American Carnage

It has taken a few days for the words to sink in. I have read many reactions and analysis of Donald Trump’s inaugural address. I’m still shocked by the breathtaking crudeness of its language and its delivery. I completely disagree with Trump on just about everything, and don’t think he’s qualified to be president, and have cringed at his speeches since he started running for president. But given the time and moment of this occasion, this stands by itself. Inaugural addresses are supposed to be about healing, unity, the brightness of the future, and the vision of the new president, and how he is going to rally those both for and against him for the good of all. There should be beauty and eloquence to the language. This speech was snarled at us. It was an apocalyptic vision of America.

Trump painted a bleak picture of desperation, “Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash but which leaves students deprived of all knowledge and crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.” He blamed all of the politicians sitting behind him, including the Republicans, who he will need to get anything done. His screaming of “America first” was a threat to the rest of the world that looks to us for leadership.

There was no more difficult time in American history than the Civil War. The most famous inaugural address was Lincoln’s second address on March 4, 1865, after four long years of bloodshed and death that nearly destroyed the country. Lincoln didn’t demonized the Confederacy. He spoke of forgiveness and hope and the commonality of both sides, “Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aide against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from another man’s face; but let us judge not that we be not judged.” Lincoln ended with the line that rings done through the decades of what America should be about, “With malice toward none; with charity for all…let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds…”

Franklin Roosevelt spoke to a nation in the depths of the Great Depression in March, 1933. But he was hopeful and reassuring that no matter how frightened people were about the future, they would prevail. He boldly told the country, “This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Both Lincoln and Roosevelt were confident and promised that if we worked together, and set hate and fear aside, we could overcome any obstacle and move to a brighter and better future. There was a elegance and cadence to their speeches that soothed and rallied the nation at the two most difficult times in our history.

We now find ourselves at a time of division and mistrust. When we needed leadership and outreach, we got an angry diatribe by a shallow man that many of us have been duped into trusting. He communicates with tweets that have the tone of an insecure teenager. This is not a time for tweets. This is a time for considered thought and collaboration. The country has survived weak and ineffective leaders in the past who thought they knew all the answers. We have one now. When Trump finished his speech with, once again, saying, “we will make America great again”, he raised his fist over what he called “American carnage” when an open hand was needed.