There was little question in my mind that I would return to a discussion of American politics this week. With my coffee in hand, I sat and watched the inauguration of Donald Trump as the president of the United States.
The night before, I had gone to look to see if I could find transcripts for inaugural speeches and lo and behold, as the depth and breadth of information on the internet never ceases to amaze me, the Yale Law School's Avalon Project has a complete archive of every speech.
I chose a few at random to look at and discovered a thread of self-effacement and the deep recognition of the awesome power that is bestowed in the Office of the President.
So when I sat down on Friday morning I was, like most pundits hoping for a similar tone with at least a pretense of modesty, but alas no.
Trump is not typical and within moments he took a "shot across the bow" at those on the stage who had sat in power in Washington.
The political establishment became the target and it was clear that the old political elite, on both sides of the spectrum, are no longer in charge.
Over the next few days I know that you will see many, many analyses of Trump's address so I hope that you will indulge me as I point out that there was another speech made at the inauguration that was much more typical of the tradition of the day.
The speech was given by
Sen.Roy Blunt, inauguration committee chair, and he said this (I have cut a short section out at the beginning and made the quote read a bit more clearly):
"...36 years ago at his first inauguration... President Ronald Reagan said that what we do here is both commonplace and miraculous. Commonplace [because] every four years since 1789 when President George Washington took this exact same oath [and] miraculous because we've done it every four years since 1789 and...it sets [an example] for democracies everywhere.
"Washington believed the inauguration of the second president would be more important than the inauguration of the first. Many people had taken control of a government up until then but few people had ever turned that control willingly over to anyone else. And as important as the first transfer of power was, many historians believe that the next election was even more important when in 1801 one group of people arguably for the first time ever, in history, willingly, if not enthusiastically, gave control of the government to people they believed had a dramatically different view of what the government would, should and could do."
In this passage, Blunt reminds Americans that there is nothing more critical to the American tradition than the peaceful transfer of power.
I have written before in this column about the idea of the "great experiment" that is the United States and this principle is key to its longevity.
Blunt then went on to suggest that the key function of the inaugural address is to unite and to rise above the partisan victory.
He said: "Thomas Jefferson... beyond the chaos of the election that had just passed, said: 'We are all republicans; we are all federalists.' After four years of civil war, Lincoln's second inaugural speech tried to find reason for the continued war when he pointed out that both sides prayed to the same God. He'd earlier written about those fervent prayers that one side must be and both sides may be wrong but in 1865 he looked to the future and the memorable moment in that speech was "with malice toward none and charity for all."
"In the middle of the Depression, the country was told that 'the only thing we had to fear is fear itself.' And President Kennedy talked about the obligation in democracy to country, the great question that day was: 'Ask what you can do for your country.' So we come to this place again, commonplace and miraculous, a national moment of celebration but not a celebration of victory, a celebration of democracy..."
I hope I am wrong but I suspect that Blunt's words will be lost in the analysis of the inauguration but for those interested in understanding the workings of government his speech was a lesson in American politics 101.
