There was an odd contradiction at the heart of President
Obama’s inaugural address on Monday. On the one hand, the
president celebrated how far we’ve come toward inclusion and
equality, toward enabling all Americans, regardless of race,
gender, or sexual orientation, to fully participate in American
life. In this sense, it was a speech firmly anchored in today and
looking to tomorrow.

On the other hand, much of the president’s remarks
amounted to a clarion call for America to return to 1965. It was as
if all we had learned about social and economic policy over the
last 50 years had suddenly vanished. The president did not just
reject the conservative revolution of Ronald Reagan and the New
Democrat agenda of Bill Clinton; he might as well have been Lyndon
Johnson announcing the Great Society.

In the president’s world, unreformed welfare worked and
entitlement programs have not led this country to the brink of
bankruptcy. Indeed, the president sounded as if he had suddenly
discovered a magic money tree growing out behind the White House.
He called for all manner of new spending on education,
infrastructure, and fighting poverty at home and abroad, while
vowing to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid from any
serious efforts at reform. The need to get the deficit under
control received a cursory mention — the inevitable reference
to “tough choices” — followed immediately by a
promise for more “caring” and “investing.”
After all, “when times change, so must we.” And so will
basic math, apparently.

“It was as if all
we had learned about social and economic policy over the last 50
years had suddenly vanished.”

The president may well be correct in his interpretation of the
political winds, though. Republicans have already signaled a
retreat on the upcoming fight over spending. The GOP gave the
president exactly what he wanted in the fiscal-cliff deal: zero
cuts in spending in exchange for a huge tax increase (the deal
actually amounted to a $47 billion spending increase). It now
appears that the GOP will give President Obama what he wants, again
— an increase in the debt limit without any accompanying
spending cuts — in exchange for a requirement that the Senate
finally pass a budget in the next three months. While certainly not
every fight should be treated as the political equivalent of
Stalingrad (“Not one step backward”), it remains to be
seen whether we are seeing a tactical retreat or the start of a
full-scale rout.

There will be two other opportunities in the next 90 days to
take on federal spending: the expiration on March 27 of the
continuing resolution currently funding the government, and the
sequester cuts scheduled to begin on March 1. Both fights will
require Republicans to show more backbone than they have to date.
Are they willing to allow a partial government shutdown if the
president continues to refuse to negotiate over spending cuts and
entitlement reform? Are they willing to allow the sequester to
begin, even if it means slowing the growth of military spending?
How Republicans respond to these fights will go a long way toward
determining the direction of the next four years.

But beyond political tactics and budgetary priorities, the
president’s speech issues an even bigger challenge to
Republicans. If there was any doubt before, the president has now
clearly spelled out what he believes.

Obama sees an America where the only alternative to an
ever-growing government that intervenes in every aspect of our
lives is an atomistic individualism with no regard for our fellow
man. Either we are all wards of the state or we are Ted Kaczynski,
hiding alone in our Montana cabin. Civil society and voluntary
action — private charity and civic organizations, churches,
synagogues, mosques, and businesses large and small — do not
exist, or if they do, they are simply distractions from the work of
government.

We can dismiss such remarks as little more than the
president’s penchant for attacking straw men, but everything
he says or does suggests that he believes them to be true.

On the other hand, what do Republicans believe? Beyond opposing
the president, do they have a view of how the individual and the
ideal of liberty fit into our society? How would they meet the
challenges of today, in an America that is different and more
diverse than ever before? Will they reform the institutions of
government and challenge the modern welfare state?

The president closed his inaugural address with a statement that
we should all embrace. We “have the obligation,” he
said, “to shape the debates of our time, not only with the
votes we cast, but the voices we lift in defense of our most
ancient values and enduring ideas.”

The president has set out an agenda and a vision. It is now up
to Republicans to answer with an agenda and a vision of their
own.