N.B.
This seems to be the only verse in the King James Version that
includes the word “lawless”. The word begins a list of unpleasant
characteristics. The application of the term “lawlessness” by the
Townhall commentators to our president is a serious charge indeed.
townhall.com by Brian
and Garrett Fahy [/] http://j.mp/0LawlessO
or
http://townhall.com/columnists/brianandgarrettfahy/2015/09/16/a-legacy-of-lawlessness-n2052907/page/full
From
the first days that Barack Obama declared his candidacy, we were told
how brilliant he was, how this Harvard trained lawyer, who had run
the law review, outshone his peers, and taught constitutional law,
was intellectually superior to the other presidential aspirants.
Surely he was more attuned to sophisticated legal nuances and more
dedicated to the rule of law than the outgoing occupant, who
symbolized all that was wrong with the “imperial presidency.”
But
back in 2008, behind the curtain of “hope and change,” a
different agenda was being devised in secret. Channeling Hugo Chavez
or Fidel Castro, Obama’s agenda would brook no dissent, respect no
constitutional restraint or congressional input, and offer as its
justification the flimsiest of rationales: we can’t wait. Back in
2008, we had no idea what lawlessness would be ushered in by this
self-proclaimed legal expert, and just how transformative (and
destructive) his administration would be.
[[Au
contraire: The lack of documentation about Mr. Obama's birth,
education, and character should have warned us. The wise knew full
well from what was known then that Mr. Obama was seriously
anti-American, seriously unqualified, and seriously malign.]]
Six
years on, we now know the truth: no president has shown a greater
disrespect for the rule of law and our entire legal architecture than
this one.
Richard
Nixon never went this far.
President
Obama does not respect how laws are made. See his abuse of the
congressional process to pass Obamacare, and his failure to secure a
single Republican vote. Likewise, his blatant disregard for the
Senate’s role in approving international accords was shown last
week, when his party prevented the Senate from even voting on the
merits of the Iran agreement. As with Obamacare, he failed to garner
a single Republican vote.
Worse,
the president first sought UN approval of the Iran – don’t call
it a treaty, which would require a 2/3 vote to pass the Senate –
deal before seeking Congressional approval. His chief negotiator
Wendy Sherman told reporters: “It would have been a little
difficult when all of the [countries negotiating with Iran] wanted to
go to the United Nations to get an endorsement of this, since it is a
product of the United Nations process, for us to say, 'Well, excuse
me, the world, you should wait for the United States Congress.'"
In
addition, abdicating the very duty inherent in his role as chief
executive, President Obama has made no effort to execute existing
laws. Instead, he rejects the laws he does not like, and, like a
third world dictator, re-writes the laws as he wished them to be or
has his cronies actively litigate or regulate against them. See his
decision to refuse to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act; see also
in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision recognizing Second
Amendment rights in Heller, the DEA’s failed attempt to ban bullets
used by hunting and sporting enthusiasts while claiming to be
protecting police officers.
Perhaps
President Obama’s most brazen violation of the law was his
unilateral executive action on immigration, and his imposition of the
illegal “deferred action” program, which rewards unlawfully
present minors and their parents with legal status and financial
benefits. No president has ever attempted to alter the legal status
of millions of people, and simultaneously provide them benefits –
Congress’ jobs – with the stroke of his pen. For this reason,
U.S. District Court judge Andrew Hanen put a stop to the president’s
unilateral immigration overhaul and threatened to hold the
president’s attorneys in contempt.
Beyond
rejecting existing laws, President Obama does not respect how
appointments are made. See his June 2012 attempted recess appointment
of his political cronies to the National Labor Relations Board when
the Senate was not in recess, a move which earned a unanimous
rejection by the Supreme Court (Noel Canning v. NLRB). See also his
effort to pack the District of Columbia appeals court with friendly
judges after blowing up time honored Senate rules governing judicial
nominations. Even FDR abandoned a similar court-packing stunt, but to
paraphrase another Democrat, President Obama is no FDR.
Perhaps
worst of all, President Obama shows no respect for the First
Amendment rights of his political opponents and his cronies use the
resources of the federal government to attack them. See how his IRS,
in the lead up to his 2012 re-election campaign, targeted for IRS
harassment citizens who criticized this man, and then attempted to
destroy the evidence of their crimes. We’re talking about you, Lois
Lerner.
There
are many more examples we could cite (the EPA, Kim Davis, Eric
Holder, the EEOC), but these suffice to make the point. The Obama
Presidency has done more damage to the rule of law and the balance of
power between the presidency and the Congress than any president in
history. Worse, he has – potentially to an irrevocable extent –
expanded the size, scope and brazenness of the executive, to the
detriment of all Americans, who rely on the executive branch to
enforce existing laws, not create new ones.
By
his lawlessness, President Obama has also made the courts the final
arbiter of our nation’s most contentious issues, a role they are
not empowered or equipped to fulfill. A nation of laws and legal
structures, erected and fine-tuned over two centuries, simply cannot
abide 8 more years of this. Americans will never have a “government
of the people, by the people, and for the people” as long as its
people are ruled by a tyrannical executive enabled by unaccountable
bureaucracies and unelected federal judges. The tools for America’s
reclamation are at the peoples’ disposal. They must use them next
November.
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