Posted on 01/07/2016 5:08:13 AM PST by Kaslin
There has been a lot of talk -- almost all of it accurate -- about how Barack Obama's presidency has fueled the rise of Donald Trump.
The president's fans hate this talk, for understandable reasons. They see the president as dignified and cerebral. They see Trump as crude and bigoted, a "short-fingered vulgarian," as Graydon Carter famously put it.
The argument that Obama paved the way for Trump takes many forms. He "lowered the bar" for presidential qualifications, argues Peggy Noonan. Trump's Don Rickles act, writes Michael Barone, reflects "the coarseness of Obama's non-stop insults of Republicans and anyone who does not share his views and priorities."
"It is no accident that President Obama's America has given rise to Donald Trump," writes Ben Domenech, publisher of The Federalist. "It is an America that is more tribalist, where people feel more racially and religiously divided; more politically correct, where people feel less free to speak their minds; and it is an America where trust in the nation's elites, whose skills are credentialed but unproven, are at historic lows."
My colleague (my euphemism for "boss") at National Review, Rich Lowry, recently argued that Obama's contempt for the law and the Constitution is also partly to blame for Trump's appeal and sparked a new "post-constitutional" moment on the right.
For much of the Obama presidency, conservatives seemed to have intensified their reverence for the rule of law and the Constitution. But what did it get them? Obama went and did what he wanted to do anyway. He vowed to use his pen and phone like a ball and scepter. "Middle-class families can't wait for Republicans in Congress to do stuff," Obama told a crowd last year. "So sue me." He was referring to a lawsuit launched by then-Speaker John Boehner over the Obama administration's nakedly lawless chicanery implementing Obamacare. A few days later, the president demanded, "Really? Really? For what? You're going to sue me for doing my job?"
The problem: Obama the constitutional lawyer hasn't read his job description; it says the president should "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Obama doesn't really care. He sees his job as doing the things he wants to do and being the sort of president his biggest fans want him to be. That's why over the holidays, he reportedly ordered his lawyers to "scrub" the laws to find ways he can take new unilateral action against gun ownership.
Well, two can play at that game.
Enter Trump, via his fabulous escalator. The GOP front-runner isn't openly contemptuous of the Constitution; it just doesn't enter his thinking very much. If he believes something is worth doing, he says he will do it. He makes little effort to explain how he will get Congress to agree, never mind write the laws the president is supposed to faithfully execute. And that's the way Trump's fans like it.
We've seen this sort of thing before. "I want to assure you," Franklin Roosevelt aide Harry Hopkins told New Dealers in New York, "that we are not afraid of exploring anything within the law, and we have a lawyer who will declare anything you want to do legal." When the Supreme Court continued to stand in his way, FDR tried to pack it with pliable hacks.
Trump has already spoken fondly of Roosevelt's internment of Japanese Americans (which was constitutional according to the court at the time. Eight of the nine justices had been appointed by FDR. The one Republican appointee was among three dissenters.) It seems a sure bet that a President Trump would follow FDR's -- and Obama's -- example in doing whatever he could get away with.
If Obama didn't inspire so much partisan loyalty from fellow Democrats (and the news media), it might have occurred to them that he -- and Senate Democratic leader Harry "nuclear option" Reid -- was laying down precedents that the next president would use and abuse.
But such realizations always come too late. During the height of the Watergate hearings, Alan Cranston, a Democratic senator from California, made an awkward admission: "Those who tried to warn us back at the beginnings of the New Deal of the dangers of one-man rule that lay ahead on the path we were taking toward strong, centralized government may not have been so wrong."
Poor Jonah. I think he is starting to realize, Jeb ain’t gonna be president, so now he must do all he can to elect Hillary.
Sad to watch pundits, I liked stumble so bad.
How many Supreme Court justices will be replaced over the next 16 years of the Trump and Cruz administrations?
I wasn’t aware Trump ever one man ruled anyone or plans to.
Get over it Jonah. We have been one man destroyed by Bushs, Clintons and Obama for far too long now.
What has happened is a result of years of failed and anti American citizen policies. Failure should not be rewarded with victory.
The party is over.
Republicans like to accuse Trump of being what Obama is. Somehow it takes the focus off of the fact that they, GOP, have been complicit in the president’s lawlessness every step of the way.
