Obama announces he has to crown himself king because Congress won’t
I wish I didn’t have more bad news to report, but I do*:
President Obama announced this afternoon that he will bypass Congress to enact “comprehensive immigration reform.” However, at no point did he discuss what his plan would entail.
Obama’s keyword is “comprehensive,” which means “the bill I want them to pass.”
According to William Jacobsen:
The most chilling portion of his announcement was when he suggested, “American cannot wait forever for them to act. That’s why today, I’m beginning a new effort to fix our immigration system”¦ on my own, without congress.“
That cold and chilly wind has been coming on us for a long, long time.
Jacobson adds that “We can only hope this is nothing more than his typical political posturing and that no actual action will come from his reckless disregard of our check and balance system.”
We can certainly hope, but let’s hope that we can do more than only hope—because I believe that Obama is testing the waters here and has every intention of acting. Doing this is not just important to him, right now it’s the most important thing in the world to him, and I mean that literally. It would establish his ability to do practically anything he wants, and if successful it would facilitate the permanent domination of the Democratic Party electorally. So, he will announce an executive action on this unless Congress shows some spine and stops him in some way. And then there would be a resultant constitutional crisis.
Interesting times we live in, aren’t they?
Obama is claiming that Congress’ choice not to pass a law constitutes an abandonment of constitutional power (rather than the exercise of it), and then that power flows precisely to the President.
Just how the Framers’ designed it, huh?
You have refused to grant me the power of Imperium. Therefore, you have irresponsibly abandoned your exercise of that power, and the power to declare myself emperor flows into my own hands.
Grant me power, or I will seize it. The choice is yours.**
Jonathan Turley is a pro-Democrat-but-somewhat-libertarian law professor who’s been calling Obama on his imperial presidency for quite some time. He has this to say about today’s announcement (note the condemnation of both Bush and Obama; but there is little doubt that he thinks the problem has escalated greatly under the Obama):
A growing crisis in our constitutional system threatens to fundamentally alter the balance of powers ”” and accountability ”” within our government. This crisis did not begin with Obama, but it has reached a constitutional tipping point during his presidency. Indeed, it is enough to bring the two of us ”” a liberal academic and a conservative U.S. senator ”” together in shared concern over the future of our 225-year-old constitutional system of selfgovernance.
We believe that people of good faith can likewise transcend politics and forge a bipartisan coalition to examine these changes. In our view, the gridlock in Washington is not simply the result of toxic divisions. The dysfunctional politics we are experiencing may in part be the result of a deeper corrosion ”” a dangerous instability that is growing within our Madisonian system…
First, we need to discuss the erosion of legislative authority within the evolving model of the federal government. There has been a dramatic shift of authority toward presidential powers and the emergence of what is essentially a fourth branch of government ”” a vast network of federal agencies with expanded legislative and judicial power. While the federal bureaucracy is a hallmark of the modern administrative state, it presents a fundamental change to a system of three coequal branches designed to check and balance each other. The growing authority invested in federal agencies comes from a diminished Congress, which seems to have a dramatically reduced ability to actively monitor, let alone influence, agency actions.
Second, much of the tit-for-tat politics that has alienated so many Americans is due to the fact that courts routinely refuse to review constitutional disputes because of an overly constricted view of the standing of lawmakers to sue and other procedural barriers. While there can be legitimate disagreement over how and when legislative standing should apply, current legal barriers rob the system of a key avenue for resolution of such conflicts. A modest expansion of standing would provide greater clarity to the line of constitutional separation without causing a flood of cases…
The framers believed that members of each branch of government would transcend individual political ambitions to vigorously defend the power of their institutions. Presidents have persistently expanded their authority with considerable success. Congress has been largely passive or, worse, complicit in the draining of legislative authority. Judges have adopted doctrines of avoidance that have removed the courts from important conflicts between the branches. Now is the time for members of Congress and the judiciary to affirm their oaths to “support and defend the Constitution” and to work to re-establish our delicate constitutional balance.
Good luck, Professor Turley. I hope you’re not crying in the wilderness here. Because the hour is late and getting later.
