In American Politics, the players are obsessed with their legacy. A quick glance at recent history reveals that unfortunate truth - not unfortunate because of the fact they seek to leave a good legacy, but unfortunate because of what their definition of a good legacy is. Chief Justice John Roberts, for example, believes that nationalized medicine is destined to be a part of the American political mosaic, so when the critical court case, National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, decided on June 28, 2012, came his way, he dared not to be the Chief Justice in history that stood in the way of destiny. Justice Roberts sought to protect his legacy, and destroyed it in the process. He decided that the individual mandate, and the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare), is constitutional because of the constitutional authority granted to Congress that allows them to tax American citizens.
Political legacies were once determined by how the actions of the politician related to the health and well-being of the country. When President Bill Clinton feared his legacy was at risk, for example, he moved to the center, in the hopes it would be beneficial to the health of the country, that it would be beneficial to his overall popularity, and that in the long run such a move away from leftism would be beneficial to his legacy in terms of how historians looked upon his Presidency.
Barack Obama's legacy, in the mind of the President himself, is not measured by the growth, or prosperity, of the United States during his time in the White House. Barack Obama does not care if his legacy is one of popularity, or not. He does not care if Obamacare succeeds, or fails. Mister Obama defines his legacy on how historians in the far future will talk about him, not on whether or not he was able to make sure American prospered during his eight year presidency. Barack Obama wants to be viewed historically as the one that was able to finally begin the process of fundamentally transforming the United States into a socialist nation. He wants his legacy to be of the man that began the revolution through a coup of the White House, where eventually the American People raised the communist flag themselves, not for the sake of communism, but because they believed his rhetoric, but because they finally had evolved to the point of embracing utopia - a process initiated by the presidency of Barack Hussein Obama.
In other words, Barack Obama cares about his legacy, but the legacy he desires is not what the average politician would champion, nor is it a legacy you and I would expect from your average, run of the mill, President of the United States.
The legacy of Obama, as Barack Obama hopes it will be, is not an American legacy, but a global legacy. He wants the world to see him, and remember him, as the President that brought down the United States, and converted this nation into a socialist nation.
Conventional wisdom proclaims that comparing Barack Obama to communists, or calling him a socialist, is racist. It's a no-no. Leftism isn't about totalitarianism, or the brutal ways of communist leaders in the past. He's about fairness, and getting us all to come together. Controlling people is something the rightwingers do, or so says the typical, modern day, leftist American liberal.
I even had a commenter on Political Pistachio proclaim that I was in error calling communism a leftwing ideology. He wrote, "The Soviet Union wasn't 'lefty'. It was a hard line, right wing, authoritarian regime, not unlike North Korea. That's not the type of government any western Liberal advocates. When you make that sort of claim, it's just propaganda." (Political Pistachio; January 03, 2012, Allen West Compares Democrat Party to National Socialists)
Yet, these same progressives, when it comes to an issue like man-made Global Warming (a.k.a. Climate Change), state that the free society in America is a detriment to the cause. The best way to save our planet from the horrors of an out of control climate as a result of SUVs, smokers, and capitalism is the wonderful ideology that brought us the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Communist China - and then they hold up China as the shining example of how wonderful a one-party system can be when trying to force people to conform to the "Let's Save The Poor Planet From Mean Ol' Mankind's use of Fossil Fuels" agenda. (Climate Depot; January 14, 2014, UN Climate Chief Christiana Figueres laments U.S. democracy is 'very detrimental' in war on global warming - lauds one-party ruled China for 'doing it right' on climate change and Townhall Magazine; January 19, 2014, UN Climate Chief says communism is the best way to fight global warming)
Never mind that China is among the worst polluters, and that their pollution is so bad that there is now evidence their rotten air is spreading across the Pacific, heading for the evil capitalists in America where Chinese products are sold in mass quantities. (Smithsonian; January 21, 2014, Air Pollution in China is Spreading Across the Pacific to the U.S.)
The problem with leftists that are fully determined to achieve the ultimate statist dream, when they realize they can't accomplish their goals legally, they turn to tyranny. They turn to force.
When asked how he will deal with a Congress that keeps standing in the way, Barack Obama has repeatedly proclaimed that he will go around Congress. He is not going to let a silly little thing like the representation of the people stand in his way. When Congress is not his rubber stamp, he tells us that government is broken. Nothing is getting done. The TEA Party, the conservatives, and all kinds of invisible bogeymen are standing in his way.
