Current Events & Hot Topics
June 14, 2009
By Henry Lamb
Barack H. Obama will forever be known as the first black President of
the United States. This fact will likely be the least impressive item
about him in tomorrow's history books. The first four months of his
administration strongly suggest that he will most likely be known as
the president who transformed America's system of government.
The U.S. Constitution provides for a system of representative
government with a degree of checks and balances. This system has been
tested, twisted, and tormented over the years, but has always survived
the abuses inflicted upon it. Obama brings a new threat, in a new era,
to a new generation.
Obama is creating a system of government that is beginning to look much
like an "Administrator" form of government that will ultimately have no
checks and balances, and little need for legislators.
This form of government was the fantasy of Colonel Edward Mandell House, the "alter-ego" of President Woodrow Wilson, a designer of the League of Nations, and author of "Philip Dru: Administrator."
House fantasized about a system of government in which a single
administrator held all executive power to appoint underlings without
interference from elected bodies, and to design, and enforce, rules of
behavior for individuals, and organizations — including states and
local administrative units. In House's world, his administrator was a
part of a global system of administrative governance whose purpose was
"...to pursue socialism as dreamed of by Karl Marx."
Obama's actions during these first few months are very much like those
of Philip Dru: Administrator. He has found a way to design, and
enforce, rules of behavior on much of the banking system, and on
General Motors and Chrysler — private industries not subject to
governmental management under previous presidents.
Obama has found a way to force state and local governments to yield to
his rules in order to get federal dollars, even when states don't want
the dollars that come with federal strings attached.
Obama is creating a new form of government with a growing network of "Czars"
that do not have to be approved by the Senate, nor are they subject to
the oversight of Congress. So far, 21 Czars have been appointed, with
assignments and salaries set by Obama, and accountable only to Obama.
This network of White House officers bypasses the traditional executive
organizational structure that relies on Cabinet Secretaries to
administer laws and promulgate rules subject to congressional oversight
and supervision.
Obama the Administrator is building his enforcement organization to
avoid the obstacles that Congress often constructs. These congressional
obstructions are also known as checks and balances.
These dramatic changes in the structure and form of government have
drawn hardly a whimper from the American people, the media, or from
congressional opponents. These changes are just the beginning. Obama is
determined to impose a national healthcare system, and a national
energy-rationing system on the nation. He has already demonstrated his
contempt for the Constitution by reaching deep inside private industry
to inflict and enforce his managerial dictates.
He has announced that he has no reluctance to destroy the private
healthcare system in order to impose a government-run system that
sounds much like "...socialism as dreamed of by Karl Marx." He has
announced that he fully intends to force the use of alternative energy
sources, regardless of market forces, and regardless of cost. He is
determined to impose his will, and his judgment, precisely as Philip
Dru imposed his power on Colonel House's fictional society. The society
that is subject to Obama's will, judgment, and administration, is not
fictional, however. It is we the people of the United States.
Obama has also demonstrated his eagerness to align his administration
with the directives of the international community. He has pledged to
join the U.N.'s plan to use carbon fuel as the basis for confiscating
and redistributing enormous wealth through cap-and-trade programs and
other direct taxation schemes. He has welcomed the creation of an
international mechanism for the control of the global economy. He has
announced his support and his intention to ratify several U.N. treaties
that have been rejected by previous presidents.
Obama's legacy will not be just the first black presidency. His will be
remembered in history as the administration that relegated the U.S.
Constitution to irrelevance, streamlined the structure of government to
minimize or eliminate checks and balances, and consolidated executive
power into a position to be envied by kings, dictators, potentates —
and even by Philip Dru.
Philip Dru believed that "Our Constitution and our laws served us well
for the first 100 years of our existence, but under conditions of
today, they are not only obsolete, but even grotesque (p.222)."
There is an unsettling similarity between Obama's actions and Phillip Dru's belief.
Replies
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Hmm, appointing qualified people to key administrative positions, in the expectation that they will execute policy and serve the nation. How... diabolical! Are you proposing that Obama hold elections to determine who he employs?
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This is some serious, potentially tyrannical crap.These czars are unconstitutional at best.
Very good article.
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Quoting LeilaR1:
Hmm, appointing qualified people to key administrative positions, in the expectation that they will execute policy and serve the nation. How... diabolical! Are you proposing that Obama hold elections to determine who he employs?
and how does your argument hold up to 14 CZARS? even key dems dont like it...but hey if this is what YOU want then whateva
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Quoting mamadixon:
This is some serious, potentially tyrannical crap.These czars are unconstitutional at best.
Very good article.
Who coined the term, Czar?
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Nixon, perhaps?
Quoting Della529:
Quoting mamadixon:
This is some serious, potentially tyrannical crap.These czars are unconstitutional at best.
Very good article.
Who coined the term, Czar?
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President Obama is not the first President to appoint people in this fashion.. -
No but I am betting anything he is the first to appoint over a dozen !!
Quoting tericared:
President Obama is not the first President to appoint people in this fashion.. -
Quoting tericared:
President Obama is not the first President to appoint people in this fashion..Hes the first to name one a Special Master though....
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Quoting Della529:
Quoting mamadixon:
This is some serious, potentially tyrannical crap.These czars are unconstitutional at best.
Very good article.
Who coined the term, Czar?
FDR used to call them " Dictators " cuz it sounded cool, that is untill Hitler and his ilk....so who knew its a " progressive thing"
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Let's not forget that HE was the one blowing hot air about being the president of CHANGE. Changing what POTUS has done in the past, breaking those vicious cycles...
Ambassadors?
Czars...
pleh