Washington diary: Revolutionary spirit

By Matt Frei
BBC News, Washington

The inauguration crowd reflected the inspiring words of America's founders

Barack Obama's inauguration reminded the world that America is - in theory - a revolutionary society, founded on the promise of freedom and equality, inscribed in marble, enshrined in law.

In the frozen air of Washington, the inscriptions on the Jefferson or Lincoln memorials for once found expression in the grinning faces that had crammed into the Mall, the words that seeped from the loudspeakers and the very identity of the man at the centre of it all.

It was also a reminder of how often that promise had failed to live up to itself.

The African-American men who flocked to hear their new president sworn in were still proportionally more likely to end up in jail than the white men they were standing amongst.

Nearly three-quarters of all African-American children are born to single mothers.

"The poor go to jail, the rich get bail", is a common refrain - but it is borne out by the facts.

Fresh influx

The gulf between precept and practice, between rhetoric and reality has been so glaring in this country partly because the founding mission was so noble and its appeal so enduring.

Americas has been saved from its own hypocrisy by two things.

The first is the immigrant nature of society. The resentment between the haves and have-nots has always been diluted by the fresh influx of eager blood. Every new immigrant wading across the Rio Grande refreshes the aspirational nature of this society.

The second reason is geographical space. (I apologise but this is an obsession of mine). America is vast enough for its various competing tribes to live in relative oblivion of each other. Resentment is a fungus that luxuriates in more cramped quarters.

But the most important reason why the spirit of revolution or insurrection in this country has been tempered or confined to marble inscriptions is that it has helped to create results.

For the first time in its history, this country is living through a middle-class insurrection, spawned by resentment, facilitated by the click of a mouse and fuelled by red-eyed anger

The majority of America has been middle class, prosperous and comfortable.

For them, the American dream was not a feverish fitful affair but an afternoon nap, swaddled in throw cushions on a daybed.

The nap ended abruptly on 13 September: the day Lehman Brothers collapsed, the throw cushions were torn and the bed collapsed.

For the first time in its history, this country is living through a middle-class insurrection, spawned by resentment, facilitated by the click of a mouse and fuelled by red-eyed anger.

This insurrection helped to elect President Obama, banish the Bushes and clip the Clintons.

Last year saw an electorate vexed by the sense of entitlement of political dynasties new and old.

In more polite and deferential days, Caroline Kennedy might have sailed into the Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton.

But sinecures are now so yesterday.

Mood of outrage

The American insurrection comes in three phases; doubt, fear and now rage.

John Thain's $13,000 (£9,000) waste basket, the Citigroup $45m Gulf Stream jet, the billions of dollars of taxpayer's money paid in bonuses to the undeserving merchants of our downfall are Marie Antoinette's peasant village at Versailles a year before her severed head rolled into a basket.

In dollar terms they are but a trifle. But they are remembered, quoted and spat out as the excruciating details of blind self-indulgence and supreme arrogance.

Few of us know what it feels like to make or lose $50bn. But we all know that a $13,000 trashcan when you're facing bankruptcy is, well, rubbish.

It is in this mood of outrage and insurrection that we discover that too many cabinet appointees simply forgot to pay their taxes.

We discover that Tom Daschle used his influence to make $5m as an unregistered lobbyist.

In the past, people might have winced, but they would probably have shrugged. Nowadays they holler.

The new president did the only thing he could do: say "sorry" 10 different times on seven different TV networks.

His predecessor found it impossible to utter the hardest word, even though, many would argue, he had plenty of reasons to do so.

Barack Obama has realised that the only acceptable meal in these times is humble pie followed by the gruel of capping executive pay for firms that have been rescued by the administration.

But the new White House would be wise to remember that it is not the result of the insurrection, merely a symptom of it.

The revolution is far from over in this year of living angrily - and revolutions have a nasty habit of devouring their own children.

Matt Frei is the presenter of BBC World News America which airs every weekday on BBC News, BBC World News and BBC America (for viewers outside the UK only).

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