Obama’s second inaugural speech is — in the context of his previous actions and statements — arguably the most shocking speech an American president has made in the last century.
Barry Rubin
Barry Rubin writes that Obama’s Inaugural Speech Presents His New Strategy and Blueprint for Transforming America. Rubin gives an in-depth look at the strategies, tactics, and new political line that Obama revealed in his speech -- which is why should read the entire article.
Rubin notes that Obama's inaugural speech is effectively setting the US out on an entirely new road -- one directed to the left.
For example, Obama said that:
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.Rubin's response:
Really? And how does that follow? It isn’t as if someone says: “Hi, I’m Bob and I’m going to train all the math and science teachers we’ll need and build the roads and research labs.” There are, after all, other alternatives.Read the whole thing.
Up to now, with some additions like veterans’ rights and subsidies for research, all that stuff has been pretty much done by private enterprise and individual initiative. People decided to be teachers, and went to universities established by the states, private institutions, and individuals and got an education. It was taken for granted that the national government played virtually no role in education.
Why does this now have to be done collectively?
Companies created labs and networks needed to create jobs. As for roads, most were built and maintained by states.
So in the guise of continuity, Obama just slipped through an unprecedented centralizing of America.
Will the mass media report on this point? Or critique it? Will professors explain to their students what a shocking misstatement of fact this is?
Thus, when Obama addresses America, “My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it — so long as we seize it together” -- unlike past presidents who would have been referring to "we, the people," Obama is referring to the federal government itself.
And while he talks about everything having to change to meet the huge crisis facing America, Obama does not spell out what exactly that crisis is. But what he does do is urge that the changes that are needed are such that "we cannot afford delay" a tactic reminiscent of Pelosi's famous claim that “we have to pass the [health care] bill so that you can find out what’s in it.”
The question now is whether Obama will succeed in ramming laws down our throats not just for one year, but for four.
He certainly seems prepared to.
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