| Inauguration Day is Coming! By: Lydia Clark After more than a year of intense campaigning, America has a new Presi- dent...or will have one very soon. Despite elections being held in early November, the new President won’t be sworn into office until January 20th. The inauguration of a President dates all the way back to the days of George Washington and America’s founding. President Washington’s inauguration took place on April 30th; after that all inaugurations took place on March 4th until the 20th amendment was ratified in 1933 and the date was moved to the contemporary January 20th. The inauguration of a President is not only the legal swearing in of a President but it is also the time when a President gets to address the people as not just his constituents but as a united country under one new leader. It is also a time for the President- Elect to outline their goals for the next four years. So what happens during the inauguration? Here is the political science lesson for the day. First the President is made to swear an oath in front of a judge, in almost all cases it has been the Chief Justice, or a notary.* The oath reads “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” After taking the oath to defend America the President then gives their inaugural address, which is a way to connect the people and outline the plans of the administration. Following the ceremony there is generally at least one inaugural ball. In 2005, President Bush began the tradition of hosting a ball for the servicemen of America and their families. Barack Obama announced recently that he would host a similar event the night of the inauguration. There are nine other balls planned for the evening, including a youth ball to honor the role that young people played in the election of Barack Obama. Inaugurations and their following balls are often star studded events. It is a time to rub elbows with the upcoming leaders in the administrations, a time for deals to be made, and for the rich and famous to pledge their support for the new President. Among the donor’ s for this inauguration are actress Halle Berry and film director Steven Spielberg. The CEOs of Microsoft and Google are also on the donor list for this event. It has also been reported that actors Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and musician Jay-Z will be in attendance. Inaugural addresses have often contained some of the most famous political lines in American history. John F Kennedy’s inaugural address is centered around his famous line “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” This line went on to define an entire generation of activists and politicians. Earlier Abraham Lincoln had attempted to use his first inaugural address to reunite a broken people by claiming, “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.” As history tells, this speech may not have prevented a war but it did at least outline Lincoln’s intentions when it came to that war. Even earlier than Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson sought to use his speech as the glue that held a country together arguing “Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative government.” Regardless of when it takes place, whether March or January, or even April, the inauguration of a President is a chance to see democracy at hand. A person who has been elected by the people is now beginning to make the changes that they were elected to make. It is a time of unity unlike any other. It is a time when America comes together as one people, rather than two political parties. * Only one inauguration was conducted by a notary and that was that of Calvin Coolidge, following the death of Warren G. Harding. It was conducted by his father whom he was staying with when he learned of the death of the President. |
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