Keep Your Stinkin' Government Outta My Soul!

Linked from Michelle Malkin. This is from a somewhat recent (few weeks ago) speech by Michelle Obama. She's definitely a better speaker than her husband, but she's also not shy about pouring on the socialist rhetoric.

"We have lost the understanding that in a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another — that we cannot measure the greatness of our society by the strongest and richest of us, but we have to measure our greatness by the least of these. That we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done. That is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation."

I'm not even sure where to start with statements like this. I'd think such statements, and others she's made would scare the hell out of people. Instead they love it. It's socialism / communism reincarnated, yet it's apparently popular. It sure as hell scares me. Oh, and for the love of god, we do not live in a Democracy. I think if you polled Americans, most wouldn't know what form of government we have. (I wonder how many would pick "parliamentary" if given the choice....)

This notion that Obama has some cure-all that's going to "fix" my soul is insane. Unless he really is the "Messiah." He can go about fixing his own soul but don't presume to tell me what needs fixing in my own life. It's my responsibility to figure out what my problems are and deal with them. It's NOT the governments job to diagnose a one-size-fits-all "problem" (or set of problems) for all individuals and then enact policy to try and "fix" the problem collectively. We've seen that approach in action before, and it's a dismal failure time after time.

I have absolutely no moral or mutual obligation to anyone else. I have an obligation to myself. If I had kids I'd have an obligation to them, but beyond that I have no "mutual obligation" to any other American. This doesn't mean I don't have morals, or that I don't genuinely try to be a good, kind person. The idea that I somehow, under an Obama presidency, have a government mandated "obligation" to my fellow citizen is quite simply unamerican.

If Obama decides he wants to institutionally coerce me to fulfil that obligation (defined by government) then he's advocating a form of socialism. Remember, the only real difference between this and communism is how the government seeks to coerce, and how much force they're willing to use to ensure cooperation.