Now we know who to blame if we're attacked

From President Trump's inaugural address:

There should be no fear. We are protected and we will always be protected. We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement. And most importantly, we will be protected by God.

That "most importantly" is the part that really (i.e. figuratively) kills me. Is it just because I'm a non-believer, or does it seem to you, also, that the President is unwittingly denigrating the military and police of the country? You guys are great, you know, but God has our back. He has our back now as he apparently hadn't from 2001 until now. But I guess this means, just as it did to Revs. Falwell and Robertson back in 2001, that it'll be on God if we get attacked -- which is to say, of course, that it'll be on all the sinners out there rather than the national security screw-ups. Don't blame Trump, in other words; it will have been God's will, and others' fault.

The rest of the speech -- I read rather than heard it -- seems fairly forceful in its declaration of opposition to an establishment that has benefited while ordinary Americans have suffered in recent times and its assertion of an "America First" policy across the board. If Trump has a blind spot it's his identification of Washington D.C. as the center of this establishment, as if the politicians were primarily to blame for jobs leaving the country. Mr. Businessman should know better.

I'm not sure what he can say to make his critics feel that he means them when he promises that all Americans will benefit from his policies. Trump says that "When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice," but I'm not sure that'll convince people who perceive the most prejudiced people also to be the most self-consciously superpatriotic. It'll more likely appeal to people who'll think he's addressing those who are insufficiently patriotic and thus prejudiced against whites.

The one thing that surprised me is that, while he mentioned protecting the borders a few times Trump didn't mention "the wall" specifically. I don't think that means he isn't planning it, but the omission surprises me because I expected something more "in your face" in keeping with the rest of the address. The "America First" stuff will have people talking and writing all weekend because the term still has obnoxious connotations dating back to before Pearl Harbor for some folks, but in 2017 it boils down to what Trump said elsewhere in the speech: "it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first." Let's see how that plays out in practice.

On an artistic note, you really can tell which parts were written by others and which are probably his. For instance, I think a speechwriter gave him this one:

And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the wind-swept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they will their heart with the same dreams, and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty creator.

While this --

America will start winning again, winning like never before.

 -- is inimitably authentic.