By George Will
Friday, January 20, 2017
Twenty minutes into his presidency, Donald Trump, who is
always claiming to have made, or to be about to make, astonishing history, had
done so. Living down to expectations, he had delivered the most dreadful
inaugural address in history.
Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s White House counselor, had
promised that the speech would be “elegant.” This is not the adjective that
came to mind as he described “American carnage.” That was a phrase the likes of which has never hitherto been spoken
at an inauguration.
Oblivious to the moment and the setting, the always
remarkable Trump proved that something dystopian can be strangely exhilarating:
In what should have been a civic liturgy serving national unity and confidence,
he vindicated his severest critics by serving up reheated campaign rhetoric
about “rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape” and
an education system producing students “deprived of all knowledge.” Yes, all.
But cheer up, because the carnage will vanish if we
“follow two simple rules: Buy American and hire American.” “Simple” is the
right word.
Because in 1981 the inauguration ceremony for a cheerful
man from the American West was moved from the Capitol’s East Portico to its
West Front, Trump stood facing west, down the Mall with its stately monuments
celebrating some of those who made America great — Washington, Jefferson,
Lincoln. Looking out toward where the fields of the republic roll on, Trump, a
Gatsby for our time, said: “What truly matters is not which party controls our
government but whether our government is controlled by the people.” Well.
“A dependence on the people,” James Madison wrote, “is,
no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught
mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.” He meant the checks and
balances of our constitutional architecture. They are necessary because, as
Madison anticipated and as the nation was reminded on Friday, “Enlightened
statesmen will not always be at the helm.”
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