The Divine Rights of President Obama
The United States was founded to limit the power of a central government. The U.S. Constitution is a document of “enumerated” (listed) powers that the federal government can exercise leaving all other powers in the hands of the states or the people themselves.
It was created this way because the people forming it had real life experience with a hegemonic, central governmental power – that of King George III. The Parliament and the King instituted whatever they wanted – even if the people didn’t want it. (This may sound vaguely familiar.)
This exercise of the power of the few over the many has been the experience of all humans from the beginning. Dictators, Kings, Pharaohs, Emperors, and military Generals have forced the common citizens to comply with the leader’s vision of what was the good society in every corner of the world in every time throughout history.
The brief experiments at democracy and republicanism during the existence of the Greek city states are not a real exception. Yes, citizens had input on the influence and structure of government, but in almost every case, there were many more slaves than citizens living in those cities. Slaves had no input whatsoever, and could not vote, so government by consent of the governed wasn’t practiced at all.
Following the Dark Ages, the influence of Christian ideas about the central value and importance of individuals began to chip away at the concept of the divine rights of Kings. Having to listen to the concerns of noblemen and barons and Pope Innocent III diminished the power of the central government in England.
The major liberty sought by those who finally left the British Isles and parts of Europe for the Americas was freedom of religion. They came to these shores and created – over a couple of centuries – a republican, federalist system designed to forever constrain the power of the central government from gaining increased hegemony over individuals. This is why the Constitution is a document of enumerated powers; the founders created it so the federal government could not do anything other than what the Constitution stated specifically it could do.
Unfortunately, at this period in our history the Constitution has long been disfigured beyond recognition by political manipulation on the part of Representatives, Senators, and Presidents; but most of all by the federal court system including the Supreme Court. For some 80 years our republic has existed on the accumulated goodwill, and moral and economic capitol of previous generations. Not that many lately have not pursued moral and economic success, but only that our effort has been increasingly seen as immoral and bigoted by those who desire to return power to the king.
With the recent overstepping of our Congress at the urging President Obama imposing their vision of what your your life should be, we have indeed returned to government without the consent of the governed. The imposition of what the few believe to be ‘good for us’ rather than continuing the concept of freedom for citizens probably puts any return to Constitutional federalism and the Bill or Rights out of reach. The Democrats have just denied you significant parts of your Bill of Rights.
Mr. Obama has said in the past that the U.S. Constitution is an impediment to his vision. He has stated, “…the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the Federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the Federal government or State government must do on your behalf.” With those words, Mr. Obama reveals that he sees the U.S. Constitution as a roadblock to imposing the laws, rules, regulations, and benefits he wants to implement.
It also shows that his vision for the country is entirely different from what the founders created it to be, and what most Americans think it is. He wants the government to have powers the framers denied to it. He wants to take powers of freedom away from the people and give it back to the government as if our War for Independence to end coercive powers of government never occurred. He does not believe in the divine rights of Kings, but it is clear that Mr. Obama believes in the divine rights of Presidents. Because he believes in his right to force you to live the way he wants you to live rather than the way you want to live.
By his willing and open overthrow of the U.S. Constitution with its prohibitions on any activity by government other than what is explicitly permitted, he reveals his belief that he should be free to choose for you, and you should not. Under this regime, the government does not owe you independence from its coercive powers to control your speech, your economic welfare, your freedom to assemble with those you choose; no - in Obama’s world it owes you retirement, healthcare, income of a certain level, and so on. This means, of course, that it will have to confiscate money from other people in order to hand out these new ‘positive rights.’
Mr. Obama has also been quite open about his intentions of taking money away from some people and giving it to others – some special people he personally wants to support. He lamented the direction of the civil rights movement because they followed the Constitution; because they had “…a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change.”
By “redistributive” he means that he sees wealth earned by those who sacrificed, denied themselves, and worked hard to accumulate as not belonging to them at all. Rather, it actually belongs to the government; in his view, your wealth is a government commodity. It is a commodity that the government has the right to “redistribute” to the people Mr. Obama sees as more deserving of it than you. Certainly in his mind, those who earned it and sacrificed to accumulate it are not deserving of it, else he would not use the coercive powers of government to take it away from them so he can give it to people he deems worthy of it. And so the concept of “private property” dies with most of the remaining parts of the Constitution under President Obama.
There is no longer any doubt about what he meant when he said just prior to his inauguration that he was just 5 days away from fundamentally transforming America. Forcing us to pay taxes without our consent, forcing us to purchase a product from a government controlled entity against our will, denying us the right to enter into contracts with people of our choosing for purposes of healthcare – all of this and more is breathtaking. We have just witnessed a coup d’état sans violence. The Constitution was written in order to protect us from people like Mr. Obama. Now it is gone. The smiling, benevolent, suffocating bureaucracies he is imp0sing are no less coersive than the Politbureaus, Oligarchies, and Star Chambers we have seen elsewhere. Denying you freedom is denial if it comes with a fist or a smile.
It only remains to ask if you are willing to throw them out of office before we lose another Constitutional right – the right to vote. This one is no more or less sacred than the others we have already lost.
Subscribe By Email
- March 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009