Oh, and this is what I predict Obama will actually announce, if he doesn’t get enough pushback from his own party (and maybe even if he does). He’ll announce an immigration approach that will appear to include what conservatives (and most Americans) would like to see: increased patrol of the borders. He’ll also say he will expedite deportations. So this will all lend credence to his plea that he’s only doing what Congress should have done and what the American people want.
But there’s a catch: the border element will mysteriously fall by the wayside, and the entire operation will end up only expediting the granting of asylum to most of the parents and children who have come here illegally, under the argument that they are fleeing in fear of their lives and also under our family reunification policy. He’ll try to keep the statistics on all of this hush-hush. But it will accomplish his goal, and he will extend programs like his executive action of June 2012 that started the whole Cloward-Piven illegal immigration ball rolling.
If he doesn’t do any of this, or if he actually puts teeth into border patrols and subsequently expedite deportations, I’ll be very surprised. Although even that wouldn’t make his unilateral action right in doing this, at least the short-term effects on immigration would be a plus. The proper way to do it, however—and the way I believe every other previous president, Democratic or Republican, would have gone about it—would be to finally work with Congress and to allow the border to actually be beefed up as a start, followed by other Congressional actions. As it is, though, there’s no way Obama can be trusted on this.
[*NOTE: On the subject of bad events coming on the heels of more bad events, see this post of mine from March of 2009, about two and a half months after Obama first took office:
…[F]or now my working hypothesis is that Obama is a man of the Left, that he is insufficiently devoted to the age-old American idea of liberty but is instead a committed statist, and that the mind-numbing pace of his change is deliberate and has been effective so far.
I used the word “numbing” in the above paragraph, and I mean it. I noticed in the same comments section of yesterday’s post that another reader pointed out that “I am seeing the effect already amongst friends who have just stopped listening to any news.”
Oddly enough, this is what I have noticed among my liberal friends, Obama-supporters all. I cannot tell you how many times I have asked them what they think about Obama so far and they answer that they haven’t really had time to follow it all, and it’s all so very confusing.
Now it’s true that most of my liberal friends are not exactly newshounds, nor do they read blogs, even blogs on the Left. But it seems as though they are turning away from politics even more than usual, especially considering that they should be joyfully lapping up the wonderful news, now that their man Obama is in. I believe that their turning away is both an attempt at protecting themselves from the anxiety of hearing about the financial crisis, and a reaction to a feeling of “something just isn’t right with Obama” in the pits of their stomachs.
I am convinced that Obama is counting on this reaction. He knows the Left is behind him (except for a few details such as his Afghanistan policy, or those who think he’s not far enough to the Left in terms of his financial interventions). He knows those on the Right will despise him and what he’s doing. He knows both of those groups will be paying attention to the details.
But he also knows that those more in the middle will not be noticing much, until the deeds are done. And he is counting on them to look away and hope for the best. The question is whether his pace is fast enough, and whether they will catch on””and whether they will then understand what is happening, or care. Or will the predictions of the Grand Inquisitor come to pass in this country, as they have in so many others?]
[**NOTE: This business of blaming Republicans for forcing his hand is an old, old trick of Obama’s. I first noticed it, and was alarmed by it, early in his 2008 campaign when he broke his promise on campaign finance funds and blamed it on the Republicans.]
Hahaha.
Americans might get to experience what Fallujah was to the Iraqis… in their own cities where they dwell.
Just back from a week at OBX where I didn’t think about any of this…refreshing.
I can’t really blame this on Obama… the blame really lies with the MSM, voters in general, and the GOP, none of whom have grown a pair to decide that enough is enough. Until that happens Obama will just keep pushing the envelope.
The Left has dictators a thousand times worse than Hussein, waiting, just waiting.
They are the ones they were waiting for.
Konno kuni dame ka
Talk is no substitute for action. This has all been talked about for a near infinitude. We are asymptotic to action; we approach and approach it but we never get there.
Something just needs to go Bang! Let’s have it out and get it over, one way or the other. We cannot be Colin Powells here, unwilling to act unless we have overwhelming force.
My tomato plants are doing well. It is a delight to see them grow.
There is one green pepper plant and one jalapeno plant doing nicely.
