Proclaiming a vision of America as a worldwide liberator, President Bush entered his second term Thursday with an ode to “the force of human freedom” and a commitment to aid oppressed nations whose people seek independence.
“We are led by events and common sense to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands,” Bush said. “The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.”
With those words, George Walker Bush, the re-elected 43rd president, became only the 16th in American history to begin a second term.
The president offered his sweeping vision of liberation against the backdrop of a controversial war in Iraq and in an era of post-9/11 uncertainty. He sought to acknowledge those realities by emphasizing the importance of spreading freedom and democracy around the globe.
“There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom,” Bush said.
The 2005 Inauguration Day ceremonies played out on a chilly, mostly overcast day in a barricaded capital city. Cordoned sidewalks, cleared streets and restricted airspace reminded revelers who passed through checkpoints–and protesters who jostled for position along the parade route–that this was the first inauguration since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The president passed protesters with placards reading “War Crimes” and “Bring the Troops Home Now” along his motorcade’s route to the swearing-in. Bush was forced to pause near the conclusion of his address as one man’s boos bellowed from the crowd before him.
Bush’s father, a former president who was denied re-election, stood alongside him during the ceremony. Also on the platform was Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democrat whom Bush defeated in the hard-fought election of 2004, its profound cultural division still reflected in polls that suggest Americans are deeply split in their opinions of Bush.
Even as a majority of Americans surveyed by pollsters this week called Bush’s invasion of Iraq a mistake, the president brought to his inauguration soaring phrases hailing what he sees as America’s liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan as signal achievements that could augur an era of freedom for many more nations.
Michael Gerson, the president’s speechwriter, said the 21-minute address, which went through more than 20 revisions, reflected Bush’s inner feelings.
“That’s why I feel great about it,” Gerson said. “It’s really what he’s been aching to say.”
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Espousing a clear destiny for America as it opposes tyranny abroad, Bush cautioned Americans against considering themselves “a chosen nation.”
But he added, “We have lit a fire . . . 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.”
Some critics suggest that the Bush administration’s close relations with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other authoritarian regimes–in part because of their real or potential contributions to the war on terror–contradict the lofty sentiment and soaring language of Bush’s address.
But the president maintained that the U.S. will support democratic movements in every nation “with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.”
Bush, who has spoken often of his Christian faith and whose support is strong among evangelical Christians, referred to God and religion a half-dozen times in his speech, giving it a distinctly religious flavor. He noted, for example, that all humans bear “the image of the maker of heaven and earth,” that “God moves and chooses as he wills” and that history’s direction is set by “the author of liberty.”
The president’s new term opened with a $40 million inaugural celebration underwritten by many of the major donors who fueled his election campaign. The festival culminated with a series of nine balls Thursday night; Bush made the evening’s final black-tie appearance at a Commander-in-Chief Ball for invited soldiers and sailors who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan or who are ready for deployment.
Earlier, as Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney prepared for their swearings-in at midday, the sky above the west steps of the U.S. Capitol cleared, sunlight bathed the dome in a warm hue and a brisk breeze unfurled flags.
Rehnquist delivers oath
An ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist administered the oath of office, his age and frailty on the Capitol’s dais a reminder of the powers that the newly inaugurated Republican president could exercise in his second 4-year term. Bush is widely expected to have the opportunity to replace Rehnquist before long.
After the swearing-in and a traditional lunch with members of Congress, Bush and his family were driven along Pennsylvania Avenue to a stand in front of the White House to watch the inaugural parade.
Shortly before arriving, the president and First Lady Laura Bush stepped out of their limousine to walk the final few blocks, passing admirers and protesters alike along the parade route.
Other presidents, including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, also have walked at least part of the parade route, a dramatic gesture that inevitably prompts boisterous applause from onlookers. It had not been clear whether Bush would be able to do so, given the extraordinary security that attended this inauguration.
As he watched the parade, Bush returned salutes from troops passing the reviewing stand. And he clowned with the shovel-wielding sanitation workers who followed the formations of horses, with the president bowing, applauding and offering thumbs-up to the orange-jacketed cleanup crews.
Along with the military formations and marching bands, there were idiosyncratic performance groups, ranging from the bagpipe-playing Emerald Society of the New York Police Department to the Red Hot Mamas, an Idaho group that danced with shopping carts to the tune of “We Are Family.”
In the crowd, Patty Berger, 66, came from Michigan and voiced little patience for the protesters here. “Not all of us like the war,” she said. “But we are behind our president and our country.”
Dale Starkes, 52, of Chicago attended the inaugural with his wife and 17-year-old son. They came to “see a historic event,” he said, but also to take a look at the people who supported Bush.
“It’s extremely homogenous,” Starkes said. “The people around us all look like they are from the same suburban neighborhood. This is not the diverse America I’ve come to understand.”
Bush is the first Republican in 80 years to start his second term alongside a Republican-run Congress, and the first president since his father to win more than 50 percent of the popular vote.
Bush has signaled that he will approach Congress with a contention that his campaign agenda of reforming Social Security, streamlining the tax code and other initiatives carries an electoral mandate. Yet just 51 percent of Americans surveyed by the Gallup Poll this week expressed approval of Bush’s job performance, the lowest for a president starting his second term in more than a half-century.
Bush made only a passing reference to his ambitious legislative agenda in Thursday’s speech, saving the detailed blueprint of his goals for the State of the Union address planned for Feb. 2.
`Ownership society’
The president cited Social Security as one of the nation’s “great institutions” but one in need of reform. Bush, who hopes to let younger workers invest some of the payroll taxes they now pay for Social Security in personal savings accounts for their retirement, only briefly alluded to this controversial proposal by framing it as one of the key elements of his vision for an “ownership society.”
“To give every American a stake in the promise and future of our country, we will bring the highest standards to our schools and build an ownership society,” Bush said. “We will widen the ownership of homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance, preparing our people for the challenges of life in a free society.”
But if Americans are to preserve their freedom, the president said, freedom must also be fostered throughout the world.
Albeit with more humble words, this president who entered office without the benefit of the popular vote in 2000 expressed a similar vision of the United States as a liberating influence in his January 2001 inaugural address.
“Through much of the last century, America’s faith in freedom and democracy was a rock in a raging sea,” Bush said then. “Now it’s a seed upon the wind, taking root in many nations.”
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In this year’s inaugural address–following the Sept. 11 attacks and in the midst of an Iraq conflict that has killed more than 1,000 Americans and wounded more than 10,000–Bush asserted that American influence in a troubled world is “considerable,” and the U.S. should exercise that influence “confidently.”
“All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: The United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors,” Bush said. “When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.”