January 18, 2017 at 2:50 p.m.
Inauguration Day
Inauguration Day
To be sure, we seem a bit tattered and frayed around the edges, like a flag whipped by the wind and storm of battle fire, but, like the flag, our resolve and determination and patriotism still flies, and flies resolutely.
While many people are espousing doom and gloom about the country's current state of polarization, the truth is, we've endured and survived far worse times as a divided nation set upon itself.
Historically, we are usually more divided than we are united, in part because of our pronounced individualism. Americans don't like to conform or comply for conformance or compliance sake, as a rule.
The nation was not even a hundred years old when the Civil War erupted, a bloody affair that claimed the lives of at least 620,000 American soldiers and perhaps as many as 750,000. Talk about polarization.
One of the core issues of that war - states rights versus federal power - remains at the heart of American divisions today. Our political acorns don't fall very far from the constitutional tree.
The Civil War remains the most extreme test of our unity as a nation, and the nation survived.
In more modern times, the Vietnam War sparked the so-called days of rage in American cities and on college campuses across the land. In those days the nightly news would feature little icons spread across a map to depict the locations of the latest riots.
It seemed that most of the time there were more riot icons than states, and pundits bemoaned the shredding of the American social fabric.
But the war ended; the nation survived.
In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon became the first president in history to resign; he would surely have been impeached and convicted had he not voluntarily stepped down.
Many feared Nixon might try to stage a coup d'etat to stay in power, though there's no evidence he ever thought of doing so. Still, that the thought circulated so widely among Americans shows how profoundly distressed people were then about the state of the nation.
In the end, there was no coup; there was a resignation; the nation survived and afterwards even thrived.
Truth be told, American freedom has never been an easily won or kept thing. As a famous song puts it, every generation has to win it again.
And every generation has won it again. We have survived depressions and assassinations, world wars and natural disasters and interment camps. We have survived lousy presidents, too, and we have thrived.
On this Inauguration Day, we believe this nation shall continue to survive, and we believe we will once again thrive.
To be sure, America is facing grave threats. To some it's Islamic terrorism and globalist-driven income inequality; to others, it is climate change and racism, as well as gender and sexuality injustice. To still others, it's the Russians.
Almost everyone believes the nation is in deep crisis; that we cannot agree about what the crisis is could be the biggest crisis of all.
Then, too, as Donald Trump assumes the presidency, about half the nation agrees with his agenda and world view, while about half the nation detests both him and his policies.
That's significant because the new president has not given anyone any reason to believe he isn't going to do what he said during the campaign he would do, and that is implement an agenda of radical change. Much of it will come in the next 100 days.
So there are going to be new days of rage straight ahead.
Much of it will be hyperbolic and it will sound threatening, especially given the media's preference for sensationalism and scandal over policy stories.
As in the past, though, we believe Americans can and will cut through the manufactured drama on both sides, and grasp organically what the president's policies mean to them, and whether those policies are helping them or hurting them. If they are not satisfied, they will lend an ear to the opposition.
This is always how Americans overcome the very worst of our many crises. We embrace our unique American individualism, and listen to the voice of our inner adviser, and march forward with those who believe like we do to achieve the American Dream.
In such a way, we overcame a civil war that could have ended the nation, and we built an even greater nation. In such a way we have achieved unparalleled prosperity in the world.
In such a way, the people cut through the media clutter and elected Donald Trump president in November. They grasped organically what President Obama's policies meant to their lives and families, and they gave an ear and support to the opposition.
And so it will be again as Donald Trump stands before us today, on this Inauguration Day, as president of the United States. In the will and way of our great exceptionalism and proud individualism, in the same way as Obama's was, Donald Trump's fate will be sealed by the people, as will that of the opposition.
As on all Inauguration Days, the American people realize it is their own hands, and their own hands only, that can free them, and so today a new generation sets out to win its freedom again.
There will be casualties, as always, and winners and losers, and more crises to come, but to all Americans setting out on this noble mission today with our new president, even if it is in opposition, may the winds of liberty be at your back.
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