I do not say the following facetiously. The weather in Buffalo is exquisite, as it always is for six or seven months. (And it is not as bad otherwise, all things considered). Also btw, Buffalo is actually an interesting and wonderful place, just to pre-address the lazy stereotypical thoughts which ignorantly leap to mind.
A great thing happening late in life is a growing closeness with my uncle. He and his wife (a delightful aunt) are coming over for a cookout Saturday.
There is no personal utopia. As a young man, I could have believed as much, although the details now look too salacious.
Has the coup taken place? I think so, understanding how it sounds crazy. It took decades, but it succeeded.
No one can convince me that a local sausage maker does not make the best sausage (his name is Hanzalian).
For a few moments, my uncle (81 yo and more alert than me) and I will go back over our memories. Part of that will be remembrance of free men.
And the sausage will be delicious, with McIllhenny Tabasco and peppers and onions on toasted ciabatta.
The 40’s channel will be playing on Sirius.
Obama just told Americans in border states to “lock and load.”
Governors need to confront these feds when they enter their states.
If Obama sees the stirrings of resistance, he’ll back down. Just like Hitler, pre-1938.
It will be interesting.
I remember when Nixon fired the first Watergate special prosecutor, Archibald Cox. His final statement, “whether ours shall be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people to decide” always stuck with me, though I didn’t understand it at the time. Sadly, I do now and we’re about to become a government of men if nothing’s done about BO.
Physicsguy: I trust that you post with tongue in cheek.
Obama seems truly determined to force this into a confrontation. The problem is that once started, you cannot always control subsequent events.
I just do not know how long the citizens and governments of Texas, Arizona, etc. can tolerate this situation. (I am in California where the tolerance for bizarre behavior is limitless)
A little off topic, but an extension of some of the thinking. Back in the 70s when we had race riots on Navy aircraft carriers, and I was standing Command Duty Officer late at night (the senior Officer aboard); I was conscious that the only armed presence on board was our Marine detachment; and they were 1/3 to 1/2 Black. I always wondered if it came to it would they be U.S. Marines first, or Black first. Fortunately, it was never put to the test. The time may come when Federal forces may be put to the test if a state finally says “enough”.
@Oldflyer,
I’m pretty sure Obama hasn’t made any friends in the military. I’m pretty sure he knows that, too.
So, he’ll try and rely on homeland security, or such.
If the military ever comes off the bench, it will be game over for Obama.
Obama will take action, we just may not know about it right away. After all, this recent immigration crisis didn’t just happen on its own.
I also saw Obama’s chilling speech as a call to action – it’s up to the activists to demand Congress take action – more marches, more protests at legislator’s homes and offices, and civil disobedience such as shutting down ICE offices. Also, it was a nod to federal agencies & blue state-level to go ahead with activity to hasten amnesty, such as expanding Obamacare to non-citizens and NY issuing IDs to the “migrants.” They’ll insist that they had to do it because the immigrants are already here, but Congress has not done anything to assist them.
This was the plan all along.
Yea, I’m sure Colin Powell was purged from the US military so nobody there will obey Hussein…
Dennis Miller said on O’Reilly in 2009 that the next revolution will feature laser guillotines. Maybe we can test it on King Putt.
My, my, my, our messiah sounds desperate to me. His poll numbers are sinking, a few in the MSM are hinting that perhaps the regime is getting too pushy, and all his lovely wickedness is spiraling out of control. I’ve known a narcissistic person, and when the world doesn’t conform to their expectations, they panic, become petulant, and lash at all who thwart the narrative that he/she is the fairest of them all.
As scandals pile upon one another it becomes ever more difficult to keep your lies and excuses straight. I am starting to think one of the spinning plates will one day splinter upon the floor. I also suspect no one is going to throw themselves under the bus to save the messiah.
The proper way for the President to go over the heads of Congress is the have a prime time Presidential Address in which he lays out the merits of his argument to solicit support from We the People.
This President can’t seem to do that, though. He is incapable of addressing ALL the people as equals. Instead, he divides us into “us” and “them” and refers to anyone not of his party as “the enemy” which is hardly conducive to courting political participation.
