In the spring of 2008, well before Sen. Barack Obama had
secured the Democratic nomination, I wrote a book called "The Cult of thePresidency," arguing that for too long, Americans had looked to the
presidency for far too much.
The hopes and dreams we'd invested in the office had
transformed it into a constitutional monstrosity, too powerful to be trusted
and too weak to deliver the miracles we crave.
I thought I'd said my piece on that subject. Then Barack
Obama ascended to office on an unprecedented wave of adulation, promising to
lay hands on "the arc of history" and "bend it once more to the
hope of a better day."
When it comes to presidential cults, Barack Obama has
turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving. To paraphrase Michael Corleone,
"Every time I tried to get out ... he pulled me back in."
As I explain in my new ebook, "False Idol,"
"No federal chief executive in recent memory has done as much as the 'Yes
We Can' president to stir Americans' longing for presidential salvation; nor
has any recent president done quite as much to enhance the presidency's
dominance over American life."
In an important new article for Newsweek, "PresidentObama's Executive Power Grab," Andrew Romano and Daniel Klaidman note that
Obama has "expanded his domestic authority in ways that his predecessor
never did." Frustrated by congressional resistance to his agenda, he's
pursued "government by waiver," reshaping welfare, education and
immigration law via royal dispensations and decrees.
"Obama is drafting a playbook for future presidents
to deploy in response: How to Get What You Want Even If Congress Won't Give It
to You," Romano and Klaidman write. The result is an
"extra-constitutional arms race of sorts: a new normal that habitually
circumvents the legislative process envisioned by the Framers."
Alas, there's no presidential "man on
horseback" ready to ride in and restore normalcy. Presidential messianism
infects the Romney camp, as well.
Yes it does, folks... yes it does! This is what terrifies me! Both parties are dominated by those who are ready, willing, and able to circumvent and indeed trample the Constitution and our most cherished civil liberties for the sake of power... for the sake of expediency via the pursuit of "pragmatism."
On the stump and in his campaign ads, Gov.
Romney insists that this is "an election to save the soul of
America." In a recent speech at the Virginia Military Institute, he made
clear that his ambitions went well beyond preserving the Constitution and
faithfully executing the laws: "It is the responsibility of our president
to use America's great power to shape history," he told the cadets.
In Romney's answers to an executive-power questionnaire
late last year, he suggested that the president has great power indeed: He
could launch a war without Congress, order the assassination of American
citizens via drone-strike and use the U.S. military to arrest American citizens
on American soil.
This is the legacy of Barack Hussein Obama... and the legacy of George W. Bush.
Romano and Klaidman note that Obama "has been known,
during discussions about executive authority, to worry about 'leaving a
loaded weapon lying around.'"
It doesn't seem Obama lost much sleep over it. But for
the rest of us, that metaphor ought to concentrate the mind wonderfully. Even
rabid partisans ought to strive to see past the next election cycle and
recognize that the powers forged in one administration usually do pass on to
the next.
Yeah... sure... and if wishes were pisses we'd all have empty bladders!
"I've abandoned free market principles to save the
free market system," President George W. Bush famously proclaimed in
December 2008. By so doing, he made sure that President Obama would inherit
staggering new powers over the U.S. economy, effectively becoming commander in
chief of the American auto industry, and much else besides.
Obama's successor - whether eventual or immediate - will
inherit an expanded National Surveillance State and a presidential "kill
list" that includes American citizens.
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