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5分钟带你分析美国总统就职演说

An inaugural address can be a defining moment for a president and certain lines become iconic.

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

But why do some addresses echo through history while others don't?

I asked Kathleen Hall JamiesonI am director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at The University of Pennsylvania.

And what she told me is that an inaugural address should do three things: unify the country, announce guiding principles, and affirm the limits of power.

So let's take those one by one, starting with the need to unify the country.

One of the more important characteristics of an inaugural is that it establishes that this is the president of all the people.

Coming after a campaign, a president's first ask to heal a divided electorate.

In 1801, Jefferson welcomed his opponents when he said, "Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. "

And in 1953, Eisenhower echoed Jefferson's plea for unity, "May cooperation be permitted and be the mutual aim of those who, under the concepts of our Constitution, hold to differing political faiths. . ."

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