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As I drove across Springfield Friday, I turned my radio to the nation’s inauguration.

As Donald Trump’s words echoed through the cab of my pickup, I became more and more depressed.

Inauguration addresses are supposed to be a time of magnanimity, when the victor reaches across the nation’s divisions and rubs balm in its wounds.

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Think of Illinois’ favorite son, Abraham Lincoln.

After four years of Civil War he stood at the dais taking the oath of office and uttered these lasting words: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the fight as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

That’s what oratory sounds like.

Lincoln uttered those words when the nation was at its nadir. Hundreds of thousands of its men lay dead on its battlefields, millions of its people enslaved and hatred rife between the North and the South.

Today, our nation faces its challenges. But we are undeniably the most powerful nation on earth. We have our problems, to be sure, but we remain the envy of the world.

Trump seemed clueless to the time and the setting of his remarks.

He said this: “But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.”

Um, “all knowledge?”

Those aren’t words designed to elevate.

I grew up in Galesburg, a town where rusted out factories are scattered like tombstones. I’m aware of the problems facing Trump country but an inauguration is a time to lift up, not pound down.

Think of the words of John F. Kennedy when he took the oath of office: “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

Instead from Trump we received these words: “One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind. The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world.”

Yes, we have our problems.

But, gee, Mr. President isn’t this a time to call for coming together?

Think of the words of Franklin Roosevelt: “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

That’s what an inauguration address should sound like.

As I listened to Trump’s words tumble from my truck’s speakers, I racked my brain for when I’ve come across an inauguration address anything like this. Two words came to mind: “Dan Walker”

When he was sworn in as governor he told the Springfield audience: “The Free Ride is Over.”

Like Trump’s, those were hardly words of kindness or charity.

And like Trump’s address, those words were delivered in a time of relative prosperity.

Walker served one disastrous term as Illinois’ chief executive and a second term in federal prison. Only Rod Blagojevich rivals Walker in Illinois gubernatorial arrogance.

But neither man has anything on The Donald.

As I heard Trump say: “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost,” I heard an echo of Dan Walker saying, “The Free Ride is Over.”

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Let’s hope for the sake of our nation, Trump’s time in office is more successful than Walker’s.

The greatest nation on earth deserves that much.

Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse journalist and works as a freelance reporter.