The research done looked to answer the following question: How do presidents use rhetoric to talk about race and how has that rhetoric changed over time? Through robust quantitative and qualitative coding, some important themes presented themselves. These themes were the use of coded language (more specifically patriotism, states rights, and crime and punishment), changes in equality, and white savior/repression. Each of the themes presented a similar trend. Every party that was accounted for would relatively speak similarly but overall Democratic presidents would talk more about the inclusion of all people in the more modern era. They would use fewer terms like crime and punishment (with the exception of President Clinton), talk more about an inclusive idea of equality, and less about states’ rights. In comparison, Republican presidents would talk about a more exclusive version of those ideas and more about states’ rights, which has racial connotations to them. 

Many scholars have deemed presidential rhetoric to be important but have found that inaugural addresses do not produce the same type of importance because of the reason for the speech (Teten 2003). There has been a number of scholars who have looked at the ways in which presidents can present policy ideas through their rhetoric, specifically looking at crime and states rights (Bonilla-Silva 2019, Bunting 2018, Burke 2017, Miller 2019). I found that through looking at inaugural speeches we can see the ways in which a president spends their time perfecting their rhetoric (Druckman and Holmes 2008). One of the gaps in the literature that I have hoped to fill is showing that inaugural addresses are important and can present some ideas that a president wishes to accomplish during their term. I also think that inaugural addresses are a way that presidents are able to take the temperature of the nation and truly show where they stand on a number of issues, one of those being race. 

I find this study to be important to modern U.S. politics because it shows the trends over time, presenting ways in which each of the modern parties has changed their values. We can try and use this research to predict how certain racial groups might associate and vote in terms of an election. By having this research we can potentially hypothesize where the parties might be heading or look at how they can use this specific speech to present policy ideas. The next question I have addresses just that: How does presidential rhetoric in inaugural addresses foreshadow any policy initiatives that a president passes? Even though an inaugural address is meant to be more ceremonial I would find it interesting to see if the way a president speaks about race, equality, or any number of concepts within their speech corresponds to a particular policy point.