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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums12 ways Obama’s inauguration speech humiliated the Tea Party
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/22/12_ways_obamas_speech_inauguration_speech_humiliated_the_tea_party/After reclaiming the language of patriotism, Obama threw it back in the faces of the GOP in the name of liberalism
With its elegant rendering of the liberal agenda before the eyes of the American people, President Barack Obamas second inaugural address was music to the ears of many a progressive. But to the ears of Tea Partyers and the Republican right, this inauguration speech, as well as the ceremony that surrounded it, was war not just a war of words, but a war of prayer, a war of poetry and even, perhaps, a war of song.
Driving the message home were the hands of the Fates, who conspired to see the second inauguration of the nations first African-American president fall on Martin Luther King Day, the national holiday whose very creation was opposed by so many who still today comprise the Republican Partys right wing.
Here we recount a dozen ways in which the president brought his fight to the right, in no uncertain terms, at his second inauguration.
1. Reminding the nation who won the Civil War. On the eve of Obamas second inauguration, civil rights leader Julian Bond addressed a crowd of progressives gathered in Washington, D.C., at the Peace Ball convened by the activist restaurateur Andy Shallal, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and a host of progressive entities. Bond spelled out the statistics of Obamas 2012 victory for the crowd, noting that Mitt Romneys voters were almost entirely white, and that the only states won by the Republican presidential candidate belonged to the old Confederacy.
The Battle Hymn of the Republic, the anthem of Union troops in the Civil War, long ago passed into the songbook of patriotic themes, and has been played during the inaugural parades of other presidents, sung on several different occasions by the very white Mormon Tabernacle Choir. But when the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, in all its multicultural glory, was tapped to sing the anthem not from a parade stand, but from the ceremonial podium, a different chord was struck, thanks to its context: the invocation that preceded it, and the presidents speech, which followed it.
2. Reminding the nation of the history of the civil rights movement. The significance of the presidents first musical selection could easily be dismissed, had it not been for the fact of how it was bookended: on the front end, the invocation by Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of the slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, and afterward by the presidents own speech, in which he acknowledged the nations history of slavery. From the invocation by Evers-Williams:
One hundred-fifty years after the Emancipation Proclamation and 50 years after the March on Washington, we celebrate the spirit of our ancestors, which has allowed us to move from a nation of unborn hopes and a history of disenfranchised votes, to todays expression of a more perfect union.
Near the beginning of the presidents own address were these lines:
Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.
3. Reclaiming the founding documents for liberalism. The president didnt waste any time plucking the heartstrings of the Tea Party movement, citing both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in the opening paragraph of his inaugural address. It was from the latter that he got the most mileage, beginning with his recitation of the Declarations opening strains:
Much more at above link.
WashingtonConsensus
(29 posts)Heidi
(58,237 posts)pampango
(24,692 posts)And in his speech, Obama did not disappoint those who seek entry to America, whether from Latin America or elsewhere:
Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.
mnhtnbb
(31,750 posts)You know, recently, I just want to say to any Republican who starts in complaining, 'why don't you just
go count your money and STFU'.
ReRe
(10,637 posts).... by Adele M. Stan of Salon.com . Very easy to read, flows like waterfalls of justice. I highly recommend this well written article. Along with Obama's words, it will bolster you in the coming 4 years as we face these abhorrent wingnuts. The only major thing she left out, though, was his reference to the NRA (mention of Newtown). (Or maybe she did and I missed it?)
Thanks, Whovian, for linking this great article from Salon...
tblue37
(66,018 posts)"Battle Hymn of the Republic," not the very white Mormon Tabernacle Choir!
Schumer made a point of emphasizing precisely which tabernacle choir was performing when he introduced them.
Didn't you notice that the soloist was a young African American woman, and several of the singers behind her were also African American.
Lars39
(26,190 posts)My theory is that he was also trying to marginalize fundamentalism. Sure, there were plenty of references to God, but it was descriptions of a more liberal mainstream God. If he can pull that off..wow!
bemildred
(90,061 posts)You could tell he spoke from the heart.
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)This article originally appeared on AlterNet.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/12-ways-obama-smacked-down-tea-party-and-right-inauguration-speech