During Barack Obama’s first inaugural address in 2009, he spent much of his speech discussing America’s needs, goals, and mission. In his second inaugural, he broke down the country into special interest groups that had been his support – not Americans as a people, certain Americans.
The differences between the first and second inaugurals are like night and day. If you have never been badly fooled, try listening to both for the stark contrast in tone and substance. The first shows a willingness to compromise while the second is “Thy will be done.”
This inaugural enumerated his real agenda.
In 2009, Obama’s vision of what now is the familiar class warfare rhetoric was a hidden agenda. He did admit our “economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some,” but couldn’t help adding, it was “our collective failure to make hard choices.”
That phrase was the beginning of the chaos. He gently noted, we “cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.”
There’s the trigger.
Fast forward four years to his 2013 persona. Anyone with ears could clearly understand that the message was, as he so bluntly stated, “We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky or happiness for the few.”
Whoever said that was the case?
Need more proof of his 180 degree turn? This is the 2013 Obama knowing full well he will never face another election as he says, “We understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.”
Just who is “We” Mr. President?
He treaded lightly on civil rights and race back in the 2009 inaugural address. It was far too early to allow his true feelings to surface with a deeply divided America. The best he could do was add “the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”
Pretty tame words. Compare that with the “new” Barack in 2013: “What binds this nation together is not the colors of our skins.”
Where are we going with this Mr. President?
“Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union could survive half-slave and half-free.” He continued, “Those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.”
This was followed by his mention of every special interest group he could think of. Apparently all of them are “pioneers,” or better yet, victims. And God forbid he should leave out who he now considers part of his political base, the gays.
He greeted his newest political base group by saying, “Until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law.” An interesting twist considering he has changed his mind several times on gay marriage.
The polarization continued with such quotes as “We find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity” to satisfy his Latino base and “Our wives, our mothers, and our daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts,” to satisfy a whooping fifty percent of the population all at once.
Obama summed up the speech with the conclusion that Americans cannot “betray our children and future generations.”
Apparently there was no time left to explain how they will be the chosen to clean up his mess and over $16 trillion of debt and counting. That wasn’t the inspiration he wished to convey.
* If you have enjoyed this column, may I suggest you scroll down this page and press the SUBSCRIBE box? It's FREE. Thank you for your patronage.
** Send your comments to: dwight.schwab@gmail.com
Comments