https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/20/us/politics/donald-trump-inauguration-speech-transcript.html?ref=politics
Paragraph 1: Imply that America is broken. It will take lots of work to rebuild it and many, many years.
Paragraph 3: By making him President, that is giving power back to the people. How is that? No explanation.
Paragraph 4: Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Is he suggesting that all the taxes are going to make DC a lavish place, like Versailles? No evidence.
Paragraph 7: Again, now the "people" rule the country again. How do we have any influence?
Paragraph 10: "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 is a disgusting blatant misrepresentation of the state of the country. Schools have "too much cash" but deprive students of "all knowledge"? It's not hyperbole, it's Orwellian.
Paragraph 11: "American carnage" - We will know what this really means in four years.
Paragraph 12: "For many decades we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military." - The military is arguably stronger and more modern that it has ever been. There is no evidence that it needs any rejuvenation. We still spend more each year on our military than the next 9 countries in the world combined.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures
Paragraph 14: "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." - It's automation that has killed more jobs than globalization. We can bring factories back, but it won't bring back jobs.
Paragraph 15: "America First" - This expression has a long history of nationalism, antisemitism and isolationism. If we naively believe it's not meant to incorporate these feelings, it's still an arrogant and apathetic if not callous position to take. Do we really want to project this cold and opportunistic attitude to the rest of the world?
Paragraph 16: Protectionism - It doesn't work. Good fences do not make good neighbors unless you're running a prison.
Paragraph 18: "We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation. We will get our people off of welfare and back to work rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor." - The answer to get rid of welfare is to create jobs building things. These people are only on welfare because they have nothing to do or they're not forced to do it. I'll believe that we're going to spend money on infrastructure when I see it. It will only be if he or his friends own some stake in the companies that do the work. Bechtel? Halliburton?
Paragraph 19: It's as easy as buy and hire American. That's all we have to do. "We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first." - Weakly masked words that say, "we will do whatever we can to win every contest and protect our interests" - Selfish protectionism.
Paragraph 20: War against radical Islamic terrorism - It's an excuse to hate a religion and to provoke a group of people. Every despot needs a foil.
Paragraph 21: Allegiance to country, loyalty to it and our people is all more nationalism. Jingoistic propaganda to stoke the emotions of a crowd. This is exactly the method that nationalist parties used at the beginning of the 20th century in Germany, Italy, Soviet Union and even China. It's not the way to a noble future. It's the way to follow a dictator to madness. "When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity." Meaningless words that we can pat ourselves on the back for being "patriotic" which is absurd if not vague. The Bible promises "milk and honey" if we all live in peace and get along, right? He's saying that God will look on you in favor if you follow me. That's all.
Paragraph 22: "We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement and, most importantly, we will be protected by God." - Again invoking God as our protector and insinuating we need to worry about all the evils in the world that want to destroy us. Fear! It's all very patronizing.
Paragraph 23: "The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action." - This sounds so familiar. An indistinct enemy that is destroying our way of life. We have to make sure nobody takes away the beautiful things we have created. God is on our side.
Paragraph 22: "We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the earth from the miseries of disease and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow. A new national pride will stir ourselves, lift our sights and heal our divisions." - National pride. All of our future is about us. We are better than all the rest.
Paragraph 23: We're all the same. There is no inequality to overcome. We all want the same thing and we all will benefit from these nationalistic efforts.
"Together we will make America strong again. We will make America wealthy again." - He mentions God 5 times in this 16 minute speech, and promises to make everyone happy and safe and rich. There are no plans or strategies. No paths or explanations and all the things that we are supposed to fix are made up or exaggerated. Fake problems, fake enemies, false pride... Fear and greed. That's all it is. Fear and greed.
Betsy DeVos is backing (up to $25 million) an "EDUCATION" program called NeuroCore. It claims to fix:
Reagan and Bush Jr. were not that bad. They were both naive and thought the world could be a beautiful place and didn't understand how their policies moved in the wrong direction, but they were both happy and hopeful.
How does a 20% tax on imports equal "Mexico pays for the wall"?
