I read President Obama’s Inaugural speech yesterday, and I must say it sounded… OK. It struck all the chords you pretty much come to expect in speeches like that – unity, hope, future, yadda, yadda.
But what does it mean, really? My first thought was of the 1976 election. I missed voting in that election by two months, but I remember well the media’s open bias for Carter, and their near orgasmic jubilation at his victory (sound familiar?). I also remember listening to his Inaugural speech in 1977, thinking, “Wow, that sounds fine; I think we’ll be OK,” and wondering why my parents put so little faith in it.
In 1977 I had the audacity to hope what I heard was what would really happen. I was wrong. After four years of inflation, recession, malaise, hostages, and getting our ass kicked by the Soviets, the Iranians, and anybody else bigger than Lichtenstein, I understood my parent’s outlook. And in 1980 I was campaigning for Ronald Reagan.
Words, mean things. But if the speaker doesn’t really believe in them, or doesn’t have a clear, realistic (as opposed to idealistic) vision of how to make them come true, they mean absolutely nothing. Putting faith in them is foolish. That is what I did in 1977, and fear millions today are doing the same. We shall see.
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