Abstract

'Freedom' Belongs to All

The author comments on George W. Bush's second inaugural address and defines the American tradition of freedom. Freedom lies at the heart of American political culture and gives legitimacy to political goals of all kinds. Bush speaks of freedom to justify both the invasion of Iraq and a conservative agenda at home. His address paraphrased some of the most celebrated orations in the nation's past. It echoed Lincoln's second inaugural, the messianic addresses of Woodrow Wilson during World War I, FDR's Four Freedoms speech, the Truman Doctrine address to Congress, and Kennedy's inaugural. Like Ronald Reagan, Bush is a master at appropriating for conservative ends language associated with his opponents. The President's actual policies, of course, belie his rhetoric. Bush's paean to democracy ignores the inconvenient fact that nearly every member of the "coalition of the willing" joined the invasion of Iraq in defiance of the will of its own people. The claim that the United States embodies the ideal of freedom in a titanic struggle with evil may be an effective means of mobilizing public support, but it makes it impossible to interpret international criticism of the United States as anything but hostility to freedom.