Obama wants us to be Boxer

Obama's inauguration speech was very interesting. At first, it appeared to travel in two different directions, conservative and liberal. It took me several hours and the memory of a quite memorable animated version of Orwell's Animal Farm to realize that he was, in fact, driving in the same direction the entire time.

Conservatives value and wish to reward hard work and responsibility. On the surface, Obama appears to agree with them. Watch for the reasons he gives to work hard, however, and who he hopes will benefit! That is where you will find the difference between the conservative and Boxer.

Who is Boxer? Boxer is the Animal Farm version of the working class, a draft horse who puts his all into his duties, doing everything he can. Uncomplaining, he does not take advantage of the perks of socialism, like the pigs do. His loyalty never wavers, and he trusts his new leaders even when their planned retirement for him is not a good rest, but the knacker's wagon. (In other words, for those of you who don't read British books regularly, the butcher.)

Let's take a look at Obama's speech. We already know the parts in which he mentions the importance of hard work, responsibility, and tough choices. Let us now examine for what or whom we are to sacrifice:

But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

And earlier:

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect.

When speaking of the military, what does he praise?

We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves.

Yes, after years of trying to feed us falsehood-by-simplification, claiming that the extremism of liberalism is socialism and the extremism of conservatism is fascism, we now have someone telling us that the reason why we must work hard and be responsible is to benefit the Nation first and the entire world second. He is now able to spout fascism, and it is likely that few people will take this for what it is, because we've had repeated to us over and over that only Right-Wingers can be fascists.

That isn't to say that socialism was not a theme in his speech, however. Consider his goal for government:

We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.

And again, you notice government's role in the everyday lives of its citizens:

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.

Lest you continue to question whether or not he is truly speaking of conservative responsibility or a new era of socialism, I point you towards his own websites detailing his own plans for America. Would you hear it only in his speech, and nowhere else? Try this piece:

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

Though many will try to tell you that his speech is a mixture of conservativism and liberalism, in actual fact his speech is a mixture of facism and socialism. We are to be hard-working and responsible to support the government, and the government is to provide for us. But how can he believe that this will work? It failed on Plymouth Rock. It failed in Russia. It failed in Italy. It is failing in China. Everywhere this has been tried, it has failed. He actually anticipates that question and answers it, also in his speech:

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.

That's right, he is speaking fascism and socialism, and he knows it. He cannot deny it, only attempt to cloak it and confuse the issue. But in the end, he is doing two things: he is asking us all to be Boxer, and he is claiming that This Time It Will Work.