Compare and contrast the views of America as set out in Barack Obama’s 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention and Donald J. Trump’s First Inaugural Speech. What themes do each present? How do they differ in their view of America? What essential values of democracy are celebrated or contradicted by the speeches?

President Obama's 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention reads like a long but unfinished story. In contrast to Trump's frequent emphases on the ability for America to be perfect, supreme, and wise, Obama depicts America as an eternally unfinished project that advances along an arc that, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., "bends toward justice." He notes that the American economy has been crippled by the avarice and recklessness of the elite classes and laments the systemic alienation of the individual lives and welfare of citizens from the political process. He acknowledges the plight of people whom the American government has historically disenfranchised and yet refuses to build back up. Yet, his rhetoric remains generalizable, neither explicitly nor implicitly addressing any political party or spending time appealing to the audience that voted him into office. Unlike Trump, he exhibits a reluctance to cut down his opposition, sticking instead to the theme that people are much more united than they are opposed.
President Trump's inaugural address in 2017 shares with Obama's speech a strong appeal to national pride. However, while Obama celebrates an America that is empowered by diversity, openness, and justice, Trump's extolment of national pride is delivered through the white nationalist and protectionist rhetoric of American populism. He redoubles on his campaign's conservative thesis that the ideal America exists somewhere in the past and must quickly be "returned" to. In mostly negative words, he depicts an America that has fallen from its natural primacy and reneged on its competitive, aspirational, and capitalist values. Unlike Obama, Trump spends time appealing to his loyalist base and disparaging his opposition.