Barack Obama's speech started on a very down note. Barack Obama concentrated on the current economic crisis, the war, and various depictions of misery and despair. "Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights."
Compare Ronald Reagan's first inaugural speech to that of Barack Obama's. President Reagan became President during a similar time of crisis and he did not stint in analyzing the problem and setting forth solutions. But he also had this to say:
"We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look. You can see heroes every day going in and out of factory gates. Others, a handful in number, produce enough food to feed all of us and then the world beyond. You meet heroes across a counter, and they're on both sides of that counter. There are entrepreneurs with faith in themselves and faith in an idea who create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity. They're individuals and families whose taxes support the government and whose voluntary gifts support church, charity, culture, art, and education. Their patriotism is quiet, but deep. Their values sustain our national life."
To be sure, Barack Obama, who must have studied Reagan's speech, tried something similar.
"Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
"For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
"For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
"For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn. Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction. "
Reagan himself could have said that, but then Obama had to ruin it.
"What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified."
Government, therefore, is the answer. And anyone who disagrees is a cynic who offers "stale political arguments." Compare that to Reagan:
"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price."
There is the sad difference in a nut shell. Ronald Reagan called upon Americans to believe in themselves. Barack Obama has called on Americans to believe in government. History records that Ronald Reagan helped to bring forth prosperity out of economic malaise by liberating the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people. Barack Obama proposes to end economic malaise by liberating the might and majesty of government, as if a bad economy were like a terrorist country that can be reduced by shock and awe. It's a low, petty vision that supposes that Americans are children and that government is their parent. It is a sad thing that we have come from Ronald Reagan's heroic vision to Barack Obama's brave new world in under a generation.
Sources: FULL TRANSCRIPT: President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address, ABC News, January 20th, 2009
Ronald Reagan First Inaugural Address, Reagan Foundation
Published by Mark Whittington
Mark R. Whittington is a writer residing in Houston, Texas. He is the author of The Last Moonwalker, Children of Apollo, Dark Sanction, and Nocturne. He has written numerous articles, some for the Washington... View profile
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11 Comments
Post a Commenti agree with you that obama's inaugural speech lacked the eloquence and power of his previous speeches. however, after reading this i find it more as a commentary than an analysis. you output your opinion often resulting in your analysis turning into a critical magazine article. thus wouldnt be taken seriously. when analyzing a piece it is simply finding the purpose, intended audience, and he rhetorical style used. in simpler terms; finding the pieces that make up the whole.
when this guy said there will be no staments remembered well how about " our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America." or " We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you" and my peronal favorite "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist" obama is going to help this nation to better itself. we have had the power to better ourselfs for years and he is helping us realize that.
Look who`s being a racists. I have at all times thought of every man and woman, no matter what religious,gender,sexual preferences,color,creed, whatever that is to be equal,and I have researched my own personal life and I have NEVER been mean and hateful as this new President and his associates are,like Rev.Wright and Rev.Joseph Echols Lowery.Thank you Obama team,friends,and family, for listening and believing such hatefulness.I pray for you all that feel like you just NOW free and not a slave any more.I pray you will see the truth and see most of us have at all times treated you with nothing but fair and equal.We ALL have rights to make something of our lives and you want us all to pay for something that happened hundreds of years ago. What do you want us to do for the sins of our fathers? Some of us think it was the worse thing to have done to a person, Well I`m Native American and there ain`t no one holding me down,I made something of myself. Hope you do too.
I agree with Barefoot. Obama is setting the goals low..so when something does go right..he'll look like a blooming hero. At least to some people.
Well, if we are who we are suppose to be (government of the people, by the people and for the people) then WE ARE the government because we have the right to elect officials who are SUPPOSE to vote the way the people of their constiuency guide. However, for so long now Congress had turn a deaf ear to the people's voice. Poor Mr. Obama has to have the boldness to come up against those clowns if THE PEOPLE are going to take back the government of our nation.
Mark, you have not only blatantly overlooked Reagan's shortcomings but have also twisted Obama's words to suit your own message. You complain that he accuses dissenters of being cynics, yet what evidence do you show to the contrary? Obama's speech may not have had the most memorable one-liners in history, but it is his very combination of eloquence and pragmatism that makes this speech so moving. In this time of fear and economic hardship, nervousness and pessimism, Obama has managed to combine the higher ideals that we all love with the concrete plans and promises needed to reassure us and to rekindle hope. Every word he spoke resonated within me today, and it was all I could do to keep from crying with relief that someone so great was here to help turn our country around at last.
Reagans turn out may have been smaller then president obamas, but how many states did Obama win in the election. President Reagan won 49 STATES!! tiwce. We'll see how President Obama does the second time around.
In response to Andrew:
I am one of those people so enamored with the late great president Reagan. I don't think you will understand what national debt is until president Obama starts throwing bail outs left and right. If you were watching the same speech I was, the only tears I saw were the masses yawning.
This speech the "GREAT ORETOR" wrote himself was not memorable. In fact the best thing about it was the short length.
"Ronald Reagan helped to bring forth prosperity out of economic malaise by liberating the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people."
He also ran up a staggering national debt in the process while promoting policies that heavily favored the rich and creating a culture in which hate groups flourished. "Obama is not Reagan; therefore the speech was failure" is a compelling argument only to someone so enamored of the former president that he was deaf to Obama's message of hopefulness and his commitment to deliver the change has pledged to bring to America. You might as well argue that apples are not oranges; therefore apples are inferior.
At neither of his inaugurations did Reagan attract some 2 million people to the Mall and move them to tears. Obama was sober, moving, and articulate as he laid out a new course that is decidedly post-Reagan. And post-Clinton, and post-Bush. He delivered the goods American was expecting and needed to hear.
I got the impression Obama was setting low expectations so that whatever he does looks fantastic by comparison. P.S. The ad displayed with the article was "Free Government Money." Now THAT'S comedy.