If Our Glorious President is simply going to will into existence the laws he wants – laws that are directly in violation of the standing laws of the land, laws that were not voted upon by our duly-elected Congress, and laws that directly harm our nation and its lawful residents – then why do we bother having a Congress at all?
More to the point, if our elected representatives allow this rule-by-Presidential-fiat to stand, why should we bother to continue deluding ourselves by calling America a constitutional republic, when neither of those words are accurate any more?
Yeah, I thought they were supposed to all be power hungry mini-despots, fighting amongst themselves for more influence, but they are all just pointing their soft pink underbellies to the sky.
And to all the senators who are writing angry letters to your constituents, DO SOMETHING. Don’t just say “Oh I’m very disappointed in the president and this sets a horrible precedent,” do something about it!
The thing is they are all power-hungry mini-despots, but the problem is that they are also spineless, grovelling cowards.
Moving against Our Glorious President at this point – and failing – would spell political doom for whomever decided to do so. Much though Obama is rightly despised by an increasing number of Americans for precisely reasons such as this one, he still has a tremendous amount of political clout at the moment, and no one wants to stand up against that.
And so the would-be-king sitting in the Oval Office can get away with what he wants, so long as he does not push quite hard enough to raise anyone’s ire to the point of banding together with like-minded folk and handling him accordingly.
Incidents such as this one should result in President Obama being impeached and removed from office on account of his unquestionable abandonment of his Presidential oath and his blatant violation of the Constitution. But he will not be. So he will keep doing things like this.
Really, there’s a surefire solution to this sort of political jackassery, but I know if I type it out I’ll get a visit from a badge and a gun.
Cuz, you know, dissent is insurrection, and that’s illegal and evil, dontcha know.
Window dressing. Even Palpatine kept the Republic/Imperial Senate around for nearly 20 years.
@ the dude: Trust me, I was and am minding my p’s and q’s in writing this post and comments.
At this point, there is a very clear, very legal, and very peaceful method for dealing with these kinds of abuses of power. If that method – and others, equally clear/legal/peaceful – are not implemented… well, I am not sure where we go from there.
@ Jake: There needs to be a Godwin’s Law equivalent for Palpatine, but your point is a good one. Boiling frogs and all that…
“At this point, there is a very clear, very legal, and very peaceful method for dealing with these kinds of abuses of power.”
Unfortunately so long as the masses are getting their bread and circuses I doubt most of what Obama does really concerns them. Outside of our little spheres, most folks don’t look at things through the lens of constitutionality and individual liberty… Plus with every abuse of power comes the promise of helping the “little guy,” and most little guys out there just want their tv’s to stay on and their phones to keep working.
Yeah.
I know.
After all, I am the one who keeps crying in the wilderness that “the government” is not America’s problem, and, in fact, has never been America’s problem.
But, occasionally, my romantic optimism leaks through this finely-cultured veneer of cynicism.