The Day After Disaster

As I madly dress for the San Marcos Women's March, I want to review for you another inaugural address, none other than that most hated liberal elitist of them all, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Oh the flames of protest! Not that horrible person. Yes, that very same horrible person. Rich kid, swore like a sailor, abandoned his men on an island to swim for help (some say). Here is what he said on his inauguration:

Now the trumpet summons us again – not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are – but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, ‘rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation’ – a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Clearly this is inadequate. What would that master of all that is right and decent, Donald Trump, tell us? Well, of course, he would attack his enemies. And he would play to his base.

For too long a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed. 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. While they have celebrated there has been little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

What is funny about this, from my point of view, is that even when I agree with Donald, I disagree with him. I generally think that some of this is correct.  That Washington did pursue a neoliberal economic policy that hurt millions and millions of Americans whose struggle and complaints were ignored. But that is not what I would put in my inauguration speech. There is a way to say this, even (some of) these exact words, and spin it in a new way forward. This is not a campaign speech, you idiot, I want to say, this is your inauguration speech. You won (well, sortof). Its a speech that is supposed to show us the way forward, the way for all of us forward.

And one more time, Donald, you failed. This is just the beginning of your failures, I think.

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An afterthought. I want to thank all the idiots who disgraced America with this narcissistic swine. Just to let you know how much you are hated. And you are truly hated.