They are the enemy, though.
So we will find out if the US is to be a formal dictatorship within a week or two.
kim Stassel at the WSJ has a good article on the Congressional Democrats assistance to Obama’s undermining of the constitution.
Hope this link works:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://online.wsj.com/articles/kimberley-a-strassel-all-the-presidents-enablers-1403823350
Hubris. Nemesis.
I wonder if Obama has ever seen the 1975 movie, “The Man Who Would Be King”? If so, clearly he missed the moral. Of course, no chance whatsoever that he’s read the 1888 novella by Rudyard Kipling. Ah, the convergence of narcissism and hubris embodied by Obama but really, what could a mere Kipling offer of value to a lightbringer?
The inimitable Richard Fernandez, over at the Belmont Club opines that,
I can sum up these pages of long and careful analysis in one word: Surrender.
Smaug is raging through the land. Let us carefully analyze the fine points of his wing movements.
Where the hell is Bilbo?
parker:
I certainly hope you’re right.
But remember that desperate people are often at their most dangerous. Obama is also a narcissist. He thinks he’s so close to pulling this one off that he can taste it.
Parker’s “As scandals pile upon one another it becomes ever more difficult to keep your lies and excuses straight” no longer matters. See Maduro in Venezuela; he’s still doing just fine, trotting out the most stupid gibberish, though the country’s in the toilet. power failures, shortages of everything, and Lopez (who? don’t even remember him?) remains in prison.
It No Longer Matters. Harry Reid spews vomit in the Senate, and it no longer matters. The US is flying illegals from McAllen, TX to Bakersfield, CA. So it goes.
The border crisis is going out of control. I don’t think Obama and company thought there would be so many children with communicable diseases. Citizens will put up with a lot, but when disease vectors are allowed to be spread far and wide around the country, it will create a lot of anger.
Obama may try to put a temporary stop to the border invasion to cool things down a bit, but his real ace card will be the program for amnesty that he announces before the elections. With the border problem under control he can say. “Look what I did. The border is finally under control. Now we must be fair and compassionate toward those who have been here working in the shadows. It’s time to make them full partners in our economy. Yada, yada.” I think he and his advisors believe it will give the dems a winning issue for November.
I’m pretty sure that if the dems lose the Senate, then the border will be reopened. The Rs will not have enough votes to impeach even if they take control of the Senate. He may be emboldened to do even more outrageous things.
It’s hard to believe this is actually happening.
Neo,
I too hope I am right… the would be ‘hero’ takes a fall.
DC,
Comparing 50+ million Americans to the inhabitants of Venezuela is an error on your part.
A dedicated tiny minority wins every time the shooting starts. I do not doubt when it all comes down to dust and the blood flows, that tiny minority will prevail.
Your mileage will vary depending upon where you reside. Take a vacation in eastern KY or TN; or the Rockies from Idaho southward, or the flyover country and TX. We are not helpless.
I often feel discouraged, but I also find myself having faith in the human desire, for at least a strong minority, to seek freedom. I, my siblings, and a few cousins have prepared for many years a sanctuary for our kin. It is a place for a last stand, stand we will and we are strong in our desire to remain free. We are ready for the time when the bullet meets the bone. There more like minded and well prepared than those in the majority imagine.
It’s hard to believe this is actually happening.
The Doctor Class won’t be taking up arms, so they think in easy ways.
As for belief, if you started on the road of accepting the LEft’s true power 4 or 6 years ago, it wouldn’t be so hard now. People are hard to change because they refuse to accept certain things, it’s not in the common sense, society doesn’t accept it as valid, and all that other stuff.
3% of a population is all it takes to tell the 97% what to do, if that 3% are zealots, fanatics, or true believers.
Oldflyer,
Not tongue in cheek at all. Obama has been an amazingly honest and effective president in terms of what he said he was going to do and what he has accomplished. The reason he has been so effective is that no one, especially the MSM and the GOP seems willing to take him on and knock him down.
If I was him (and Jarrett), I would be doing exactly the same thing given their agenda. Why stop when no one is pushing back at you???
