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Obama looks to past to set course for future
News Analysis
President Obama is a student of history - it was no coincidence that he formally announced his run to become the first African-American president back in 2007 at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln delivered his "house divided" speech in 1858 - and his inaugural address today drew an unmistakable line between the nation's past and its prospects for the future.
President Obama's second inaugural speech
The president opened his remarks by referencing Lincoln's words from that speech, stating that America came to realize at that point in history that "no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free." He grounded his remarks in the Declaration of Independence's claim that "all men are created equal," tying it to both the American Revolution and rules mandating that there is fair play in the free market, to the need for a great nation to "protect its people from life's worst hazards and misfortune."
Later, he again invoked the declaration - though this time, he referred to the notion that "all of us are created equal" - before referencing three landmark moments in the battle for civil rights: The Seneca Falls Convention for women's rights, the clashes in Selma for African-American rights and the riots at New York's Stonewall Inn for gay rights. (The speech marked the first presidential inaugural in which LGBT rights have been referenced.)
He then pivoted from the triumphs of the past to the necessity of continuing the fight, calling for equal pay for women, equal rights for gay men and women, an elimination of long lines to vote, better treatment of immigrants, and, in an indirect reference to his desire to pass gun control legislation, the necessity of children from Detroit to Appalachia to Newtown to know "that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm."
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At five separate moments in his second inaugural address, delivered to an estimated 500,000 to 700,000 people at the Capitol, Mr. Obama uttered the words "We, the people" - the opening words to the preamble of the Constitution. Those words were deployed to underscore the president's argument that Americans need to recognize that we are all in it together - and that while America celebrates initiative and enterprise, "preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action."
"For the American people can no more meet the demands of today's world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias," he said. "No single person can train all the math and science teachers we'll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores. Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people." He went on to add that "we are made for this moment, and we will seize it - so long as we seize it together."
That idea underscored the positions Mr. Obama reiterated during the speech, which at times came closer to a policy-oriented State of the Union Address than an inaugural, which historically tends to be more about soaring rhetoric. (The president will offer his State of the Union on February 12.) In addition to arguing that economic inequality hampers the nation's success, he said that the future depends on harnessing "new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher."
"We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few," said the president. "We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other - through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security - these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great."
Mr. Obama also fit a call for a renewed focus on fighting climate change - an issue largely absent from his first-term agenda - into the notion of collective action for the common good, saying that "the failure to [address it] would betray our children and future generations."
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In addition to climate change, Mr. Obama's second term agenda involves pushing passage of gun control and immigration legislation, overseeing the further implementation of the health care law, winding down the war in Afghanistan, and continuing to try to find some way to come to a major agreement with Republicans to address the nation's massive debt and deficit.
He has signaled that to accomplish these goals, he will take a more confrontational approach with Republicans than he did in his first term -- an approach illustrated by his recent refusal to negotiate on raising the debt limit. His inaugural address offered little in the way of appeals for Washington bipartisanship; instead, Mr. Obama called on Americans in and out of the nation's capitol to come together to help the nation stay on the right path, even if the results are sometimes "imperfect."
"Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time - but it does require us to act in our time," he said. "For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay."
It was an appeal grounded in the notion that America's strength comes from all its citizens, no matter their status. And it was offered by a president who knows the debt he owes to history - a president who sees himself both as a symbol of American progress and a vessel to keep it moving forward.
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jamesdickason said, "... All I heard was "we will do it my way or else"
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Leadership is a balance between initiative and consensus. If 2009-2012 was Obama's patient effort at consensus (which ended in congressional gridlock), the election of 2012 begins his dramatic period of initiative.
A majority of Americans have endorsed that change. Having spent the past four years in fruitless dialogue with the GOP (the party of "NO"), the country is ready-- more than ever-- to move forward, again.
For those who disagree with Obama, they have only to recall George W. Bush, who declared presidential authority with the words, "I'm the decider, and I decide what is best."
They're the only ones who work, and everyone else is a leech.
The reality is that the red state Tbagger folks are the biggest piglets suckling at the federal teat, not the blue states.
And I am sick and tired of supprting the Tbaggers and their free stuff.
.
he has looked at how Lincoln murdered 640000 Americans, because he demanded HIS WAY, with the south, and Obama loves that, and he will do the very same to get his way NOW!
Stop brining the U.S. Down to the rest of the third world.
Stop the so called free trade BULLSH!(t) because it is only free to the THIRD WORLD.
Stop sending money to other countries, when we can't afford for our elderly to stay WARM.
So, I guess I am sick of listing to REPUKE or DUMBAZZOCRAT, this is the problem.
Start with the UNITED STATES FIRST
Your own beliefs must be respected, as a matter of principle if not merit-- at least until you begin muttering about a "disobedient" president in the White House. Then your beliefs become fringe mythology.
Baggers, do you want to know why you lose?
It's easy. I'll tell you.
People hate you.
They hate you for that birther nonsense. They hate you for shouting "You lie" to a President and thinking that's okay because he's (half) black. They hate you for blaming Obama for Bush's economic crash. They hate you for calling him a socialist, when what you really meant was the n-word. They hate you for denying Obama ended Iraq, and now this year, Afghanistan. They hate you for denying Obama got bin Laden. They hate you for defending homicidal maniacs who slaughter our children.
They hate you for being driven by fear and intolerance and misogyny and paranoia. They hate you for representing the worst traits of humanity. For all these reasons and a thousand more, people just
plain.
f u c k i n g.
hate.
you.
