I am reminded of the picture painted by Jacques-Louis David of the coronation of Napolean. The general who was to become emperor placed the crown on his own head, Charlemagne be damned, and thus the first French Republic was gone. France was the sister republic of the United States, which resisted dictatorship. Haiti, another republic, was overtaken by a dictator. Experiments in democratic republics often end like this, and sadly, today, the U.S. appears to be one of them. The spectacle is not simply the celebration of a historic moment, of welcoming the first African-American president. Obama didn’t transcend racial division. He played on it. Moreover, he counted on the fact that he was not descended from slaves, a fact he mentioned in his speech on race, just so we’d all know. Every time I see his picture he is in a Hitlerian pose, arms folded and nose in the air. Imperious.
I am sad.
3 Comments
January 21, 2009 at 12:06 am
The cost is obscene. As if the Denver theme of empire weren’t enough, this is disgusting.
January 21, 2009 at 12:15 am
He messed up his oath of office, gave a dumb speech, and fizzled his big moment. And it cost 1 billion dollars to get him on this stage.
March 4, 2009 at 8:18 am
I thought you said you were not going to watch the inauguration.
I did not, if only because I don’t have a TV and it was going to be late at night here, too late for me to go to a bar, and I cannot understand spoken English and I would anyway have felt ashamed to watch a thing like that…………………..