Making the case for freedom is key
Joe Biden may not match the rhetoric of Kennedy or Reagan in his inauguration speech, but he can still learn from their successes, says
Even in the best of times, the inaugural address of a president of the United States cannot be an easy one to prepare.
It must contain new material while being based on campaign pledges that are already well known; excite supporters while holding out reconciliation with opponents; combine determination with readiness to compromise; be addressed to Americans while still being of interest to the rest of the world; and set out specific plans while simultaneously summing up the whole purpose of the new presidency.
Just to make it nearly impossible, all this has to be condensed into no more than
20 minutes because the live audience is outside in the freezing cold.
For Joe Biden, keeping it brief will be a particular challenge. Those of us who held meetings with him during his vicepresidency know he is naturally loquacious.
An incentive for brevity is provided by what happened to President Harrison in 1841. He ploughed for two hours through an 8000-word address and died of pneumonia within a month.
Yet even for a concise and brilliant orator, this speech is a challenge. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are both extraordinary speakers, but never managed to make their inaugural addresses really take flight. Only a few have echoed down the decades. Lincoln in
1865: ‘‘With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right . . . let us strive to finish the work’’; FDR in 1933: ‘‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself’’; and Kennedy in
1961: ‘‘We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship . . . to assure the survival and the success of liberty’’.
Kennedy succeeded, at his inauguration and in many other speeches, in conveying the idea of America as the home of freedom as well as progress, at a time when many people around the world believed communism represented the future.
Ronald Reagan also did so in
1981 as the Cold War neared its climax: ‘‘We will again be the exemplar of freedom and a beacon of hope for those who do not now have freedom.’’
These most inspiring of presidents built on the idea of America as a bastion of liberty to strengthen alliances and reinforce the enduring appeal of their country.
The depressing exception to this was Donald Trump, whose address four years ago noted Americans’ own ‘‘glorious freedoms’’ but was largely a complaint about America’s treatment by the rest of the world. It was an early signal that he would be more comfortable creating relationships with dictators than with some of the world’s democratic leaders.
Only the inaugural address of President Buchanan in 1857, who told everyone to stop going on about slavery, makes Trump’s speech look good by comparison.
Let us hope that Biden, who has long experience of American diplomacy and the great reach of its soft power, returns in his speech tomorrow to the idea and inspiration of freedom.
Of course, he will have much to cover, with energising the US vaccination programme and promoting economic recovery at the top of his list. But the ideal of living freely is still central to American identity at home and overseas. He needs it to heal divisions and show those who voted for Trump that he is not just about wearing masks and introducing more taxes and regulations. And he needs it to revive the moral authority and diplomatic compass of Washington in dealing with the world at large.
An American president who fails to articulate the case for freedom chooses not to use his country’s greatest advantage in the world. Its origins lie in the motives of the earliest pioneers and subsequent revolutionaries, who sought freedom from Britain, with its kings, empire and taxes. The proof of its power came in the 20th century, when the US rescued most other free nations from the threats of fascism and communism.
Today, whatever the immense problems of US society, it is the scope for boundless ingenuity, enterprise and exploration of ideas that still makes the US the beacon that Reagan described.
Being such a beacon brings its own problems. This week many thousands of people are attempting to trek through Central America to find a way into the US. Many American towns and cities have experienced economic decline and social breakdown, as in so many Western nations.
Freedom can also be misinterpreted as untrammelled individualism, seen in the chaotic response to the pandemic and the insistence of many on the right to carry firearms. Despite that, freedom remains the defining and overriding attraction of America. There are no columns of hopeful thousands begging for admission into Russia and China.
In the US you are allowed to succeed, and it is acceptable to fail. That is why Silicon Valley has led the world in the information revolution. For all the problems the big tech companies now face, their situation does not compare to that of Jack Ma in China, not seen in public since he criticised authorities three months ago.
In the hours before Biden takes the oath of office, there have been hopeful signs that his administration will take the high ground of supporting brave