Home
Đăng nhập
Đăng ký
Nội dung học
Loading...
What the best inaugural addresses have in common - Video học tiếng Anh
Luyện nghe
Luyện nghe
/
Video
/
VOX
/
What the best inaugural addresses have in common
What the best inaugural addresses have in common
Chọn chế độ học:
Xem phụ đề
Chọn từ
Viết lại từ
Highlight:
3000 Oxford Words
4000 IELTS Words
5000 Oxford Words
3000 Common Words
1000 TOEIC Words
5000 TOEFL Words
Phụ đề (90)
0:00
An inaugural address can be a defining moment for a president and certain lines become iconic.
0:04
"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
0:11
But why do some addresses echo through history while others don’t?
0:16
I asked
0:16
Kathleen Hall Jamieson
0:17
I am director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at The University of Pennsylvania
0:20
And what she told me is that an inaugural address should do three things:
0:23
unify the country, announce guiding principles, and affirm the limits of power.
0:27
So let’s take those one by one, starting with the need to unify the country.
0:31
One of the more important characteristics of an inaugural is that it establishes that
0:35
this is the president of all the people.
0:37
Coming after a campaign, a president’s first task to heal a divided electorate.
0:41
In 1801, Jefferson welcomed his opponents when he said,
0:44
“Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.
0:47
We have called by different names brethren of the same principle.
0:51
We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”
0:54
And in 1953, Eisenhower echoed Jefferson’s plea for unity,
0:58
"May cooperation be permitted and be the mutual aim of those who, under the concepts of our
1:05
Constitution, hold to differing political faiths…”
1:09
Eisenhower’s inaugural explicitly suggests that we are coming together in this moment
1:15
regardless of the kind of partisan divisions that we have had in the past.
1:18
That’s actually a common theme across the inaugurals.
1:21
We remember it more when it is phrased more memorably, as it is with Jefferson
1:26
or Eisenhower, but you’ll actually find an element of it
1:29
in virtually all of the inaugural addresses.
1:31
Second, an inaugural should announce principles that will guide the presidency.
1:34
“We'll restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders
1:38
to raise health care's quality and lower its cost.”
1:41
But, unlike the state of the union, the inaugural should focus on principles, not policy.
1:46
When you get to policy proposals, you’re back in campaign mode.
1:49
“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem;
1:55
government is the problem.”
1:57
Notice that when Reagan said, ‘government isn’t the solution, government is the problem’,
2:02
what he was essentially doing was articulating a principle, not saying,
2:06
‘and as a result, I recommend that we do x, y, and z.’
2:11
The philosophy of the president is embodied in an inaugural and if it’s maintained at
2:17
a level of principle it is not highly problematic.
2:20
Third, an inaugural affirms the limits of power, stating that no one is above the law.
2:25
One concern -- when you let some president -- particularly among those who didn’t vote
2:28
for the candidate -- is that person may overreach and may misuse the power or use the power
2:33
in ways that will hurt the people that did not vote for the president.
2:36
Look at the passage in Gerald Ford’s inaugural address
2:39
-- which was, in effect his inaugural address -- that begins,
2:43
“...our long national nightmare is over.
2:48
Our Constitution works;
2:51
our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men.”
2:54
That is a repudiation of the Nixon Presidency. Ford is affirming it explicitly:
3:00
that no president is above the law.
3:03
That’s the speech that tells us that, in language that we should always remember.
3:07
Besides indicating what the address should be about, past inaugurals suggest
3:11
how a president should deliver it.
3:13
First, they should keep it short.
3:15
People who assume that you have to speak at length in order to be eloquent are wrong.
3:20
A leader’s message should be clear and concise.
3:22
The three shortest speeches were delivered by some of the most respected presidents,
3:26
albeit during subsequent inaugurals;
3:28
while the three longest came from some less well-known
3:31
presidents, including William Henry Harrison, who aggravated a cold during his epic inaugural
3:35
and died the next month from pneumonia.
3:37
Second...
3:38
Put the campaign behind you.
3:41
Do not be Ulysses S. Grant, who whines about having a scandal-ridden campaign.
3:47
“I have been the subject of abuse and slander scarcely ever equaled in political history,
3:53
which today I feel that I can afford to disregard in view of your verdict,
3:57
which I gratefully accept as my vindication.”
3:59
If you come out of an inaugural address feeling as if the candidate is still there and the
4:04
president isn’t -- we’re still in campaign mode, this isn’t a president speaking --
4:09
it’s a failed address.
4:10
A third caution is to avoid making it about yourself, which a president can do by using
4:14
“we” instead of “I”.
4:16
When you’re trying to speak to a nation that has been divided by a campaign, the unifying
4:22
rhetoric requires that the audience hear itself in the rhetoric.
4:26
And as a result, the collective rhetoric -- the rhetoric of “we” -- is the characterizing
4:31
rhetoric of the best inaugural addresses.
4:33
“…let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is...
4:41
fear itself.”
4:43
Lastly, and most importantly, we tend to remember inaugurals..
4:46
...because history vindicated the observation and the observation was made memorably.
4:52
So, you might say that the deciding factor for a successful inaugural speech
4:56
is the presidency that follows.
4:57
There’s a reason we remember FDR and Kennedy.
5:00
Both were speaking at a point of crisis and their words inspired a future that would follow.
5:04
But no president did this better than Abraham Lincoln, who on the eve of Civil War,
5:08
predicted a Union victory when he said:
5:10
“The mystic chords of memory,
5:11
stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone
5:16
all over this broad land,
5:18
will yet swell the chorus of the Union,
5:20
when again touched, as surely they will be,
5:23
by the better angels of our nature.”
