An Oath Taken on Two Bibles that Once Belonged to More Honorably Consistent Leaders — and a Speech Containing an Astonishing Hypocrisy — President Obama’s Second Inauguration Mirrored the United States’ Often Self-Defeating Moral Condition

22 January 2013

Introduction — the more we laud our national past, the less worth we seem to contribute to it

The inaugural spectacle yesterday was pride worthy. I was happy that President Obama got to shine (again) against the hostile face of his mean spirited, neo-Confederate, obstructionist political adversaries.

For development of the neo-Confederacy theme, see:

Andrew O’Hehir, Welcome to the new Civil War, Salon 05 January 2013)

I was pleased, too, that the television cameras picked up the New America’s demographic diversity that is eventually going to overwhelm the bigotry that characterized the old one. Whenever I see the First Family, I am delighted that they represent America’s face to the world.

But, that said, the explicit and symbolic points the President chose to make, during his second inauguration, perfectly reflect the depressing inanity of America’s national soul — where Posing perennially banishes substance and worth. The fact that the inauguration was held on Martin Luther King Junior Day makes the comparison between egocentric fluff and spiritually paid blood unavoidable.

Though President Obama’s speech may indeed one day be seen as harbinger of a New and Progressive America, thus far we have seen little to indicate that he, or anyone else of national stature, is actually committed to effectively leading us there.

Therefore, I make the following points, not to denigrate the worthy aims of what the President said yesterday, but to remind us that Posing and Doing are categorically different. When Inglorious Actions deny Vacuously Posed Honorability, it is our actions that ultimately define us.

Theme — when one is trying to soar persuasively, it is first advisable to wipe the crap off one’s feet

President Obama was obviously trying to emulate the two men, whose Bibles he used to ennoble the administration of his second oath of office — Martin Luther King Junior and Abraham Lincoln.

Given that the President has emphatically not lived their walk (despite his characteristic talk), his second inaugural speech can (at least tentatively) be seen as an occasionally elegant exercise in political blather, mixed with one unfortunate instance of astonishing hypocrisy.

Regarding the stark untruth contained in one passage of the President’s second inaugural speech

President Obama told us that:

We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.

We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully – not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.

We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom.

And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice – not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.

The self-deceiving lie contained in these words should be evident.

In addition to approving a strategically ill-advised, war-perpetuating troop “surge” in Afghanistan during his first term, the President numerically and geographically expanded America’s probably illegal and certainly immoral drone murder program. (Which was undoubtedly being pursued, even as he spoke yesterday.)

In striking contrast — compare what Dr. King said about similarly destructive American hypocrisy during the Vietnam War

Extracts taken from Reverend King’s 1967 speech in opposition to the Vietnam War include:

I speak now . . . of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now.

They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 . . . .

Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony.

They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops.

They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one "Vietcong"-inflicted injury.

Now there is little left to build on -- save bitterness.

This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words:

"Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies.

“It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat.

“The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."

The prolonged war in Afghanistan and the ill-advised one in Iraq were similarly soul-mistaken. And both continue to be notable for the lack of attention we pay to the political and religious bitterness that we have now seeded there and elsewhere. I am equally upset by the perennial bleeding our troops have to do in pursuit of these bone-headed, “not even” strategies.

It is a foolish and life-wasting People that cannot learn from its own egregiously indulged past mistakes.

The moral? — Inadvertent hypocrisy exposes the complacent rot in our souls

To everyone but ourselves.

PeteFree.com

An Oath Taken on Two Bibles that Once Belonged to More Honorably Consistent Leaders — and a Speech Containing an Astonishing Hypocrisy — President Obama’s Second Inauguration Mirrored the United States’ Often Self-Defeating Moral Condition