marchand chronicles

Marchand Chronicles UPDATE: Hello, Noonan

Last week, former Reagan/Bush 41 speechwriter Peggy Noonan critiqued President Bush's inaugural address in The Wall Street Journal. While I disagreed with her analysis, I thought she made some fair points.

Yesterday, she revised and extended her remarks. And now I think she's way off. The money point:

[The address] was badly thought . . . most inaugural addresses are rather badly written, and I would know. We haven't had a truly great one since 1961, 44 years ago. In this case the document seems to me to bear hard the personal mark of the president, and not of writers. But it is not the plain-talking Bush we know so well. It is Bush trying to be fancy. It is a tough man who speaks the language of business, sports and politics trying to be high-toned and elegant.

I admire her reluctance to toot her own horn in this regard, but let's come back to one point: 1961. That was Kennedy's inaugural. As I'm sure I harped on enough, Bush's speech is EXACTLY like JFK's, aside from contextual and oratory differences. Let's count the ways, shall we:

1. The world has changed.
Kennedy: "The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life."
Bush: "After the shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose, years of sabbatical — and then there came a day of fire. We have seen our vulnerability — and we have seen its deepest source."

2. Our principles haven't changed.
Kennedy: "And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God."
Bush: "From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth."

3. Therefore, we must stand up for freedom worldwide.
Kennedy: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge—and more."
Bush: "So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."

4. This will not be achieved solely by military might.
Kennedy: "Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are . . ."
Bush: "This is not primarily the task of arms, though we will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms when necessary."

5. This will be a long, possibly neverending, campaign.
Kennedy: "All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."
Bush: "The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it."

6. This is a moral obligation.
Kennedy: "[W]e pledge our best efforts to help [the unfree] help themselves, for whatever period is required—not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."
Bush: ". . . The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies."

7. Statements to others.
Kennedy, in order, addressed portions of his speech to traditional allies; new allies in the free world; citizens of unfree nations; the republics of Central and South America (the Monroe Doctrine at work); the United Nations; and "those nations who would make themselves our adversary," mentioning none of them by name.
Bush, in order, addressed portions of his speech to citizens of unfree nations; "democratic reformers" in unfree nations; the "rulers of outlaw regimes" and "leaders of governments with long habits of control," mentioning none of them by name; and traditional allies.

We reach a schism here, which I'll detail later.

8. Our efforts will lead to a better world.
Kennedy: "I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world."
Bush: "[B]ecause we have acted in the great liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved their freedom. And as hope kindles hope, millions more will find it. By our efforts, we have lit a fire as well — a fire in the minds of men. It warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress, and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world."
(Note the identical imagery of liberty as fire.)

9. This task will need brave volunteers to serve.
Kennedy: "In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty."
Bush: "All Americans have witnessed this idealism, and some for the first time. I ask our youngest citizens to believe the evidence of your eyes. You have seen duty and allegiance in the determined faces of our soldiers. You have seen that life is fragile, and evil is real, and courage triumphs. Make the choice to serve in a cause larger than your wants, larger than yourself — and in your days you will add not just to the wealth of our country, but to its character."

Another schism here, but it really isn't.

10. This will be our true legacy for future generations.
Kennedy: "With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own." (Oh, no! He mentioned God!)
Bush: "From the viewpoint of centuries, the questions that come to us are narrowed and few. Did our generation advance the cause of freedom? And did our character bring credit to that cause?"

(In my essay, I said that Bush's speech had "no less than eight" nods to Kennedy's. There's ten big ones and I can certainly find more.)

The problem Noonan has is that she lauds Kennedy's inaugural but doesn't care for Bush's. Fine. Kennedy's speech ranks among the greatest given by anyone in the 20th Century, and Bush sounds a little like he's copying off JFK's test sheet. Given the two, I'd take Kennedy's as well. But every criticism she makes of Bush's speech —not enough emphasis on domestic policy, it mentions God too much, it's too abstract, it commits us to the impossible — goes equal or double for Kennedy's. On the big ideas, they're basically the same speech. But Kennedy's is "great" and Bush's is "badly thought."

Now the differences: first, Kennedy appealed to cooperation with the Soviet Union and its satellites; Bush issues tough talk to our enemies. Noonan doesn't care. She openly dismisses the "kissing Brezhnev" policy of the Cold War, which dates back to Kennedy and this speech, though she doesn't acknowledge it. She lauds the "new and stark candor" of Ronald Reagan's approach to the USSR but thinks Bush's sternness is dangerous. "The temperature of our world is very high," she says, with emphasis, in her column. But how high was it in 1961?

The second is that Kennedy's only mention of any domestic issue at all is incredibly subtle: one reference to "North and South" in asking for an alliance to take on the world's problems. Bush openly derides racism and its "baggage" and calls for an "ownership society." But in a way, that harkens back to the most famous part of Kennedy's speech: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."

I love Peggy Noonan, and avidly read her columns. But she's wrong on this one. Way wrong. Her defense of Kennedy's address only proves it.

posted by Marsh @ 4:01 PM