What we saw today was in part a study in contrasts. In the space of under four hours, we heard two Presidents speak...one for his last time in that office (we hope) and one for his first time. The differences could not be more stark.
Although President Trump reportedly had prepared remarks for his farewell, he apparently tossed them out and decided to "wing it" in his usual disjointed, incoherent, self-aggrandizing style. His brief speech said little about anything but Donald Trump himself, extolling his non-existent accomplishments of the past four years, once again lying or exaggerating about the economy and the pandemic.
On other hand, President Biden spoke from a prepared speech...but still far more from the heart than his predecessor had or ever has. I couldn't, of course, transcribe his entire speech (and that will be available within minutes from the media, I'm sure), but here are the sentences and phrases that caught my attention:
"This is democracy's day...."
"The American story depends on....all of us...."
"The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer...."
"My whole soul is in this...uniting our nation...."
"Without unity there is no peace...."
"Disagreement need not lead to disunity...."
"We must end this uncivil war...."
"We will not lead merely by the example of our power, but by the power of our example...."
Beyond the new President's own words, I was moved by two other things. The first was Lady Gaga's incredible rendering of the National Anthem. She did not simply sing it, she performed it...with grand gestures and powerful emotion. The second was the poem by Andrea Gorman, the poet laureate, and her reading of it. It's clear her style develops from rap and hip-hop--the rhythms and rhymes of her work all reflect that--and yet it was also clearly not merely an urban, ethnic opus. Like Hamilton, it uses those tropes to speak to a wider audience.
This was an inaugural ceremony for our time.
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