President Obama’s attempt during his second inaugural address to wrap his expansionist vision of government in the language of the nation’s founding is nothing new. He has been doing this ever since he gained national recognition for his soaring speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention as a state senator.

“[O]ur pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over 200 years ago,” Obama said in 2004. On Monday, he said, “What makes us exceptional — what makes us American — is our allegiance to an idea articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago.”