Donald Trump was sworn in just before mid-day this morning, as the 45th President of the United States, launched into his new career with a prayer from Timothy Cardinal Dolan and other spiritual figures; as one article put it, the most prayer said at any inauguration, a good sign, and Trump is going to need all he can get. The America left after eight years of Obama is, to put it mildly, a fractious one, divided along many lines, with the clearest between those who believe in some sort of traditional Christian order, and those who do not. Soon enough, should immigration continue unabated, Islam will shake this up a bit, again to understate the case. But the weakness of secular liberalism almost welcomes the (apparent) strength of Muhammad’s religion.
Trump promises to strengthen America, to make her what she once was, and could be again, in a direct, unadorned speech, unlike any inaugural in history. Rex Murphy’s take is forthright and well-versed, as usual, arguing that Trump has left himself nowhere to hide, to take on the whole establishment, to reverse the self-aggrandizing and self-enriching nature of government as it now stands:
His address amounted to a noble, though forgotten, truism. The purpose of a government is to serve the people of that country whose government it is.
May God be with him in this Herculean endeavour.
Curiously, Bill and Hillary’s ‘charitable’ foundation has closed shop, and one wonders why. Was it, as one pundit has argued, just a front for political grafting all along, and, with the Clinton’s now out of office, their graft has no grip? May they both fade into a well-deserved obscurity, where they can reflect upon their lives, and prepare for the eternity that awaits them.
The Obamas, a generation younger, still have lots more time to go, to write memoirs and give speeches on how great and earth-changing their and his tenure was. I will give this to Barack: He was an excellent speaker, just with not much to say. Our Prime Minister also has not much to say, without the benefit of good oration.
Saturday is the Women’s March on Washington, which will be the usual suspects, advocating a ‘right’ to abortion and other things that will just harm women further. I was glad to hear this afternoon, however, that there will be a pro-life contingent in the March, something the feminist organizers tried, in vain, to shut down. So all is not lost. I do ponder whether we would have had a Men’s March had Hillary won. Likely not, since even a private men’s club with one sole member in the basement of my house would now be denounced as a sexist enclave. Perhaps that will change with Trump, along with a lot of other soul-destroying political correctness. We can only hope for some rays of sunshine.