In mid-January of 2014, President Obama said, "I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone. And I can use that pen to sign executive orders." (BizPacReview; January 15, 2014, 'I've got a pen, and I've got a phone': Obama says he'll run right over Congress this year)
The executive branch, in the eyes of the Democrat Party, is all-powerful. "We don't need no stinkin' Congress," they seem to be telling us.
There is no such thing as a Separation of Powers to these people, or that there are even three branches of government. The Congress and the judiciary are only tools for the President to use (if he is a democrat), and those other two branches are to be circumvented if they refuse to do the President's bidding. Barack Obama is prepared to act with, or without Congress. He will implement the laws they refuse to pass, is the message we are getting from him.
In a speech on January 15, 2014, at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, President Barack Obama told Senate Democrats he plans to use his executive authority to act in 2014 when Congress stands in his way. (Associated Press; January 15, 2014, Obama to Dems: I'll act with or without Congress)
As the State of the Union speech approaches, the rhetoric continues. ABC News reported, "President Barack Obama will work with Congress where he can and circumvent lawmakers where he must, his top advisers warned Sunday in previewing Tuesday's State of the Union speech." (ABC News; January 26, 2014, White House Warns Obama Could Go Around Congress)
The democrats are not concerned about a pesky thing like authorities, or the United States Constitution. There's is a crusade to change America. Theirs is an effort, in their opinion, to right the wrongs of capitalism, and to remake America into the utopia the Founding Fathers refused to pursue.
The Law of the Land, the United States Constitution, says otherwise. Everything this administration is doing flies in the face of the authorities granted to the executive branch by the U.S. Constitution.
Each of the first three articles of the Constitution lays down the powers of each of the three branches of government. Article I states, "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States." It does not say that the President has legislative powers, through executive order, when the Congress dares to disagree with him. It does not say that the Supreme Court has legislative powers when the opinion of the court disagrees with the constitutional validity of the law. The Congress is not just some consultative assembly, like you see in banana republics, and totalitarian dictatorships.
As the Roman Republic decayed into an empire led by dishonest rulers that became suspicious of everyone, intolerant of any opposition, indifferent to the demands of the middle class, and considered the Roman version of the Constitution, which was designed to curb their ambitions, an impediment to their imperial aims, Marcus Tullius Cicero stood up and proclaimed truth. Rome began as a republic, equipped with a system of representation, but the rulers had become wealthy upon imagination, and had attained incredible political power. Caesar, in complete disregard for the rule of law, had by force of arms, guile, and trickery, used his military to dominate the world.
The people, like the leaders, were ignoring the standards set by the early Romans. The citizens were no longer worried about defending their rights, and had instead learned to live on the gifts from the treasury the politicians had offered them for their votes. They were fat, immoral, careless, and happy to live on the government's offerings, which had been taken by bureaucratic chicanery from the substantial men of business.
Cicero, in his Second Oration before the Senate, had this to say: "Too long have we said to ourselves 'intolerance of another's politics is barbarous and not to be countenanced in a civilized country. Are we not free? Shall a man be denied his right to speak under the law which established that right?' I tell you that freedom does not mean the freedom to exploit law in order to destroy it! It is not freedom which permits the Trojan Horse to be wheeled within the gates. . . He who is not for Rome and Roman Law and Roman liberty is against Rome. He who espouses tyranny and oppression and the old dead despotisms is against Rome. He who plots against established authority and incites the populace to violence is against Rome. He cannot ride two horses at the same time. We cannot be for lawful ordinances and for an alien conspiracy at one and the same moment. Though liberty is established by law, we must be vigilant, for liberty to enslave us is always present under that very liberty. Our Constitution speaks of the 'general welfare of the people.' Under that phrase all sorts of excesses can be employed by lusting tyrants to make us bondsmen."
Years later Cicero appeared before the Senate again.
He said "The Senate, in truth, has no right to censure me for anything, for I did but my duty and exposed traitors and treason against the State. If that is a crime, then I am indeed a criminal."
Crassus, Caesar and Pompey were in the hall listening to Cicero, but turned away to reject his words. He said to them, "You have succeeded against me. Be it as you will. I will depart."
He then told the Senate: "For this day's work, lords, you have encouraged treason and opened the prison doors to free the traitors. A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly against the city. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared. The traitor is the carrier of the plague. You have unbarred the gates of Rome to him."
Cicero was exiled from Rome for his words. From outside of Rome he continued to plead the cause of honest government. The people were not concerned. They were satisfied living a mediocre life on the public dole. His friends were also satisfied, and did not wish to make waves. They were lawyers, doctors, and businessmen, and they told him, "We do not meddle in politics. Rome is prosperous and at peace. We have our villas in Caprae, our racing vessels, our houses, our servants, our pretty mistresses, and our comfort and treasures. We implore you, Cicero, do not disturb us with your lamentations of disaster. Rome is on the march to the mighty society, for all Romans."
