Brenda Blagg: Trump's dark vision

President’s focus on the “carnage” of nation

Donald Trump is president.

He assumed that great responsibility on Friday in that most precious of American traditions, the democracy's peaceful transfer of power.

The inauguration of a new president is a time when the nation has come to expect soaring rhetoric, some sort of uplifting message.

That didn't exactly happen on Friday.

The closest President Trump came was this passage:

"We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital and in every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it's going to be only America first. America first."

Not everyone likes that nationalistic tone but many Americans will accept it as a different vision for the nation.

He also made a lot of promises, many of them unrealistic, and talked of a united America that would be "totally unstoppable." He, of course, ended with a promise to "make America great again."

For the most part, however, Trump's inaugural address was, as one presidential historian put it, mostly "dark" and "fierce" and not in the tradition of inaugural speeches.

What Trump did do was to shift pronouns from "I" to "we" as he laid out his plans.

That was at least some sign that he knows he's not a candidate anymore.

He is president of a nation that includes not just the people who cheered him at campaign rallies but also those who vigorously opposed his election.

The latter are the same people who are having trouble accepting this outcome, including many who are truly fearful of how Trump will conduct himself as president.

His homage to his critics came in this brief passage of the speech:

"What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people. Jan. 20, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again."

Trump had opened his remarks with the declaration that the ceremony marked not the transfer of power from one administration to another but transfer of power from Washington, D.C., "back to you, the people."

The question remains whether he really means all the people, including the millions who were expected to protest his election this weekend all over the nation.

Trump won the electoral vote by a surprisingly large margin, but he lost the popular vote by several million. He nevertheless owes his service to all voters and to Americans who didn't or couldn't vote.

He has a huge challenge to overcome the trepidation with which his new administration, particularly many of his cabinet picks, is being met by ordinary Americans and by members of Congress.

It didn't help that he leveled implicit criticism at former President Barack Obama and many other former and present leaders sitting right there in the audience.

Trump's speech painted a bleak picture of the America he inherits.

"The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation's capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land ...

"The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. Everyone is listening to you now. You came by the tens of millions to become part of an historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen before."

Trump did return to campaign mode with that comment and this declaration:

"Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families and good jobs for themselves. These are just and reasonable demands of righteous people and a righteous public, but for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists:

"Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge; and the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.

"This American carnage stops right here and stops right now."

That one word -- "carnage" -- may prove to be the most quoted from this inaugural speech.

And that whole passage was just the beginning of Trump's description of the America he sees now and blames on past leaders.

"We've defended other nations' borders while refusing to defend our own and spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay...

"One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind. The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world.

"But that is the past, and now we are looking only to the future."

What is important to remember, as another historian commenting on this and other inaugural addresses said, "Maybe words don't matter anymore."

And remember this, too. Trump's words aren't likely to endure. His actions -- good and bad -- will.

Commentary on 01/22/2017

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