Excerpts from President Obama’s Inaugural Address, January 20, 2009
“...For all of you who hoped that I was ‘faking right’ and would ‘go left’ when entering the White House, your time has come. In a departure from the pro-business agenda of the Democratic Party, one of the goals of my administration is to address the profound economic inequalities of the last twenty years through redistribution of wealth. The excesses of capitalism have destroyed lives and ravaged our public commons, and it is in moments like these that we must propose monumental change. If we can afford socialism for the banks and financiers in this country, why not socialism for all Americans...”
“...My presidency begins with a blank slate, which means that almost anything is possible. Israel’s occupation of Palestine was declared illegal in 1967 under UN Resolution 242 and the annual three billion dollars in US aid, the most given to any nation, essentially supports suppression. It would be hypocritical for us to celebrate the profound changes in racial relations in this country that my election represents while our funding allow an apartheid system against the Palestinians so reminiscent of the brutal treatment of African-Americans under the Jim Crow laws to continue unabated...”
“...After much thought, I have decided against filling my cabinet with many former members of the Clinton administration. In order for real change to occur, we must question the rightward shift of the Democratic Party during Clinton’s tenure which included finanacial deregulation, repeated bombings of Iraq, NAFTA support for the death penalty, and a draconian welfare bill signed into law. You have elected me based on my promise of real change, not the swing of the pendulum back to where it was eight years ago. Many have expressed relief that my presidency will signal an end to the lawlessness of George W. Bush, but genuine change must mean more than a return of the Clinton years...”
“...The major political parties in this country have succumbed to a neoliberal agenda that has left the average citizen with no meaningful wage increases in the last thirty years, fewer Americans with health care, less access to a good education, and pyramid schemes rather than affordable housing. Because the Democrats and the Republicans are largely funded by corporate interests, real change can only happen when we politicians are courageous enough to stand up to our paymasters and bite the hands that feed us...”
