I’m watching the inauguration. I hope you are, too.
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January 20, 1993
On the day of Bill Clinton’s first inauguration, a friend of mine and I decided to wear black t-shirts to school. We were not happy that he had been elected president. There were rumors of infidelity that had surrounded his campaign. I wasn’t old enough to vote yet, but I believed character and morality mattered when it came to our elected officials.*
Besides, I thought it was kind of cool that a fellow Hoosier was serving as Vice President. Spelling concerns aside (“You say potato, I say potatoe…”), I still wanted to see Dan Quayle continue to serve in that capacity. The day after the election, I picked up a campaign sign out of the middle of the street and hung it up in my room. I wanted to have a memento of Indiana’s legacy in the Executive Branch because…let’s be honest…who really expected Indiana to produce another Vice President within my lifetime? So I hung it up in my room. It’s still stashed away in my garage nearly 30 years later.
OK. That might not have been my brightest moment. But if that’s the worst decision I made in high school, I think I did pretty OK.+
I’m pretty sure we watched the inauguration ceremonies in class that day. I think I was in Psychology. Or maybe it was Sociology. I can’t remember. But I was pretty proud of the fact that my friend and I wore black that day. We really stuck it to everyone who was happy that Slick Willie was going to occupy the White House.#
January 20, 2001
I don’t remember watching Bill Clinton’s second inauguration in 1997. There’s a very real possibility that I was either in class or eating lunch with friends. I had been swept up in the Republican Revolution and was not a fan of the Clinton presidency. I certainly wasn’t looking forward to four more years of his administration. So I’m sure I skipped the inauguration ceremonies.
I wish I hadn’t.
After months of fighting and name-calling,^ the bitter fight for the presidency was over. Al Gore had lost. George W. Bush had won. I was on the “winning side” of this election, so I gleefully turned on the inauguration to watch “my guy” be sworn in as President of the United States. As I watched the inauguration unfold, commentators continued to emphasize the peaceful nature of this transfer of power. That’s how it’s been for more than 200 years.
The 2000 election very well could not have resulted in a peaceful transfer of power. Cooler heads (and the Constitution) prevailed.
A peaceful transfer
Ever since the peaceful transfer of power in 2001o, I have felt an obligation to watch the subsequent peaceful transfers of power occur (I’ve hinted at this obligation here and here). In many ways, I believe it’s our patriotic duty to observe and celebrate these peaceful transfers of power. Because we all know how fragile this can be.
This doesn’t happen everywhere around the world. You could argue that it doesn’t take place anywhere in the world. Not like we do it, anyway.
Even when my candidate didn’t win, I’ve watched the inauguration. I believe it’s my responsibility as a citizen of this country. It’s your responsibility, too.
I made it pretty clear who I was voting for in 2016. OK, I made it pretty clear who I wasn’t voting for, anyway. You know what I did on January 20, 2017? I watched Donald Trump become President of the United States. I streamed it on my phone during my lunch break. Because these inaugurations are important. The peaceful transfer of power is important. And we need to support it.
I don’t care if you voted red, blue, yellow, green, or any other color associated with a political party. Please support the peaceful transfer of power. You can complain about the new administration as much as you want. That’s your right (and maybe even your responsibility). You can organized peaceful protests in reaction to our new president. That’s your right (and maybe even your responsibility). You can even go ahead and start your campaign to run against an incumbent with whom you disagree. That’s your right (and maybe even your responsibility).
In the world of civic mythmaking and symbolism, this is about as important as it gets. We talk about e pluribus unum – “Out of many, one.” We talk about how our country’s strength is in its diversity. How can we show this? It starts by uniting around a peaceful transfer of power.
I’ll be watching the inauguration. Will you?
I love our country. With all of its faults, bruises, and outright mistakes…I still love our country. I know you do, too. Supporting a peaceful transfer of power? This is the first step towards unity and strength.
I’ll be watching from home. And I’ll be watching four years from now. And I’ll be watching four years from then. This is part of what makes America great.
I hope you’ll join me.
Endnotes
*I still believe that matters, by the way. But that’s not the point of this post.
+It was NOT, in fact, the worst decision I made in high school. Again, that’s not the point of this post.
#You know, now that I think about it…I’m not sure my friend wore black that day. I might’ve been the only one in our whole school who intentionally wore black.
^Y’all remember “Sore Loserman“?
oI know. There’s stories about how members of the Clinton White House removed all of the Ws from keyboards. There’s also discussion that the delay of transition between Clinton and Bush due to the Florida recount put American security at risk. I get all that. My point here is that it didn’t take a military intervention to move on from Clinton to Bush.
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