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State of the Union parser

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    #2
    DadaKopf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,731 ✭✭✭DadaKopf


    Strange, I've actually been doing this on and off for the past few weeks, comparing Bush's 2004 inaugural speech with Prez Truman's inaugural speech of 1949. So far I've done a quick word frequency table, before getting into comparing the actual content of the speeches.

    Freedom and democracy are top on the agenda as is security and global stability. Both also mention communism, but Truman's communism is the same as Bush's ter'rism, which he doesn't explicitly mention.

    I started comparing them because Truman's speech marked the emergence of the Third World development project. Given the severity of underdevelopment across the world, I was interested to take a look at Bush's speech to see whether things have changed or stayed the same.

    It's interesting to compare these speeches because it helps you to trace the thread of the American psyche and how their place in the world, real or imagined, has changed or remained constant. The inaugural speeches to this in a general sense, as a piece of high political propaganda, the state of the union is more important because it sets out policy. But the state of the union adresses are never as resonant across time.


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