But once crossed, it can't be uncrossed. Ross Douthat points out in the NYT that the Obami are playing a very reckless and dangerous game. They are hyping an 'impeachment threat' when there is none and the smart money in Washington believes they are doing so because the President intends to nullify our immigration laws by granting legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants.
This certainly would not be the first time this President has governed by decree but this act would be so extreme, such an obvious nullifaction of law and violation of the separation of powers that it could not be interpreted as anything but a turn to Caesarism by the President and his minions.
Caesarism is the tendency of an executive leader to bypass the constitutional mechanisms of governance and govern by decree. It is named after Julius Caesar who did just that after he crossed the Rubicon and defeated his rivals. Backed by the important institutions in his day - the army and the equestrian business class, Caesar progressively defenestrated the Senate and his adopted son and heir Octavian - Caesar Augustus - completed the process of destroying the Roman Republic in all but name. The Republican institutions continued to exist but had no real power.
President Obama believes that he has the important institutions in America - the news media, large corporations, universities, educators, the government bureaucracy on his side - and therefore he can achieve his goals while ignoring our Republic's basic law and traditions. He's gotten away with it thus far and given the array of institutions backing him, he'll probably get away with it this time. And if he does make no mistake: he will do so as a dictator dictating 'law' to the people. And if the people vigorously protest, this dictator laid out the intellectual and bureaucratic case for squelching opposition in the name of 'public order'. Just this week they (once again) singled out conservative and liberty groups as the "greatest terrorist threat" in the nation. Threat to their hegemony, that is. After all, a man who refers to his political opponents as a porn obscenity isn't likely to worry too much about Constitutional niceties unless he thinks he'll be held accountable for his actions. And he hasn't thus far.
The last time we had such an openly fascist President was Woodrow Wilson but he didn't let his dictatorial claws show until we entered WW1 (when thousands of dissenters were imprisoned, deported or stripped of their citizenship) and thankfully his stroke forced him to relinquish his grip on us. And like Barack Obama, he was a 'progressive' academic who was a constitutional and government "expert" who believed that our Constitution was outdated and therefore should be replaced by the unconstrained rule of public spirited men like himself...and I suppose Barack Obama. Although Woody Wilson certainly wouldn't have approved of BHO because he was a racist who brought Jim Crow segregation to the Federal Government. By dictatorial decree no less.
And that's the problem: there's no end to the viciously stupid actions a President can take if he believes he can do so by decree and get away with it. Things like institutionalizing racism in the government that freed the slaves...or radically transforming our electorate and nation through massive, uncontrolled immigration.
And the real problem with Caesarism is that it destroys the middle ground - you must choose a side and if you want to survive politically and economically your side must win at all costs. Which tears countries apart. So I hope the Washington whisperers are wrong. That our 'Constitutional Scholar in Chief" really is a student and most importantly, a respecter of our form of governance. Because if he turns out to be a wrecker then this nation is in for a world of hurt. And Caesarism.
I just love watching vandals at work, don't you?
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