washingtonpost.com
President-elect Donald Trump points to the crowd before starting his speech at a rally last month in Mobile, Ala. (Brynn Anderson/Associated Press)
Opinion writer
Excerpt:
[T]here are speeches of national unity, such as Thomas Jefferson’s first inaugural speech, in which he declared, “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.” Lincoln’s second inaugural address is remarkable for daring to assert a unity of both suffering and guilt. George W. Bush’s first (which I helped produce) was of this type: “This is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity.”
Trump faces a series of self-created challenges. His lifelong use of division as a method of motivation makes a direct appeal to national unity, well, suspect. He must somehow live and lead in a political environment he has helped to poison with invective and bitterness. ...
Trump’s inaugural speech needs to turn a rhetorical corner. He must define “greatness,” not as a past condition but as a current mission. Mere nostalgia is the idealization of a time that many Americans — including women and minorities — find less than idyllic. For his speech to succeed, Trump requires not just a fabled past, but a promised land.
There is nothing inherently divisive about the ideal of national greatness. ...
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