MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell caused a storm when he suggested the Bible should not be used at inauguration ceremonies. But President Barack Obama’s actual choice of Bibles – rather than a liberal red herring about not using one – should concern Americans who recognize his messiah complex.
As National Review Online’s Eliana Johnson reported, Obama has constantly compared himself to Lincoln, even though he bluntly said, “I never compare myself to Lincoln.” Last year, he told a crowd in Decorah, Iowa this gem: “Lincoln, people used to talk about him almost as bad as they talk about me.”
In 1861, Abraham Lincoln swore the Presidential oath of office on a King James Bible. Later, his family donated it to the Library of Congress, where it remained on display until 2009, when another president – of the opposite party – used it to swear the same oath.
As the Guardian reported, this “Lincoln Bible” will also be featured on January 21, as the first of Obama’s Second Inaugural Bibles. The second belonged to Martin Luther King Jr., whose national holiday falls is celebrated on the day of Obama’s Second Inauguration.
After his tribute to Martin Luther King, Obama will deliver the State of the Union address – on Lincoln’s birthday, February 12.
Other personalities have reinforced Obama’s connection to the sixteenth president. Stephen Spielberg – an influential Obama donor – released his film Lincoln, which depicts the transition between Lincoln’s reelection and his Second Inauguration – coincidentally during the same point in Obama’s presidency. A breakdown of the liberal talking-heads who link the two presidents would fill volumes.
Ironically, Obama pursues policies far similar to those of Franklin Delano Roosevelt than those of Abraham Lincoln. Through the 2009 stimulus and his signature healthcare legislation, he has overseen a massive growth in the size of the federal government.
Abraham Lincoln opposed slavery because “in the right to put into his mouth the bread that his own hands have earned,” the slave “is the equal of every other man, white or black.” Slavery is wrong because it redistributes earned wealth.
King’s Bible also links Obama with a national leader whose ideas differed from those of the current president.
President Obama claims to fulfill the Civil Rights leader’s famous dream in which King states, “that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Obama campaigned on a post-partisan era, where the first black president would lead the nation in securing equal pay for men and women – a new time of “freedom and justice.”
But under his presidency, Obama has not reflected King’s vision for America. From high black unemployment, abortion and poverty, the plight of African Americans has not much improved under President Obama’s leadership.
In his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King lamented that, one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, “the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.”
Even today, many blacks find themselves “an exile in their own land.” Poverty, abortion, murder – these ills plague the black population more than other racial groups. Black youth unemployment is the highest rate among youth in the nation. Obama may be the first black president, but his presidency has not ushered in an era of new freedom for the black population.
As the first black president, Obama does represent an achievement in American politics. Without quibbling about his lack of slave ancestry, Americans should be able to acknowledge this victory and move on without remaining stuck on the historic nature of his election.
But by focusing on the issue, and by supporting an unrelenting Progressive agenda, Obama has divided the country rather than united it. Obama cuts himself off from a large section of America by openly supporting government-mandated healthcare (including contraception) and higher taxes.
By attacking Republicans as waging “a war against women,” rather than focusing on the financial stress that both men and women face in these difficult times, Obama has engaged in partisan identity politics, forsaking King’s colorblind dream.
On Inauguration Day, Obama will swear on Bibles owned by two great American leaders. Lincoln, who supported private property, would squirm at the comparison. King, who called for justice, would decry Obama’s partisan identity politics.
President Obama should rightly enjoy his victory, but would be wise to learn from the moderation of the great men who carried these Bibles before him.
