Mike Pence was the Commander in Chief for 53 Sweet Seconds

I know we are all talking today about Trump, and the speech, and what he did or did not say or do.  And I will too, in a moment.

But first -- did anyone else notice that Pence was the De-facto President for 53 seconds?

Pence was sworn in around 11:56 AM, after which the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang a patriotic tune and there were some handshakes and hugs up on the stage.  As 11:59 approached I started watching the clock very closely, because as of 12 noon the Obama Administration was no more; there was a new sheriff in town and his name is Donald JOHN Trump.  Never knew what that J stood for.  Julius, I think, would have a more fitting, Imperial ring about it.

But not so fast!!!  As of noon Trump had yet to be sworn in.  As he had not yet taken the oath of office, he could not be the President.  He started the oath slightly after 12 and was officially sworn in as of 12:00:53. So for 53 seconds we really didn't have a president.  But we did have Vice President Pence.

I'm not up on my Constitutional Law (though I guess we all should be, as Americans, right?), so I am not sure if the absence of a President makes Pence the President or just vests him the powers thereof;  but either way I am sure that for 53 seconds there Pence was, in effect, the most powerful man in the world.

That's one for the refrigerator door, I'd say.

On His Way to 53 Seconds of Glory

So obviously I did watch the inauguration.  I clocked out for a moment at work and put on CNN (I haven't watched or even been to the CNN website since the election, as part of a one man CNN boycott, because I think they only serve to fan the flames of our discontent with headlines like "Senator Eviscerates President on Health Care Policy" and "Cruz Slams Trump on Barbecue, says KC Style is Best".  It's too much.  A lot of this mess is their fault), and I watched Trump take the oath and give his speech.  I have....a couple comments.

First, the Invocation.  I know as a nominal Christian I shouldn't be bothered that all three prayers (THREE) were Christian in nature, one explicitly evoking the name of Jesus Christ several times.  But as a person who believes in a pretty strict separation of Church and State I was, of course, unhappy.  Yet even as a Christian I was sort of bothered by it too.  A life lived in Christ is among many things a life lived in humility before God.  Wedding Jesus to the State, asking him to bless us so that we might be strong and wealthy and powerful (so that we might be Rome, who crucified Him) seems the opposite of humility.

Second, the speech:  An eloquent speech it was not...I imagine he was proud of the simile comparing boarded up factories to tombstones - I wonder how long it took for him to come up with that one as he lounged around Maro Largo over the Holidays.

But the speech, to me (and I don't say this lightly), had just a whiff of Fascism about it.  I'm not sure exactly why.  Maybe it was the repeated extolling of nationalism, this idea that a renewed pride in our nation and a new spirit of Patriotism will unite us.

America has never been an end in itself. It means something. It has always striven towards Liberty.  It has done so imperfectly, without doubt, but it has always reached for something better than itself.  Now it just seems Trump wants us to be united not by our values but by a love of America in and of itself...but love of country takes many different shades and people love this land for very different reasons (or they don't love it for various reasons).  Which makes me think that the only way to unite in love of country is to put the State on a pedestal, to make the State the most important thing and subsume all values to its Glory.  That, ladies and gentlemen, is fascism -- or at least its what fascism means to me.

Not saying that Trump is a fascist (though he does sort of look the part of a strongman).  And that is perhaps not what he meant to convey.  In fact I am sure it is not what he meant to convey.  But there is something about this speech that I found deeply unsettling. Only time will tell if those misgivings are rooted in any sort of reality.

Just remember folks:  Trump eats Doritos, just like you and me.  We are in good hands.  Good hands covered in nacho cheese flavoring.