The political journey. When I started this blog … 6 and a half years ago … I had some pretty big plans around it. Weekly updates. Listening to press conferences regularly. Updating with thoughts on political events at the time. Life is what happens when you make plans.
Regardless, the first phase of the political journey is done. Accomplished. All of the inaugural addresses of the US presidents read and documented with my thoughts. I moved away from in-depth analysis after the first several presidents but I may want to revisit that exercise. Forcing myself to write long-form posts moved the experience from one of consumption to more of a creative aspect. As it is, I’m pleased with the result – I was able to read through everything and document it so that others can hopefully learn something about the presidents without doing the amount of work that I did.
What did I learn? First, I learned that most of the presidents are fairly similar, at least in their words when they come into office. There are larger historical movements than these presidents which do force change (e.g., the expanded role of the government in infrastructure, the abolition of slavery, the emergence of the United States as a world power and eventual superpower) but for many of them, the promises are difficult to differentiate between parties (with some notable exceptions).
I also learned that there is very little that is new under the sun. Looking at early speeches, many of the same beats are present in current ones. Trump attacking the press? Jefferson did it first. “God Bless America” or similar exhortations to The Almighty? Adams discusses “a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service” and Jefferson also makes reference to an Almighty deity. Fights over the role of government, concerns about spending and The Debt, and civil rights discussions for minority groups within the nation have also shown up in speeches made 200 years ago. There is a lot of wisdom in old words, and also a hint of warning against hubris – who are we to think that we suddenly have the answers when we reject the contemplation of our ancestors?
What are the next steps? First, I’m taking a bit of a break. A driving factor in finishing the inaugural addresses was my impending marriage – I wanted a nice accomplishment to close out my single life. Additionally, I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction lately – I want to return to reading fiction and letting my mind switch off. After that, I’m going to resume reading The Federalist Papers and The Anti-Federalist Papers. I’m about 15 deep on both of them and have been taking some notes – I’d like to at least continue posting those here if nothing else.
I’d like to also tackle the possibility of turning the last couple of years into a book. A simple one, nothing complicated. But the wisdom of the presidents is something that everyone should have a chance to take a glance at and curating the selections I’ve already made shouldn’t be an overly difficult task. I’m a little hesitant to do this since one of the most maddening things in life is encountering people who have nothing to add to a conversation but insist on putting in their two cents. There are so many books out there already – would it add to the noise or would it provide inspiration to a fellow traveler, one who also is looking for a new path to tread but only needs a signpost to inform them that it is an option? I’ll ponder it. Writing out more of an introduction for each president and doing research into their presidencies would be a good way to add more value to the project, but I’m also juggling enough outside of that. This project’s intention was to learn more and have fun. I’ve certainly kept to that charter through it.