NO, BARACK OBAMA DID NOT INVENT THE IDEOLOGICAL SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS

People seem to be astonished -- and, on the right, horrified -- at the fact that Barack Obama's second inaugural address was built on the assertion that his ideas are better for America than his opponents' ideas. Aren't reelected presidents supposed to make nice in their inaugural speeches? Aren't the speeches supposed to be like election-night victory speeches -- gracious, and full of praise for the opposition?

Um, no. Let's go to Saint Reagan's second inaugural address:

... for a time, we ... asked things of government that government was not equipped to give. We yielded authority to the National Government that properly belonged to States or to local governments or to the people themselves. We allowed taxes and inflation to rob us of our earnings and savings and watched the great industrial machine that had made us the most productive people on Earth slow down and the number of unemployed increase.

By 1980, we knew it was time to renew our faith, to strive with all our strength toward the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with an orderly society.

We believed then and now there are no limits to growth and human progress when men and women are free to follow their dreams.

And we were right to believe that....

Freedom and incentives unleash the drive and entrepreneurial genius that are the core of human progress....

We have already started returning to the people and to State and local governments responsibilities better handled by them. Now, there is a place for the Federal Government in matters of social compassion. But our fundamental goals must be to reduce dependency....

There's lip service to bipartisanship in the speech, but it's a thoroughly partisan speech. The main thrust of the speech is "our way is superior; their way is ruinous."

And George W. Bush's inaugural was all about the glories of the Bush Doctrine and the interventionist Bush foreign policy:

... We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.

America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one....

So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world....

The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it. America's influence is not unlimited, but fortunately for the oppressed, America's influence is considerable, and we will use it confidently in freedom's cause....

Even the domestic part of the speech was about Bush's notions of an "ownership society" in which private saving substituted for entitlements:

To give every American a stake in the promise and future of our country, we will bring the highest standards to our schools, and build an ownership society. We will widen the ownership of homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance -- preparing our people for the challenges of life in a free society.

Neither of these speeches conceded that opponents had some really good ideas. Neither of these speeches admitted the possibility that the best results might be achieved through difference-splitting.

The partisanship of Barack Obama's speech was not unprecedented. So if it upset you, get over it.