People don’t back Trump because they want a dictator, they back Trump because they are tired of being pushed around by an out of control government. And they see quite rightly that GOP has been Obama’s rubber-stamp, cheerfully signing off on Obama’s decrees.
Sorry, Jonah, Trump isn’t Obama. GOP is Obama. Obama couldn’t exist without GOP complicity.
There is nothing “Post Constitutional” about Trump. Past time the DC Bubble heads learn even the most basic facts about Immigration and Law. Nothing Trump has purposed is out side CURRENT law.
I think it’s a huge stretch to say Trump would operate outside of the constitution. He gives bombastic speeches and definitely has over the top rhetoric but, he’s just launching the first salvo in a negotiation for his positions. In the end, he’ll work out a deal with congress that is both reasonable and legal on all matters of import (although undoing any executive action by Obama really is just a matter of writing a new executive action. That’s how executive actions work). In any case, the Donald is just starting from an extreme position....that’s what negotiators do.
Excellent post/rebuttal to the Trump disdaining Goldberg and Townhall....needs repeating....
Republicans like to accuse Trump of being what Obama is. Somehow it takes the focus off of the fact that they, GOP, have been complicit in the president’s lawlessness every step of the way.
People don’t back Trump because they want a dictator, they back Trump because they are tired of being pushed around by an out of control government. And they see quite rightly that GOP has been Obama’s rubber-stamp, cheerfully signing off on Obama’s decrees.
Sorry, Jonah, Trump isn’t Obama. GOP is Obama. Obama couldn’t exist without GOP complicity.
No Hillary will only be elected if people you will sit at home if they they don’t like the republican nominee. That is why that arrogant POS was reelected. The only way we can make sure that she is not elected, is to unite and stand behind the nominee. Not sit the general election out, or write in some third party member in, who has 0 chances of winning the election
Two statements about Trump made by Goldberg that are puzzling:
“If he believes something is worth doing, he says he will do it.He makes little effort to explain how he will get Congress to agree”
How does that make him different from any other presidential candidate in the nation’s history, and do politicians usually get down into the weeds of policy implementation/agreement with Congress during a campaign when no one knows what Congress will even look like? No candidate in our nation’s history has chosen to diminish himself by avowing: “I will do thus and such if I am permitted to do thus and such by Congress.” You talk about a stand-up guy, action oriented guy. That would make Lindsay Graham look like Alexander the Great.
And this gem:
“It seems a sure bet that a President Trump would follow FDR’s — and Obama’s — example in doing whatever he could get away with.”
That is the description of every president we have ever had, except George Washington. Goldberg just chooses to smear it with repulsive examples.
Nor could Obama exist without massive numbers of “conservatives” sitting home or voting for someone other that the Republican candidate twice. Which BTW this is the same action being urged once again:
“Here he comes ...totalitarian Socialist Bernie Saunders, the next President of the place formerly known as the USA”
He’s the man who will mobilize “true” conservatives to vote finally ... of course, voting under a totalitarian rule means only one party, if that, so what these people imagine ...?
I think back to 2008 & 2012 and for the life of me, I can’t remember 1% of the panic about the prospect for an Obama presidency as I see for the prospect of a Trump presidency.
One guy was pro America and one was decidedly anti America.
One guy was a proven leader and the other wasn’t.
One guy had remarkable proven abilities and accomplishments. The other had nothing to point to. Nothing!
So who did these yahoos line up against?
There is something VERY strange going on here.
Is it his race?
Is it his pro America stance?
Is it his actual ability that scares them?
Why is there almost universal panic about the Trump candidacy other than the U. S. Citizens who love him?
Are there that many diehard globalists out there?
Strange days...
Well, they’re coming to an end assholes!
Well said!
Thank you for posting this!
Are you seriously saying, “Vote Republican because they are Republican?” Shudder!!
Not to worry, I will vote, but I sure as hell ain’t gonna vote for any open border, quasi-socialist GOPe candidate. After all, there will be others on the ballot. Libertarian party, Constitutional Party for starters.
It’s strange....we’ve been fighting the GOPe for years, since they’re complicit in 0’s destructive agenda....and, here we have folks fighting Trump - the one guy who is taking it to 0/GOPe - being treated worse than 0bie.
Simple. For the 1st time in decades the Establishment face the prospect of a President they do not control.
Those skills are non existent, not unproven.
Jonah has been throwing a temper tantrum and peeing his pants over Trump for six months now. His spiel is getting a little tiresome.
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