Even if someone does push back, like national tea party orgs getting funding, it’s easy to eliminate them.
We are all just kicking our own can down the road. Lots of bluster, no action, and Surprise! the problems keep getting worse.
The solution is not to retreat to mountainous topography a la Afghanistan, either. So, no impeachment and conviction, lots of Orders from the Executive, further legal lawlessness, and we’ll all finally be ready to go, and do what? Vote in October? Vote for whom? To do what?
What are our options? Why should Obama and the Left stop when no one is pushing back, as physicsguy says?
They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.
Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.
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physics guy:
I think it is hyperbole to say “no one” is pushing back at Obama.
People who are angry at what he’s done might say that no one is pushing back effectively—and certainly not as effectively as we’d like—at him. But plenty of people are pushing back.
There are members of Congress such as Cruz. I’ve seen some House members, too (Allen West used to be one of them, for example, when he was in office). During the process of passing Obamacare, practically the entire Republican wing of Congress pushed back; they just didn’t have the numbers, and the Democrats outfoxed them in tactics. But I certainly remember the Republicans pushing back.
The conservative Supreme Court justices push back, but there are only four so they are only successful when joined by swing vote Kennedy (and sometimes even some of the others). Then there are plaintiffs such as Hobby Lobby and the others, as well as anyone else who sues against Obamacare, including many of the states a couple of years ago in an earlier case. Jan Brewer pushed back over the Arizona law, but she lost. Perry has pushed back on the border, calling out Texas security to do what the feds won’t. I could go on, but you get the idea.
I don’t like the Republican leadership in Congress, and I wish they’d do more. And none of these efforts that I mention have been successful in the way we’d like—they are grandstanding or they are small victories, while the general trend of Obama’s worsening tyranny and escalating welfare state marches on. But that doesn’t mean no one is pushing back. Obama is ruthless and the left is powerful, and for his entire administration they have controlled the Senate.
neo, “I don’t like the Republican leadership in Congress, and I wish they’d do more. And none of these efforts that I mention have been successful in the way we’d like–they are grandstanding or they are small victories, while the general trend of Obama’s worsening tyranny and escalating welfare state marches on. But that doesn’t mean no one is pushing back.”
Just so. The Founders never envisioned that the citizens would elect a man with no ethics. A man who would not follow the law. At one time the media was well enough balanced between left and right to get the word out to people. Now it’s not. They never envisioned a situation where the balance of powers among the arms of government would be so ignored. There is really only one thing that can bring Obama up short and that is a galvanized electorate. Until they cancel all elections, the people still control who is going to represent them. The Founders could not have envisioned an electorate that was so ignorant of the process of government and their important role in it. They could not have foreseen a world where people were more interested in pop culture and games than in how much the government was lifting from their wallets in taxes. It literally takes some buildings falling down to galvanize the voters, but people have such short attention spans, even that doesn’t have an effect that lasts.
They weapons of pushback available to the Congress and the courts are blunted by the fact that the administration does not recognize or follow the law. I don’t think the Founders ever envisioned two men as venal and partisan as Harry Reid and Eric Holder. It is Reid and Holder who allow the administration to ignore the law. It is also partisan democrat members of Congress who are allowing the President to usurp their powers. I am challenging my Congress Critters to stand up and quit being a doormat for the executive branch. Voters need to maker them feel ashamed for shirking their duties and allowing the executive to run all over them.
Wonder why I think you, (and Bookworm Room and Gaypatriot and Ace all really) identify do strongly with Cassandra right about now?
J.J.:
See my response here.
Lee:
I’ve been identifying with Cassandra for some years now.
It started to get very strong shortly after this, back in 2009. But actually, I had felt it even before the 2008 election, when I tried to warn friends that Obama had a political background and philosophy that ought to be frightening them but somehow wasn’t.
I described that process in some detail in this post. Maybe I’ll recycle it.
DC, have you been pushing back against your fellow ObamaCare loving doctors in that Doctor Class yet?
J.J.:
Congresscritters, lo info voters and shame do not work in the same paragraph for me. Venality and ignorance do not know shame. Stupid people don’t know they’re stupid, so what’s for them to be ashamed about?