Throughout my lifetime, I have always looked forward to inauguration day. Whether my preferred candidate had succeeded or not, this unique in the world peaceful transition of power held a certain democratic beauty. Even if a new president’s ideology did not match mine, I would try to view start of a new term through a hopeful prism.

Sadly, this inauguration day did not foster a sense of promise. Foregoing an opportunity to present loft and inspiration, Trump opted to spew a 20-minute diatribe about the wrongs of what he considers a nation in descent.

Betraying the expressed sentiments of his predecessors, Trump’s message lacked the international assurance of Thomas Jefferson, the calming words of Franklin Roosevelt, the uniting and healing intentions of Abraham Lincoln, or the enduring faith in our nation’s rightful place in the world stated by George W. Bush. Trump’s authoritarian utterances painted a dark portrait of a stark and downtrodden America desperately searching for messianic leader to save us.

Inaugurations are supposed to buoy the country in a unifying display of the possible. However, the Donald spoke little of our existing greatness as the one place in the world, which provides the most individual liberty and holds the most access to opportunity. Instead, he painted a dire picture of a society suffering from distressful afflictions in which he alone was the appropriate medicine.

Reeling from the grim aftermath of his speech, I decided to review the inaugural speeches of past presidents to compare whether Trump’s harbinger of doom was as corrosive as I initially thought.

Perhaps the most startling of Trump’s passages in his inaugural speech was the following. “Mothers and children in poverty in our inner cities; rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.” And his punctuation to this thrown gauntlet was the following. “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”

The Donald might want to do his homework. According to the United States Census, the poverty rate in our nation was 15.7% in 1984, the rate was 14.5% in 1994, the rate was 14.1% in 2004, and in 2015 the US poverty rate has decreased to 13.5%. Currently, the poverty line established by the government for a family of four is $24,036 by 2015 standards. Thus, the poverty rate has been trending in the right direction for decades.

Indeed, Trump is right that we have lost manufacturing in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana and there are abandoned factories as proof of our erstwhile predominance in low-tech manufacturing. Although, according to Forbes magazine, only roughly 20% of our low-tech manufacturing has been lost to expatriation, whereas 80% has been lost to advances in robotics.

If we were to repatriate much of our low tech manufacturing, doing so would not have a significant effect on increasing employment.

Obviously, the Donald does not think highly of the efforts of our teachers. The ulterior message of a system “flush with cash” with little production insinuates that American teachers are greedy and lackadaisical. According to the Rand Corporation, The United States is ranked 27th among 150 nations overall, and the U.S. is ranked 9th among the top 30 industrialized nations. So, although there is room for improvement we are certainly not floundering comparatively. Opposite from the new president’s opinion, American teachers must be using some of that cash constructively.

Furthermore, Trump is correct that crime in the inner cities is a generational sin. Murder rates in certain cities like Chicago have risen. However, according to the FBI, crime rates overall have declined steadily for the last 11years.

Trump’s overreached when he labeled the unrest as carnage and implied that only he was the magic answer to generational urban strife. This viewpoint was fantastical and ridiculous, and despite asserting that it will “stop now” because he said so. I would suggest that Trump should take a sociology course before he makes such ludicrous assertions.

Second in absurdity to the previously examined passage was the following pugnacious passage: “Politicians prospered – but jobs left, and the factories closed. Washington flourished – but the people did not share in its wealth. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country”.

Well if Trump wants to effectuate an agenda, he will need the cooperation of the legislative branch of the federal government. He may not realize that he cannot rule by dictum. To insult those you will need to pass your agenda is just plain stupid.

Proudly, Trump tried to brand a new slogan for his administration. “We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American”. This is a fine notion in theory, and the federal government should buy from domestic sources with priority. However, in this global intertwined economy, even domestic producers often depend on foreign made component parts.

Most outrageous, Trump’s claim in regard to the Middle-East defied known history. “We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones-and unite the civilized world against radial Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth”. Since the 7th century, Sunnis and Shi’ites have been fighting over the interpretation of the Koran. Further, some believers from both sects have been dedicated to the destruction of all infidels. Even if the US and others beat back ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the centuries’ long struggle of Islamic extremists against non-Islamic people will never be fully eradicated. According to the Pew Research Group, 23.2% of the world’s population is Muslim.

The foreboding horizon illustrated by Donald Trump was diametrically opposite to the uplifting and hopeful words of his predecessors.

Our third President Thomas Jefferson in 1801 wanted to tell the world that the US was interested in trade while preserving our sovereignty. “Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none”. We must exist within a community of nations, then and now.

Our sixteenth President Abraham Lincoln stated the following in 1865 at his second inaugural. “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with fairness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive onto finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds.” Even during a great civil war that threatened the very survival of our nation, Lincoln was more positive than Trump.

Our 32nd, President Franklin Roosevelt, in 1933 faced a crippling depression, yet held more positivity than Trump. “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses efforts to convert retreat into advance.” FDR was compelling not gloomy in face of a poverty rate triple today’s circumstances.

Our forty-third President George W. Bush in 2005 understood that although a president should serve American interests first, the US could be a beacon of light toward democracy for other striving nations in the world. “So it is the policy of the US 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.” Trump needs to learn we will isolate ourselves from other nations by acting dictatorially toward them regarding NATO, trade, and military adventurism. There is a community of countries that America must flourish within. This was true in the World War I Era and the World War II Era, and it is more so today.

Donald Trump’s inaugural speech was not inspiring, it was not reassuring, and it was not uplifting. On the contrary, it was a depressing spoken disposition of a country I do not recognize. We are graced as citizens of this great land to live in a nation, which holds the most promise for the individual on earth. We are imperfect, although less imperfect than all the other countries. Presidents are supposed to recognize and celebrate that immutable fact.