Martin Luther King and Inauguration Day

Today (since it is past midnight) is a special day in two ways: Today, we honor the memory of a man who, despite his flaws and lapses in judgment, stood up against grave injustices, ultimately at the cost of his life, and in measured, eloquent words, appealed to the better angels of America’s nature, inspiring millions, bolstering the courage of oppressed blacks and their allies, and moving the hearts of whites who had either been complicit in Jim Crow, insufficiently aware of it, or slow to regard it as their problem.

Today, too, we inaugurate as President of the United States a mendacious demagogue with a low talent for appealing to the national id, a man who sabotages America’s foreign policy by insulting and threatening our friends, while proclaiming his admiration for tyrants and enemies. This man, furthermore, demonstrated himself to be utterly unworthy of public office by inciting an insurrection four years and two weeks ago, in an attempt to cling to the presidency by violence. This man has won the votes of a plurality of America’s voting citizens, and thereby of a majority of the Electoral College, to the lasting disgrace of those who supported him.