2014: The year the Constitution lived dangerously
My column at USA Today.
As part of my continuing efforts to reach new audiences, I have a column at USA Today, Constitution’s horrible, no good, very bad year:
As 2014 comes to a close, it’s worth considering the Obama administration legacy as we head into 2015.
Certainly, there were scandals. The IRS played hide and seek with documents regarding improper targeting of conservative and Tea Party groups.
The response to the Ebola outbreak was clumsy, and helped induce panic. Our foreign policy is in tatters.
Yet the most long-lasting damage may be the Obama administration’s cavalier attitude towards constitutional separation of powers….
Will our next president be a king, queen or a constitutionally-limited president? That is the question for 2016.
You want the meat and potatoes of the post?
You want, indeed demand, answers?
Well, you’ll have to head over to USA Today, and help share the link on Twitter and Facebook.
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Comments
I’ve read, somewhere, can’t recall where, that Jefferson was surprised that the country held together, that there wasn’t a major change after 20-years. Can’t begin to know what Jefferson would have thought about President Obama yet wonder if he might have realized that the government he helped create might not last too long with wanna be dictators like Obama in office.
Personally, the critical time for the US will be right after the 2016 election when we’ll see what Obama’s truly got in mind for our country. I still believe in those opening words of our Constitution: “We the People …”
Just what did you mean, the next president may be a “queen”?
Well, if the current one is…
Obama thinks the Constitution is just a piece of paper with no power … of course it was that piece of paper that gives him a job since it established the office of President … he may be surprised at just how little power he actually has when he abandons the constraints of the Constitution …
States are free to ignore some guy in Washington … when you stop acting as the President as defined by the Constitution don’t be surprised when people start treating you like just some guy from DC and give your regulators the middle finger … what does he think he can do about it ? send in the FBI ? ha, ha … the State Police of every State have alot more men and guns than does the FBI …
send in the military ? he should remember that military Officers swear an oath to defend the Constitution, not the President …
Many of the comments on the USA Today post are entertainingly hysterical. They make me appreciate the caliber of our Legal Insurrection comment-makers — even those who disagree with my brand of wisdom. 😀
Looks like you are aggravating all the right people.
Leslie, how do I get to the comments on USAToday? When I click “comments” at the bottom I get a blank white screen. It refers to Facebook and my son left his FB login on this computer, so that shouldn’t be a problem. I just don’t see comments.
“Well, you’ll have to head over to USA Today, and help share the link on Twitter and Facebook.”
Well, there you go, Prof. Goin’ Hollywood, fer shure.
As many have noted, the problem isn’t Obama, but rather the people who elected him (twice). If 50% of American voters are that stupid (dumbed down/ignorant/lazy, whatever…), America is doomed. Obama will be gone in two years but the people who elected him will still be there, just waiting to vote for the next “strong leader” to come along.
Well said! Obama isn’t the main problem, but just the visual manifestation of the problem. If he wasn’t the focus of the liberal progressive action, then it would be some other “tool”. Tools both come & go, but it’s the hand behind the tool that must be cut off. The problem is more than just one person or organization, it’s multifaceted or multidimensional.
The question is; “How do you change the world outlook of 30-50 million people without killing everyone in sight?” That is a hard knot to unravel, IMO.
I don’t know all the answers you’re question but I think part of it is restoring good civics education in our schools. Make it mandatory for graduation and do a better job on staying neutral on the darker parts of our history (slavery, how the natives were treated). This I think would go a long ways towards the public being able to weed out bad candidates for public office.
We had to take Government in high school. I absolutely hated that course at the time but it provided me with the foundation for understanding how our government it supposed to work.
Quite frankly, I believe the “constitutional scholar” in the White House has never read the full document. He simply studied it piecemeal in order to figure out how to circumvent it.
Perhaps we could solve this problem by requiring any person wishing to exercise the franchise to be able to pass a minimal intelligence test. Or requiring a minimum of two years service to the country as in Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. Then again, there are Twain’s suggestions in The Curious Republic of Gondor.
At this point it has become clear that simply possessing a core temperature of approximately 98F is not sufficient qualification for intelligent exercise of the franchise. Bread and circuses have followed in the wake of that experiment and the country may not survive the consequences.
The Founders did not set up a warm body democracy for good reason.
Kudos Prof. I am sure glad that you are holding Obama accountable via the main stream media. That is the media’s number one priority-holding those in authority accountable.
The main stream media, instead, pays homage to the Imperial Narcissist, icon to millions of other voting “me-firsters”.
Oh, my. USAToday AND the Boston Herald. You’re ranging pretty far afield these days, Prof.
Congratulation on the exposure. Maybe you can make the case for conservatism. No one else seems able.
Corrections: “CongratulationS” and above, “how our government IS supposed to work”.
Need more coffee and less tangled fingers.