Many presidents have given inaugural addresses during periods of crisis and despair in our nation's history. But none ever painted as dark a picture of the nation he was about to lead than Donald Trump did on Friday. Not Lincoln when America was about to be torn apart by four years of civil war, and again at the end of that war that had taken 600,000 lives. Not Roosevelt during the darkest days of the Great Depression when one-third of the work force was unemployed and bread lines stretched as far as the eye could see. Not Kennedy during the coldest days of the Cold War when the Soviet Union was leapfrogging us in the Space Race and on the cusp of placing nuclear weapons 90 miles from the Florida coast. Not Johnson when the country was still scarred by the sins of rampant racial segregation and violence that permeated the South and much of the rest of the nation. And not Barack Obama during the collapse of the U.S. financial and auto industries that was costing thousands of Americans their jobs and homes each day.
As far as I know, none of those presidents used the word "carnage" to describe the state of America when they spoke to the throngs gathered on the National Mall. So 2017 must really be a frightening time to be an American, right? The only problem is I'm having trouble finding that carnage that Trump spoke of on Friday. Sure, there are problems and challenges, as there always are, and some Americans continue to be left behind. But carnage is defined as the "the slaughter of a great number of people, as in battle; butchery; massacre." (I didn't make that up, it's on a reputable site called Dictionary.com).
Is the carnage to be found in a stock market that rose 180% during Obama's presidency, not only enriching banks and auto companies that were on the verge of collapse but bolstering the 401(k) and IRA accounts of ordinary working Americans? Is it to be found in an economy that has generated the longest, uninterrupted period of job growth in the history of the country, producing 15 million jobs since 2010, many of them in auto manufacturing factories that the Obama administration saved from collapse? Is it to be found in a health care system that now insures more Americans than ever before, protecting them from the prospect of death or bankruptcy from a medical emergency?
Can someone please help me find this carnage of which Trump speaks? Or could it be that the carnage is largely bred from an undying hatred toward a black president who conducted himself with dignity for eight years and helped bring America back from the precipice of economic collapse that would have affected every one of our lives? A carnage of the mind that leaves no room for understanding of facts or reality?
I love to write about history and what it means today, but I'll ruminate here on whatever pops in my head and stays there until I can get it off my chest.
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