The 2021 Presidential Inaugural Address: World Citizen #6

by Scott Ragsdale

This essay skips ahead to the final in the series.  I skip ahead because the movement needs vision and I use the format of the 2021 President’s inaugural address to provide that vision.

We need this vision now because the Democratic party traditionalists are waiting to find out if Everytown, Black Lives Matter, Indivisible and others are going to stand the test of time and truly threaten conventional party politics.  With a unifying vision, we can do just that.  We can build a plan and place candidates in power when what is offered by our major parties just won’t do. Let’s start with the President of the United States.

The retrospectives offered in essay’s #1, #2 and #3 build up a body of conclusions about our political predicament that will allow liberal and conservative citizens to return decency to power.  Essay #6 provides a vision of what our success looks like in 2021.

Previous essays:

Essay #1: The toxic narrative of modern American Exceptionalism that powers much of our county’s ultra-conservativism.

Essay #2: The alarming 2016 Republican Party Platform.  We must resist now and press “reset” together in 2018.

Essay #3: The Wave of Right Wing Imperial Power (in two parts – part II ).

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The complete transcript of the January 20^th 2021 President’s Inaugural Address.

Following the oath of office, The 46^th President of the United States, Inaugural Address.

President: Chief Justices, President Trump, former Presidents, fellow Americans and people of the world, thank you.

(Applause)

Today we celebrate a great moment that recognizes the inherent dignity of all American voters in selecting a public servant – your President.

(Applause)

We celebrate the peaceful transfer of power from one publicly elected president to another and the transfer of leadership from a political party to this candidate, a candidate with no party and answerable only to the American people.

(Applause)

We stand here today, on January 20^th 2021, because you rescued your democracy. We are also here today because of the grave sacrifices that made this oath of office possible.  Let us take a moment to honor all those who have given their last measure.

(Applause)

Those who wore the uniform of protector and those who stood up to power, those imprisoned, deported and discriminated against and those with vows of faith who came to the aid of all without judgement.  Some of each were lost to us and they cannot now celebrate – let us remember them now in a moment of silence.

(Silence)

Thank you we all thank you. The people of America and people around the world thank you.

(Applause)

Their sacrifice, and our charge, has been revealed in our most recent history. That there is no profit without equality, no freedom of faith without public governance, no progress without assurance of our earth’s sustenance.

(Applause)

We will not go back. We have learned and re-learned that wisdom is a shared inheritance that comes from many sources and faiths. Parts of this wisdom are immortalized in our constitution, a document also composed from many sources.  For we need look no further than to our country’s founding to know that we are on a journey to form a more perfect union that has no final destination.

(Applause)

For it is known that some of our founders were slave owners and that some judged the disasters of disease and dislocation, that our indigenous brothers and sisters endured – and still endure – as their inheritance.  Our inheritance. They knew those things and still wrote a people’s constitution. They were not defeated by what we knew was wrong, and instead advanced the cause of “a more perfect union.”

(Applause)

Most recently we have seen how dear we hold these truths to be self-evident “that all men people are created equal.” We have seen our military needlessly put in harm’s way. We have seen a justice system too quick to jail and too slow to reform. We have seen families and individuals always near financial ruin and a few with most of the wealth. And we have seen our last national election flawed by a foreign power and big money.  Having seen these injustices and abuses of power for too long, we joined together.  We would not be divided and we changed the course of history – you have changed the course of history.

(Applause)

We stand together now as a new majority, no longer divided but joined by our love. So great was our need that the American people made a new covenant.  A covenant that is a continuation of the long tradition of forming a more perfect union.  One built on a new allegiance that is welcoming, just and respectful regardless of race, gender identity or religion.  We find in this covenant an important meeting place that brings together faith’s love of higher purpose, and the love of earth as the love of all creation.  This is a powerful American covenant that will lift us to heights never before possible, a truly American expression of devotion, inspiration and love.

(Applause)

From this mighty place of unity and from this height of devotion inspiration and love there is nothing we can’t do.

(Applause)

And with this oath of office it is time to get to work.

As your president, I pledge that this government will fight to remove protections that allow our wealth to fall into just a few hands, protections that despoil our environment and protections that ruin our health at public expense.

(Applause)

Your government will not stand by while productivity in the workplace has risen again and again and you are no closer to affording a place to live.  We will not stand by while companies brag about great technological strides, to witness urban and rural neighborhoods where you can’t find fresh wholesome food.  We will not stand by while education becomes too expensive and the promise of education – good jobs – are degraded or disappeared altogether.

(Applause)

We can be generous with each other; we are one of the wealthiest nations on earth and the government will play its part in public schools and colleges reducing and sometimes eliminating their cost. We will establish healthcare as a right with patient incentives for healthy habits and publically determined health outcomes. We will bring down the use and cost of drugs and provide incentives for good diets for mind and body.

(Applause)

We will defend the people of the United States and the people of the United States will defend our men and women in uniform from unwarranted conflict.  We will reduce our forces overseas and bring some of those savings into domestic programs to pay for much needed repair and improvement of our infrastructure.

(Applause)

We will not claim to do these things and ask you to simply trust me or the rest of your federal government. As President, my first act will be to increase the authority of the Office of Management and Budget to provide the people of the United States with a more extensive report of expenditures, including military expenditures.

(Applause)

We have a proud and mighty military and we will continue to reliably count their readiness. But, make no mistake, we will reduce the size of the military in this country and do so because it will increase our safety and security at home and abroad.  It is our military leaders who are the inspiration of this important work and will lead the effort.

(Applause)

In every nation, there is the potential for terrible people to seize power – that does not make a nation’s people terrorists. We defeat terrorism everywhere when everyone accepts human kindness as their sacred duty.  There are some dangerous peoples who cannot be left to their own devices, we will render them powerless and we will do it more by demonstrating the manifold traditions of human decency than by the show and use of force.

(Applause)

The American people are a people made of every nation on earth.  Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers, American families and our country’s commitment to the decent application of the rule of law.

(Applause)

We will convert our economy to renewable sources including hydrogen fuel as part of the largest industry and science effort since NASA brought a man to the moon.

(Applause)

America will bring about clean light, heat, transportation, building materials, manufacturing industries, products and services that do not pollute and provide jobs across the nation.

(Applause)

And more jobs will be crated as we incentivize our local farms and foods systems that are at the heart of our culture and ability to greatly reduce atmospheric carbon.

(Applause)

We will do this with fair wages for men and equal pay for women and we will honor labor and the risks and rewards of large and small businesses that drive our American dream.

(Applause)

My fellow Americans. You know we are part of a great and powerful country. We arise today, with all of humanity, holding the earth in our hands.  This living earth, of slim atmosphere, is our common inheritance and along with it we also inherit all of humanities complexities.  We are here to lead with our new covenant of faith and science where we find a common devotion, inspiration and love.  This is our America’s ingenuity; this is the caring and passion we bring to our shared inheritance, our earth, our home, our country.

Applause)

As your President, I pledge to leave no one behind.  Our nation is too great and too capable.

Applause

We are a people of every nation, creed and kind and we will all rise together undivided.

Applause

We are Americans.

Applause

Let’s show the world how great we are!

Applause

May your god bless you and bless the United States of America.

Thank you.