UK professor on President Donald Trump's inauguration speech
Jan 20, 2025
The driving theme of President Donald Trump's inauguration speech was common sense, according to Dr. Stephen Voss, a political science professor at the University of Kentucky."You know, restoration of the sort of non-ideological, non-partisan judgements that Americans have been frustrated that they haven't gotten out of either Democratic or Republican leaders," said Voss. "We'll see whether Trump can govern with the theme of common sense, as opposed to ideology and party, like he promised. But at least there's a message lots of voters across the political spectrum have been asking for exactly - stop with the conservative and progressive stuff, stop with the Democratic and Republican stuff. Just lead with some common sense."Do inauguration speeches matter? Voss believes they do."They do forecast the type of leadership you tend to get from the President - as a source of information about the presidency you're about to see," said Voss. "Inauguration speeches tend to matter a lot."Voss believes Trump's "willingness to complain about many of the things that regular voters have been complaining about" will make his inauguration speech go over decently well with many people. However, Voss says the speech will not be received well by many others."Keep in mind that we are in such a partisan, such a polarized, environment that no president gets the broad honeymoon from the public - including from people on the other side - that presidents used to receive."