For those willing to look past the rhetoric to the truth, we now have ample proof that our president is nothing more than a typical Chicago political thug whose own agenda supersedes any allegiance to the rule of law. The man we are told we must respect because of the office he holds has shown nothing but contempt for the responsibilities of that office, the law he is charged with enforcing and the people he was elected to serve.
This charlatan's enormous ego and his get-my-way-at-all-costs philosophy should be no surprise for those paying attention. We saw glimpses of it when Obama was campaigning, telling us he'd bankrupt coal companies through harsh regulations that would make it too expensive to operate. At his Democratic-nomination acceptance speech to a packed stadium in Denver, this Prince of Pompousness vainly declared that his nomination would mark "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and the Earth began to heal." Good heavens, that fool actually believed his own hype! So did his minions, as we discovered when Valerie Jarrett, Obama's current chief adviser, said in an interview prior to the inauguration that Obama would be "ready to take power and RULE day one." Rule, not govern! Such arrogance!
It went downhill from there. Obama used the weight and power of the presidency to bully and coerce GM-secured shareholders into accepting 30-cents on the dollar for what they were owed under long-standing U.S. bankruptcy law, while paying off his unsecured creditor union backers with nearly twice that, plus a controlling interest in the New GM. Obama also used these same threats, bribes and coercion to get ObamaCare passed by a razor-thin margin with no opposition support, and many from his own side defecting.
Many others, big and small, have felt the wrath of Obama's abuse of power. Obama has called Republicans the "enemy" and encouraged his supporters to "get in their faces" and fight, even telling them, in true Chicago mob boss fashion, that if their opponents brought a knife to the fight, they should bring a gun. He told Republicans they can get on the bus, but had to ride in the back. He vilified the TEA Party movement as domestic terrorists, and described huge swaths of Americans as being bitter and clinging to guns and religion. He fired and then slandered Gerald Walpin, then Inspector General of AmeriCorps, when Walpin exposed fraud and corruption by Obama friend and Democrat mayor of Sacramento Kevin Johnson. Obama never apologized for questioning Walpin's mental state, even though Walpin was proven correct.
When Obama took office, he placed his hand on the Bible and swore the following oath, found in Article II, Section 1, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." The president's job is to execute the laws passed by Congress, period, not to pick and choose which ones he supports.
His utter contempt for his oath of office has escalated this year. He announced his refusal to defend in court the Defense of Marriage Act (as is the job of a president's Justice Department), a law upholding the traditional definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman, and a law that was passed by overwhelming majorities in Congress less than 20 years ago (342-67 in the House, and 85-14 in the Senate), and signed into law by Democrat President Bill Clinton. While this is certainly a subject for continued debate, and while reasonable people may reasonably disagree, the fact is that this is a valid law passed by the elected representatives of the American people (and which has since been passed as amendments to nearly three dozen state constitutions), and until such times as detractors of the law convince their fellow citizens to overturn the law, it is the duty of the president to uphold and defend that law.
In a blatant and naked attempt to pander to the Hispanic vote, Obama announced that he was unilaterally choosing to cease enforcement of certain provisions of existing U.S. immigration law. He is, in effect, instituting a de facto implementation of the DREAM Act, a law that has failed to achieve passage by Congress numerous times, even in the first two years of the Obama administration when he had supermajorities in both houses of Congress. The DREAM Act would provide permanent residency to nearly a million young illegal aliens who arrived in the United States as minors, graduated from a U.S. high school and lived in the U.S. continuously for five years prior to the bill's enactment.
Just over a year ago, when speaking to a pro-illegal immigration group, Obama said, "With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that's just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed." Yet that is exactly what he's now done, instructing the Homeland Security department to cease deportation of these illegals. HS Secretary Janet Reno justifies this with "prosecutorial discretion." In essence, Obama has brazenly confirmed that, in line with previous declarations that he would act where Congress would not, even when he has no constitutional right to do so, he will create law through regulatory fiat and selective enforcement of the law.
Liberal Democrats and pro-illegal immigration groups hail Obama's "bravery" with this move, but their excitement is short-sighted. It overlooks the fact that so many of these illegal aliens are fleeing countries run by thugs and kleptocrats, and in supporting this disdain for the rule of law, they are helping turn America into the same type of countries that they fled.
America is based on respect for the rule of law, the idea that we are all equal under the law, and that no man is above the law. Obama has eviscerated that concept, and liberals fail to see that it can come back to bite them. What happens if a Republican president takes power and decides to selectively enforce the law as Obama has done? How outraged would they be if, for example, a Republican president ceased prosecuting failure to pay taxes that fund the liberal welfare state? Or if he ceased enforcement of civil rights laws, or environmental law, or any of the provisions of law that Democrats so cherish? What if the president announced he would no longer prosecute anyone who bombed an abortion clinic?
Obama has proven himself to be a common thug with a charming smile, a soothing voice and a professorial demeanor. He has also proven himself unworthy of the respect of the American people. Luckily, this is a problem we can take care of in about four months.
Louis DeBroux is a Taylorsville resident, married, with eight children. He is chairman of the Bartow County Republican Party. He owns Gatekeeper data backup and recovery. He can be emailed at led@gatekeeperbackup.com.