Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death… Yet sometimes grace bestows a tomorrow of soaring magic and hope, and so it will be with the inauguration of Barack Obama on Tuesday. Whether it began with his moving rhetoric or much of America's desire to simply be rid of George W. Bush, Obama has captivated this nation. The vast majority of people believe in him and, if polling is right, are willing to give him time to fix the disasters produced by the past eight years.
Just to have a president who can speak well and intelligently, who reads books and newspapers, who seems to have an interior life, calm center and an open mind, who's smart, who won't embarrass us in the world. A man who is willing to change his mind when the facts change. Just these things will mean much. America will no longer use torture as an instrument of national policy. Science will come center stage in guiding policy. Diplomacy will once again be worthy of a great power. This president's Christianity will be made manifest through humility and witness, not as a creepy "God talks to me in the Oval office" or as tactic of division and inciting the mob. This constitutional scholar will know about separation of church and state and separation of powers. His vice president will be a vice president. Just these things will be healing tectonic shifts from the scoundrel time we have endured. I, for one, will see the flag raised and hear the national anthem with tears of renewed pride rather than sorrow.
So you can stop reading here. Or come back after the inauguration and read further. Otherwise, we must brace ourselves for the extremely difficult work that will follow tomorrow.
It is good and right that Obama looks to Lincoln, for he enters office at the most trying time for the republic since his idol took the fateful oath. In some ways, Obama's challenges are far greater. We can indeed fantasize about the red states seceding so the remaining union can address the serious issues that face us. Let the warring sisters depart in peace (let's get back those nukes from North Dakota, though). Of course, Lincoln went to war to preserve the union because he realized that if the Confederacy survived, it would only be the first part of the United States to go its own way. New England might have been next. The problems were all of a whole. And so it is today.
America is in deep trouble. The financial crisis is only the first shock of the Great Disruption. We will also face global warming, peak oil, peak water, payback from decades of environmental degradation of the oceans and in industrial farming, peak debt and increasing global instability from all these disruptions. The old model of suburbia is dead. The only question is whether we will begin the transition of retrofitting what can be salvaged, or merely use up what remains of our national credit card trying to revive it. The economy is deeply imbalanced and unhealthy. The educated and rising middle class of the mid-20th century is in retreat. Rising nations are moving ahead of us in research as well as industry. Most of Europe makes us look like a barbaric throwback in the basic infrastructure of the 21st century. Parts of America — Arizona comes to mind — are headed into the Third World (which also has its Scottsdales). And our Constitution and form of government, this unique experiment, is badly damaged from decades of rising corporate power combined with a national security state. This is all of a whole.
Americans are in trouble. We will hear the new president call the nation to service and sacrifice. Yet we have lost something essential as a people in our years of becoming consumers rather than citizens. Decadence has shifted into decline. Too many of us have become "I got mine!" individuals, emblemized by insane behavior behind the wheel and a sense of entitlement to "tax cuts," instead of acting as a free people who knowingly shoulder the burdens and responsibilities of self-goverment. We have become easily led. Too many have embraced ignorance, particularly of history. Too many have been eaten alive by greed, an appetite only less fierce than a Bible-thumping judgmentalism that somehow always left out social justice, charity and a God-fearing reluctance to judge our brothers and sisters. Our elites have become corrupt, most especially the swindlers trained by the finest business schools. "If men were angels, no government would be necessary," Madison said. Yet the Founders also knew that, in the main, a virtuous and educated citizenry was necessary to the survival of the republic they had created.
Can this nation rise to meet genuinely existential threats? Can any society make the wrenching adjustments necessary at this moment to stave off decline if not catastrophe?
America does not have endless tomorrows to shift course. I pray we can and will begin anew. It will not be easy. Yet, although appearances can be deceiving, President Obama does indeed seem to be the man to meet the moment.
Obama can lead the nation but he can’t unring the bell of almost complete suburbanization. We’re stuck in place as a nation and will demand politicians cater not only to the physical reality of our living arrangements but also its indefinite continuation.
If we’re simultaneously soft and barbaric, religious yet narcissistic, the president can appeal to our better angels for only so long. At some point, the hortatory flourishes will simply waft against the carapace of a population at war with nature and a sustainable future.
Tomorrow may, indeed, usher in something new. But whether it’s a wrenching but necessary transition or a feeble effort to manage the damage remains to be seen. Are people willing to change what most regard as a birthright? The free-spending, happy-motoring consumers may decide that change is just too hard. They’ll eventually demand what they really want: more of the same.
This is the paradox of change. Obama must make us want the change that leaves us less comfortable and secure for an untold amount of time. If Obama now seems unwilling to challenge conventional wisdom, it’s probably because he knows us all-too well. He can ride the wave of angst and discontent but he can’t command the tide to ebb. It’s independent of him, and ultimately, our best intentions.
Beautiful prose, Mr. Talton. You write as if one inspired.
“Just to have a president who can speak well and intelligently, who reads books and newspapers, who seems to have an interior life, calm center and an open mind, who’s smart, who won’t embarrass us in the world.”
Oh good god yes. I was watching Obama give his inaugural talk, and there’s Prez Bush in the background, squinting and frowning, when (nearly) everyone else in the stands was smiling and nodding. I was wondering, was Bush thinking “damn, I could NEVER give that kind of a talk. SOB is makin’ me look bad.”
During the inaugural parade, I was flipping around, found that Faux News (I know, why go there) was covering Prez Bush’s arrival in Dallas and a speech by Bush on his accomplishments. I thought, good lord, you can’t even give Obama this one day, can you? I really, really, will not miss listening to Bush’s insane mutterings.