By Isaac Yetiv , Ph. D.
The rhetorical question in my last article has elicited many real questions from my readers who wanted to know what I meant by “ripe” in “Is American society ripe for Obama’s crowning?” I am glad to respond:
No, I didn’t mean a coup d’etat with dissolution of Congress and jailing of the opposition. What I meant is a slow, well-planned , step-by-step unchallenged usurpation of power that will make any opposition irrelevant and that will lead to a de facto one-party political system with Obama as its de facto sole leader, free to operate the “transformation of America” which he promised five days before the elections of 2008 and never ceased to repeat.
I believe that the present sociopolitical forces are aligned in the president’s favor. They facilitate his daring acts of flagrant encroachments on the other co-equal branches of government and his violations of the law and the Constitution (as I showed in my previous articles.) They are not only accepting what he does but applauding, aiding and abetting, and encouraging.
Who are they?
A spontaneous generation of allies, not of his own doing, brought him to power and continue to sustain him and to nurture his ambitions. It is a strange coalition of the mainstream media (which gave him a pass and became practically his spokespeople , broadcasting the good news and occulting the bad news, thus betraying their vocation and their duty to Democracy), and academia whose leftist leanings are legendary, and the knee-jerk Democrats who automatically toe the party line, and the Hollywood people and other “millionaires and billionaires,” the “useful idiots” (as Lenin called the bourgeois class that was helping Communism against their own interests) whose arrogant ignorance equals their hypocrisy. For example, they agree with Obama on gun control but protect themselves with armies of armed bodyguards; they don’t mind the price of gasoline that ruins the common people because their chauffeurs and pilots fill their gas tanks etc.
The sycophantic media have already crowned Obama, not King, but Messiah. Newsweek’s cover called Obama’s re-election “The Second Coming.” Others , like the political director of CBS News, tasked him with the mission to “pulverize the Republicans…to delegitimize his opponents.” Harry Belafonte advised him to “just lock them up, those Republicans who…”
This vile and servile swooning and slobbering over Obama–undeserved in my opinion –is, in the words of one pundit, “pure idolatry,” with the frightening resurgence of the “cult of personality” as displayed in the “celebrations of the “Second Coming,” the pomp and circumstance which are, in my opinion, unnecessary for a re-election when the acting President is still under oath, and distracting from the ominous reality.
What is their goal ?
Obama’s goal, fashioned by his political czars and advisors, is to make the “opposition” inexistent, or irrelevant. The existence of an active opposition is one of the essential ingredients of Democracy. In England, they call it “the Opposition of Her Majesty.” In the US, it is the “loyal opposition.”
This is why the Founding Fathers preferred a divided government, full of “Checks and Balances” where bypartisan compromise is a necessity. But, as the “fiscal cliff” fight shows, Obama’s objective was not a compromise to resolve the issue but an issue to humiliate and break the GOP.
And ,as said before, he succeeded. His next step is now to find other issues where the vulnerability of his opponents is obvious (like raising the debt ceiling , immigration, women, children, poor, gays etc…) ,and, again, put the opposition in the defensive and in retreat. Until, as he and his cronies believe, he conquers the House in 2014, which will give him a total control of the Legislature, and with one or two “right” appointments to the Supreme Court, he will reign supreme.
What are the tell-tale signs?
First and foremost, Obama himself: I don’t base my findings on speculation or guesswork, but on facts.. In his writings, speeches, declarations, Obama never hid his ambition to change America, to correct its flaws, to atone for its past excesses, and he “apologized” profusely for its “colonialism,” exploitation of others, and warmongering. At least one book by a psychiatrist was devoted to his “narcissism” that led him to boast, before the elections of 2008, ” We are the people we are waiting for,” and “I can’t wait for Congress…but will use executive orders…” to fix America, to transform it, and, recently, after he won the “fiscal cliff” issue, he said he will not “debate” anymore with Congress.
This was accompanied by multiple unilateral acts, some within his executive prerogatives and some beyond them, in clear violation of the law and the Constitution. To cite a few: Obama appointed more than 30 “czars” who answer to none but him, who are not vetted and approved by the Senate as other cabinet members are, while yielding even more power and drawing their salaries from the same public treasury; he allowed the Attorney General to decide not to implement DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) which, as he himself believed then, defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman; he covered for him in the “Fast and Furious ” scandal by using executive privilege not to furnish documents to the Congress after he (the A.G.) was found in contempt of Congress; he waived the requirement of work for welfare recipients in violation of a law signed by President Clinton in 1996; he gave a partial amnesty to certain illegal aliens etc. And, most recently, he announced 23 executive orders on the issue of gun control.
His methodology is also well designed for that purpose: Rather than use the regular way, as prescribed by the Constitution, to bring about change and new legislation, which is proposing new laws to the House and Senate for deliberation and disposition by the rule of the majority, he is in perpetual campaign mode, haranguing the selected crowds, demagoguing the issues, and demonizing his opponents. And we haven’t had a budget in four years, another violation.
This is the antithesis of leadership, as we are entitled to expect from the POTUS who has promised “the most ethical, the most transparent,and the most truthful administration.”
All this frantic activity brought Judge Andrew Napolitano to express his fear that “Obama is close to totalitarian rule by decree.” And this was before he was re-elected. Now that he is unencumbered by the worries of the next election, he will be himself, an unrestricted implementer of socialist ideology to bring about the metamorphosis of America.
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Yetiv is a freelance writer and lecturer based in La Jolla, California. He may be contacted at isaac.yetiv@sdjewishworld.com