American Elephants

Obama is getting testy.

In his recent interview with the New York Times. Mr, Obama said to Jackie Calmes:

“What I said was that I will seize any opportunity I can find to work with Congress to strengthen the middle class, improve their prospects, improve their security.

— but where Congress is unwilling to act, I will take whatever administrative steps that I can in order to do right by the American people.

And if Congress thinks that what I’ve done is inappropriate or wrong in some fashion, they’re free to make that case. But there’s not an action that I take that you don’t have some folks in Congress who say that I’m usurping my authority. Some of those folks think I usurp my authority by having the gall to win the presidency. And I don’t think that’s a secret. But ultimately, I’m not concerned about their opinions — very few of them, but the way, are lawyers, much less constitutional lawyers.”

The United States has a system of checks and balances, but Mr. Obama is apparently done with Congress. He’s going for the imperial model. Daniel Henninger has a brilliant column in the Wall Street Journal today, and observes that Mr. Obama is “rebalancing the system toward a national-leader model that is alien to the American tradition.” Obama will make the laws himself.

“Every president since George Washington has felt frustration with the American system’s impediments to change” Mr. Henninger says. “This president is done with Congress.” To accomplish his ends, Mr. Obama needs to lessen support for the other two branches of government — Congress and the Judiciary.

Take a closer look at the Galesburg and Jacksonville speeches. Mr. Obama doesn’t merely criticize Congress. He mocks it repeatedly. Washington “ignored” problems. It “made things worse.” It “manufactures” crises and “phony scandals.” He is persuading his audiences to set Congress aside and let him act.

Mr Obama has determined that he will not enforce the laws that he doesn’t like. He has unilaterally decided to delay the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act, though there is no provision in the law allowing the president to suspend, delay or repeal it. Democrats may go along with his aggressive assertions of executive power, but allowing a president to refuse to enforce statutes passed by Congress changes the nature of our government.

Democrats argue that Congress is gridlocked, and they are, but that is because the people are gridlocked. The Congress represents the people of the United States, and Mr. Obama’s contempt for Congress betrays a contempt for the American people.

So too the judiciary. During his 2010 State of the Union speech, Mr. Obama denounced the Supreme Court Justices in front of him. The National Labor Relations Board has continued to issue orders despite two federal court rulings forbidding it to do so. Attorney General Eric Holder says he will use a different section of the Voting Rights Act to impose requirements on Southern states that the Supreme Court ruled illegal. Mr. Obama’s repeated flouting of the judiciary and its decisions are undermining its institutional authority, as intended.

There are not many means to stop a president who decides that he is above the law and can do as he pleases with no checks and balances. Presidents swear to protect and defend the Constitution, but if you have a President to whom oaths are meaningless, and the Constitution is an old tired document that needs to be changed — we’re in trouble. The people need to speak out.