Inauguration speech

Yesterday's speech was, as I read somewhere, essentially a nationally televised locker-room speech. The coach, pissed off at the team's performance, calls for the qualities that have brought the team top of the league in the hope that the best half is yet to come. Compared to the other Obama speeches I have seen, it was a sober, stern and, yes, conservative one. Its structure contained elements of classical ancient rhetoric as well as rhetoric of older American grandeur: invocation of the glorious ancestors, description of the recent "fall" from grace, call for return to the "old but true" virtues, anticipation of victory and re-invocation of the glorious past in a virtuous circle. In what it praised (hard work, humility, sobriety, spiritual reawakening), it almost had an austere Protestant feel. And despite the hopes of many, it lacked a unifying theme (hope and virtue are too general) and an one-liner to produce one billion search results on Google ten years down the road. This is, how should I put it, disappointing stuff from a man on whom everyone seems to be resting their hopes for the next four years. Seriously, the "pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off" part sounded like it was written by Michelle.

On the other hand, the man is the Head of the United States during a serious economic crisis, not the young Democratic Senator from Chicago. Call me biased, but I think that the speech was great, even by Obama's high standards (the criteria are not the same as before after all), and had quite a few good lines. I judge them by their conciseness, literary merit, and what I deem to be political far-sightedness. Here they are:

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics. We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West -- know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.

It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job, which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

These quotes signal the transformation heralded (hopefully) by Obama's Presidency: it will substitute communitarianism and moderation for the individualism/sectarianism and ideological divisions of the previous 50 years (1960-2009). The enemies are now the unfettered pirates of the global economy and radical terrorism. A post-racial America is also well-situated to work with the rise of foreign powers. By what he is and what he said yesterday, the man might have captured the zeitgeist.

In terms of real US politics I expect this to mean: investment in primary research and public works, universal health care and major school reform, a recognition of the rise of China and India in international institutions, a careful detente with the Arab world and rapprochement with Cuba. I have no clue how the teetering banking system can fit into the picture but it might mean government regulation of the few banking conglomerates that will survive this crisis.

One more thing: as a European I often cringe at the tendency of American orators to appeal to patriotism and a pristine past with a straight face, given the moral compromises required by their half-century status as a superpower. However, I cannot but recognize that America remains a young, innovative, dynamic and pro-active country that holds the ability to re-invent itself. This is partly the legacy of its founding fathers. I wish I could say the same things about Europe (and, yes, I mean the Union), even if I had to lose some of that much cherished European self-reflexivity and stiff upper lip.