I'm finally getting around to watching Tony Blair's speech to congress from CSPAN’s stream. Fairly impressive.

Sure there was plenty of environmental bunk, and conciliatory talk regarding the EUros, but you’ve gotta expect at least a little of that from a Labour PM with big time internationalist tendencies. He’s a pinko, but a pinko I can at least respect. As The Lileks wrote so eloquently, “We can argue about the shape and direction of Western Civ after we’ve made sure that such a thing will endure.”

It’s also good to hear the word “Liberty” being mentioned again in these big global speeches. The overused term “Freedom”, which, after a century of abuse from criminals, tyrants, and fools, has become increasingly meaningless. Liberty, it seems to me at least, has survived the last hundred years of doublespeak relatively intact.

I’m just shooting off my mouth (or fingers I guess) here, and I’d love to see some kind of statistical analysis on the use of the word in political and intellectual discourse over the past 200 years, but Liberty has fallen out of mainstream use for most of the last century. Of course, our presidents occasionally throw it in as a reference to the quant language of the past, but that’s just because it’s, well, a quant word.

This, of course, is part of its beauty and power. It’s a word with history. Ignoring the abortion of the French Revolution’s “libert’e” which was quickly subsumed by “egalit’e” and “fraternit’e”, there’s 250 years of American history embedded in the word. Before that there’s 500 more years of British history, going all the way back to angry aristocrats challenging the absolute power of a divine monarchy.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines Liberty as “The condition of being free from restriction or control.”, stemming from the Latin root “liber” meaning free. In its modern use, as in the Enlightenment era, it also has undertones of independence, integrity, and especially in America, orneriness (as delightfully portrayed by our much beloved First Navy Jack).

Libertarians have done much to revitalize the word for our modern world, but, despite the small section of the blogosphere which I frequent, both big and small “L” libertarians are a small minority voice. Blair in the UK certainly seems no great friend of liberty, but during his speech I felt he at least grasped the historical and geopolitical importance of the term. Wherever true liberty has taken hold, prosperity has spread. Wherever it is absent, poverty and misery runs rampant. The more people with real power start yammering home about the word, the better.

As a side note, I found Blair’s little attempts at humor in the beginning and end of his speech were actually pretty damn funny. Decent timing, alright delivery. Two centuries on, the Bitish sacking of DC in the War of 1812 is a big goddamn joke. Somebody should tell the Canadians, I think they’re still holding a grudge.

And did anybody notice which Dems just didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves? Most of their party were smiling and happy and jumping to the ovations along with the GOPers. Everyone was united in a big “we love those good ‘ol limeys” fiesta. However, a few key Donks looked downright irritated at the whole thing.

Of their number, I only took note of a few. Teddy Kennedy was one, but I can put his lack of enthusiasm down to his being drunk, or simply that he’s a filthy Kennedy. Those people have no goddamn manners you know. Hillary Clinton was another, which I actually found somewhat surprising, since she was in no way a huge opponent of the war, and Blair even went so far as praising her husband somewhere in the speech. I don’t get it.

Anyways, it was a pretty damn good speech, overall.

The British parliamentary system, in my humble opinion, has some serious deficiencies (I know many Brits defend the whole unwritten constitution thing, but c’mon guys). However, in its production of quality orators it towers over the American system. They’ve got Churchill. They’ve got Thatcher. They’ve got Blair. What have we got?

Even if you despise the man and his policies (I’m not particularly fond), Bill Clinton was a fantastic public speaker, certainly the finest in the last quarter century. Compare his finest speeches to what the British PM delivered to the American congress this week. Blair makes Clinton look like a tired old QVC pitchman.