Cicero was in despair. He began to write his book De Legibus, but Atticus, his publisher, asked, "But who will read it? Romans care nothing for law any longer, their bellies are too full."
Cicero, however, was not completely unheard. Brutus, the long-time sycophant of the ambitious Caesar, went to Cicero with his plea that something be done to save the nation. He confessed his error, he said he had believed in Caesar. Brutus believed that Caesar would restore the republic. Caesar had betrayed his trust.
Cicero replied, "Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions and laughed delightedly at his licentiousness and thought it very superior of him to acquire vast amounts of gold illicitly. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the 'new, wonderful good society' which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean 'more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.' Julius was always an ambitious villain, but he is only one man."
Cicero, in his Second Oration before the Senate, had this to say: "Too long have we said to ourselves 'intolerance of another's politics is barbarous and not to be countenanced in a civilized country. Are we not free? Shall a man be denied his right to speak under the law which established that right?' I tell you that freedom does not mean the freedom to exploit law in order to destroy it! It is not freedom which permits the Trojan Horse to be wheeled within the gates. . . He who is not for Rome and Roman Law and Roman liberty is against Rome. He who espouses tyranny and oppression and the old dead despotisms is against Rome. He who plots against established authority and incites the populace to violence is against Rome. He cannot ride two horses at the same time. We cannot be for lawful ordinances and for an alien conspiracy at one and the same moment. Though liberty is established by law, we must be vigilant, for liberty to enslave us is always present under that very liberty. Our Constitution speaks of the 'general welfare of the people.' Under that phrase all sorts of excesses can be employed by lusting tyrants to make us bondsmen."
Years later Cicero appeared before the Senate again.
He said "The Senate, in truth, has no right to censure me for anything, for I did but my duty and exposed traitors and treason against the State. If that is a crime, then I am indeed a criminal."
Crassus, Caesar and Pompey were in the hall listening to Cicero, but turned away to reject his words. He said to them, "You have succeeded against me. Be it as you will. I will depart."
He then told the Senate: "For this day's work, lords, you have encouraged treason and opened the prison doors to free the traitors. A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly against the city. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared. The traitor is the carrier of the plague. You have unbarred the gates of Rome to him."
Cicero was exiled from Rome for his words. From outside of Rome he continued to plead the cause of honest government. The people were not concerned. They were satisfied living a mediocre life on the public dole. His friends were also satisfied, and did not wish to make waves. They were lawyers, doctors, and businessmen, and they told him, "We do not meddle in politics. Rome is prosperous and at peace. We have our villas in Caprae, our racing vessels, our houses, our servants, our pretty mistresses, and our comfort and treasures. We implore you, Cicero, do not disturb us with your lamentations of disaster. Rome is on the march to the mighty society, for all Romans."
Cicero was in despair. He began to write his book De Legibus, but Atticus, his publisher, asked, "But who will read it? Romans care nothing for law any longer, their bellies are too full."
Cicero, however, was not completely unheard. Brutus, the long-time sycophant of the ambitious Caesar, went to Cicero with his plea that something be done to save the nation. He confessed his error, he said he had believed in Caesar. Brutus believed that Caesar would restore the republic. Caesar had betrayed his trust.
Cicero replied, "Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions and laughed delightedly at his licentiousness and thought it very superior of him to acquire vast amounts of gold illicitly. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the 'new, wonderful good society' which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean 'more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.' Julius was always an ambitious villain, but he is only one man."
At the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2008, he was surrounded by replicas of ancient pillars. People were not sure if they were Greek Columns, or Roman Pillars, but regardless of which they were, the message was clear: Obama is not your typical President. He is one that aspires to rise above all others, to rule over the people as a caesar. His is a legacy that will not be anything like that of any other President in history, for Obama's Legacy is destined to be one of a transformative figure, who recreated America into a model unlike anything it was designed to be.
The Obama Legacy, in the hopes of democrats, will be that Barack Obama was the man that finally changed America. The legacy they hope endures is one that places him above all other presidents, and labels him as the first great socialist President of the United States.
The Obama Legacy will likely read differently than the democrats assume, I am hoping. I believe the Obama Legacy should be very simple, and explained in a single sentence.
The Legacy of President Barack Obama, America's first dictator, who tried to lead America into darkness, but was thwarted by a people that believed in, and supported, the United States Constitution.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
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