The Naming of the President – Sunday, January 18, 1981
The clamor and confusion of the 1980 presidential campaign are now over. And this week, the 4Oth President of the United States will be installed in the highest elective office in this country.
In so doing, Ronald Reagan fulfills the divinely inspired requirements of the Constitution, that the executive power of these United States shall be vested in an elected President; in an individual selected from among the people, and by the people.
The inauguration of an American President is a momentous occasion, an event filled with symbolism and hidden meanings; for it is the culmination of a rare experiment in the history of human government, an experiment which makes those who are governed equal to those who govern.
Thus, it is not so much the man nor his politics that we honor during the inauguration ceremonies. Rather, it is the office itself, the office of the President of the United States.
That office is evidence that the powers to rule in a republic are derived from the common consent of those who are ruled; it is tangible proof that the value of one citizen’s voice is as great as the value of any, that the voice of the cattleman in Wyoming, the steelworker in Pennsylvania, or the homemaker in California is one and the same with the voice of the judge, the lawyer, the politician.
In this country, then, when politics function in its rightful arena, the office of the President is placed above the claims of royal blood, the influence of wealth, or the dominion of ecclesiastical authority.
Those who have given their consent and support to this newly elected President also give him a charge, an edict to remember the sacred trust which he has accepted. Let him recognize the common good in every decision, in every act, in every appointment. Let him establish his administration upon the principle that it is the government who should fear the people and not the people who should fear the government.
And may the President keep sacred his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, regardless of the risk, political pressures, or cost.
And finally, may this Chief of State, and all who may follow, heed the words spoken during the inaugural address of the first President and Father of our country, that: “Heaven can never smile on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right.”1
For in truth, God is not a respecter of nationalities nor politics. And the blessings of heaven, for individuals as well as for nations can only be bestowed upon the condition of righteousness.
1 George Bancroft, “The Inauguration of Washington,” The Ridpath Library, Fifth Ave. Library Soc. 1907, Vol. II, Page 362.
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January 18, 1981
Broadcast Number 2,683