Obama dismantles America piece by precious piece

The most precious virtues that made America’s great experiment in freedom and individual liberty so unique have taken quite a beating under Barack Obama and his enablers. Now, after six years of abusing the Constitution on domestic policy issues the Senate has agreed that a White House deal with Iran that will lift Congressionally imposed sanctions is not really a “treaty.” 

This is no justification for ditching the very things that are supposed to give average Americans the last word on public policy through their representatives and major agreements involving nuclear weapons have always before required a vote of two-thirds of the Senate. And yet, the often-repeated White House rallying cry to “do something” has been largely accepted by the mainstream press as sufficient to ignore the Constitution, the rule of law and the will of citizens. Now a majority of Senators, conditioned by years of Constitutional abuse on domestic policy have agreed to “look the other way” on a major foreign policy initiative with the world’s most prolific sponsor of terrorism. How did this happen?

{mosads}Start with the Affordable Care Act. Most Americans disagreed with and still oppose ObamaCare and remain angry that during our national debate, before enactment, the president and every Democrat simply lied through their teeth about the actual elements of the law. In the private sector this would constitute fraud but somehow our government has become above the law. To add insult to injury, most of the “watchdog” press only woke up when millions were dropped from insurance they liked and the lies became too obvious too ignore.

Since then the White House has repeatedly changed this law without Congress to avoid voter’s wrath and to smooth over one after another deficiency. Our Constitution does not allow this kind of unilateral action by the executive branch because laws enacted by Congress are, by design, products of the popular will. This central principle has mattered not at all to an administration that wants what it wants and is willing to lie to get it…or simply ignore standing laws and Constitutional limits.

But the White House largely got away with it on ObamaCare–and was even applauded by the liberal press–which may have emboldened Obama to also ditch standing laws on immigration, terrorist swaps, education, welfare-work and the environment. And now a nuclear deal with Iran. Goodbye rule of law. While citizens get no latitude on violating the law, no less than the president asserts that he can simply ignore the laws with which he disagrees. Why? Because he’s frustrated.

A principled attorney general would have balked. It happened before under Richard Nixon. But Eric Holder has seized AP phone records illegally, refused to prosecute Lois Lerner, stonewalled Congress on gun running to Mexican cartels and has certainly shown no appetite for insisting that the Constitution and properly enacted laws be obeyed. Next up? Loretta Lynch. In this woman we’ll get a champion of police departments seizing property and cash without ever filing any charges of a crime. This is America?

The founders who wrote the Constitution feared the power of kings. They designed a system that put the branches of government in conflict but provided rules to ensure accommodation. They foresaw passionate debate between citizens as healthy and welcome in a free, self-governing society. What they didn’t foresee was a president willing to “win” by erasing the base lines. In truth, no one wins when the Constitution is cast aside as inconvenient to the ambitions of any politician.   

Hoagland is a grassroots activist, author and chairman of the Restore America’s Voice PAC.