After reading an article entitled: “Time for the GOP to CHECK Presidential Powers” written by David Swanson, I was delighted to see that I am not alone in my political opinions. This blog is based on his work and everything (or almost) within quotation marks is a quote from his article. Please keep in mind that I am a member of neither political party and am at liberty to call a spade a spade.
As soon as a Democrat (Obama) took the executive reins of government after 8 years of Republican control, the losers hopped on their selfish, greed based pity pots. All of a sudden, after squandering over hundreds of billions of dollars in budget surpluses (left to them by the preceding democratic president), they remembered that the GOP was supposed to be the ‘fiscally responsible’ party. Keep in mind that they had control of the executive and judicial branches for a total of 8 years and the legislative component for the first 6 of those years.
The argument may be made (and the GOP does) that our homeland was attacked and it was necessary to fund the “War on Terrorism” and who am I to disagree? The guilty party for the attack (al-Queda) was known to be in Afghanistan; so, why not invade Iraq at billions of dollars a month in expenses? Just slap a ‘war on terror’ label on it and the American people will be onboard patriotically; or, we’ll label them as cowards, unAmerican, unpatriotic, and even traitors. The people won’t notice that the enemy responsible for The World Trade Center carnage is 1428 miles away and not friendly with Saddam Hussein in Iraq; or, they’ll be too worked-up patriotically to care.
Now we hear that Obama is a socialist “And, like you (the GOP), has way, way, way too much power. But, unlike you, I’m not principally to blame for that. Obama was handed his power by President George W. Bush, who preceded him in office, and Bush seized his power with hardly a peep of protest from most Republicans. Of course, the Democrats in Congress didn’t resist Bush’s power grab, but they’re Democrats. They’re wimps. They never resist anything.”
“When Bush altered laws with signing statements, you guys didn’t say a word, because Bush was a Republican. When Obama, after having condemned the practice as a candidate, began engaging in it himself, as well as maintaining Bush’s signing statements, most Democrats didn’t object for a minute. Some Democrats now even advocate a greater use of signing statements. We can’t expect Democrats who wouldn’t fight this abuse when it was new and Bush’s to fight it now. But it seems to me that you Republicans might have the nerve (as well as the short-term partisan interest) to fight it now. After all, it was your guys who invented this abuse and handed it to Obama.”
“The same goes for making laws with executive orders; making laws with secret memos legalizing blatant crimes; launching and escalating wars without Congress (including strikes into Pakistan and other such actions that nobody calls wars); operating in secret; spending money in secret without Congress; making treaties and appointments without Congress; running the nation through czars not overseen by Congress; granting immunity to unnamed criminals; imprisoning people without charge or trial; spying without warrant; engaging in rendition and torture; obstructing justice; and claiming immunity for crimes. All of these abusive, unconstitutional powers were expanded dramatically by Bush and Cheney, and you guys didn’t protest. Now Obama is expanding further on the same abusive powers, and your objection seems to be that he’s a socialist or a liberal or a Democrat or was born in Africa.”
“Forgive my directness, but what difference does it make to future generations what you call him? The actions he is taking that will have by far the greatest impact on the world are those he is taking to increase and solidify imperial presidential powers.”
“Do you imagine that Democrats who would not fight this trend when Bush was president will fight it now? They’re afraid of their own shadows.” During election time you talk a good ‘bipartisan’ game; but, “your hands seem to be full of posters and guns and teabags. You’ve stuck the Constitution in your pocket or dropped it in the gutter.” I think Alan Greenspan said it best when he said of his GOP: “Republicans in Congress lost their way. They swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither.”