The Crowning of the Emperor of the West

People whom I respect have been really impressed by President Obama’s inaugural speech.

As soon as I hear words like this:-

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages.

“humble?  “whisper through the ages”?  I expected him to say, "Lo" at some point.

“America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.”

Eyes fixed on the horizon?  And with the inspirational statesman look?  That was pseudo poetic bombast.  As an outsider, I felt faintly embarrassed, and thought that a quick cup of tea with the Queen, a few words in front of Downing Street while the old incumbent leaves by the back door carrying a suitcase, that's the way to do it.  Democracy is a good thing, but it doesn’t need to be turned into a religion.

This makes me sound like a sour cow, but I was underwhelmed especially as the spectators who were interviewed evidently though Obama was going to recreate the heaven and the earth.  One said that she thought Obama would end all wars.  What really did move me was when veterans of the Civil Rights movement were interviewed, and were in tears.  Five decades or thereabouts ago they had gone to create a place for the African Americans in the nation, had been beaten up, hosed or had the dogs set on them, and look, they had come through.  Yes, that was something to celebrate, with all the words of nobility a speech writer could produce.

Comments

[Ophelia Benson]

"What really did move me was when veterans of the Civil Rights movement were interviewed, and were in tears."

Yeah. But that would have been a lot less moving (and perhaps some of the veterans would have been less moved) if the new president had been someone else - Al Sharpton, say. The fact that it was someone like Obama ramped up the emotionality enormously...because there was no compromise, no need to compromise, no trade-off, no 'well he's not that great but he is the first African-American...' It was the combination of the first African-American and the conspicuously impressive qualities of the guy that made the orgy of sentiment possible and in fact very difficult to resist (I didn't even try) and also that made it so very broad (which again ramped it up some more).

Viewed in that light, I think the rhetoric played its part, and in fact was probably kind of necessary. I mean...people were wound up, man, and they (we) needed something like a nice flowery speech. We needed it all - we needed Aretha's hat, and everything.

[Rosemary Bell]

I'm all for Aretha's hat. It looked fine on Aretha's head, and in Aretha's head and body is that voice.

But I don't care for high-flown rhetoric, but hey, it wasn't my party.