And that is why you lose.
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Nope, the repubics lose because they are big spending liberals, war mongering neo-cons, hypocrites who simply can't leave people's personal lives alone, only slightly different from the democraps. If repubics were fiscal conservatives who stood for personal liberty, minded their own business (here and abroad), they would win by a landslide every election, for that matter so would the democraps. People hate both parties, just so happens in November 2012 they hated repubics more than democraps. Americans have the attention span of an apple we'll see what happens in 2014.
Compared to that, eye-rolling is not even rude.
Meanwhile, your well-mannered dog may be thinking unflattering thoughts about you, even if you never would guess. Not the same can be said for those who read your hyperbolic hypocrisy.
For him "freedom" is the right to have a pickup truck on credit, lock a gun in the gun rack, pull a bass boat on weekends, and work without union representation under low wage and otherwise inhumane conditions.
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Ok, that is his right as A FREE AMERICAN CITIZEN. I guess if you had your way you would just go imprison or reeducate all these people. Once the numbers grow to where it isn't feasible to do that, you probably will have to come up with a FINAL SOLUTION...YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN FILTHY NAZI SCUM.
The of it is, without union inflated wages, he still has a job. See the beauty of it?
Union wages and UNIONS drove jobs to China.
TYPE_Z said, "Union wages and UNIONS drove jobs to China."
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WHY MOVE JOBS?
As a matter of history, corporate owners, boards and CEOs for decades have schemed to move American jobs overseas because slave labor is always cheaper. Workers in desperate need in poorer countries ("coolie labor") will take any work at almost any pay to feed their families. In global labor markets, this has been called a "race to the bottom"-- the less workers are paid, the more profit goes to owners and corporate management. That agenda, and only that, has been the driving motive for shifting American jobs overseas.
AMERICAN WORKERS BUILT AMERICA
Such exploitation of workers has been around for a long time. In 18th and 19th century Europe, industrialized workers lives were shortened by appalling conditions around their factory workplace. Only gradually did it became apparent to owners that workers are human beings, too, and should have a fair share of the wealth they produce.
In the United States, unions of workers began to build the urban middle class from the moment they received a greater share of the wealth they produced, investing in their communities and building them into urban areas. In every sense, worker unions shared the growing national prosperity and helped drive American economic expansion.
WHILE WAGES STAGNATE, OWNERS THRIVE
In today's economy, union workers naturally continue to demand a fair return for their work. This is called collective bargaining, but bargaining is something even corporate executives do to raise their own salaries. The process is intuitive-- most Americans believe all workers should have a share of the prosperity their own labor makes possible.
Still, a puzzle persists through American history. While owners and corporate management remain somewhat resistant to workers' demand for fairness, claiming it raises production costs unreasonably, owners and management make sure they pay themselves high wages, and pass along their high profits in the product price-- blaming "excessive" production costs and workers, instead.
Most other countries roll their eyes at American excess with executive salaries, and their own executives make only a fraction of that income for doing the same work. Apologists for American executive salaries claim such salaries are only what is necessary to find good people. But if that is the case, how can everyone else in the world get by on so much less?
WEALTHY OWNERS DECIDE TO PUT AMERICA LAST, PROFITS FIRST
Over the past 40 years, as American executive salaries rose to astronomical levels, the same corporate owners, boards and management cut all other costs to keep their profits-- even if it meant cutting wages and jobs of the workers who made production possible. Since cutting wages is an affront to workers and their labor investment, while management basks in vastly greater wealth (a 300-1 executive salary ratio is not uncommon), workers were inclined to protest, to strike and take desperate action to preserve what income they still had.
In the face of such unrest, and as corporate profits-- ironically enough-- continued to rise, owners and management began moving jobs to other countries, especially where foreign workers are seldom inclined to demand a greater share of production profits. Much of this relocation to the Third World simply reinstated early 18th and 19th labor conditions, with families separated and often living in squalor.
Ultimately, owner and executive greed went beyond the unreasonable cost imposed by their high profits, and their greed began to plunder whole American cities. The "leveraged buy-out" became all too common-- management and corporate boards conspired to strip a struggling corporation of all saleable assets, putting workers out of their jobs, and sometimes killing the company and blighting the surrounding community, as well. Mitt Romney became a model for the destruction leveraged buy-outs wreaked on American communities. See-- http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829
THE ENDURING LESSON
Through all the waste and destruction to native industry and to communities which nurtured and gave them birth, one thing has become undeniable-- American general prosperity cannot return until we have a common understanding wealth comes from all who share in production. And until we recognize a prosperous economy always circulates and invests that wealth in the community, not in the Swiss bank accounts of a powerful few.
Written large, the American economy is our community, and every American is a stakeholder. Jobs must be created with good conditions and fair wages as in investment in our future. Clearly, all of us are in this together, because it takes a whole community to raise a prosperous economy.
For him "freedom" is the right to have a pickup truck on credit, lock a gun in the gun rack, pull a bass boat on weekends, and work without union representation under low wage and otherwise inhumane conditions.
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Ok, that is his right as A FREE AMERICAN CITIZEN. I guess if you had your way you would just go imprison or reeducate all these these people. Once the numbers grow to where it isn't feasible to do that, you probably will have to come up with a FINAL SOLUTION...YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN FILTHY NAZI SCUM.