THE MAXIMALIST

[Geee]

American Spectator:

In 2011, President Obama, speaking before the National Council of La Raza, remarked that “I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own.” He acknowledged the appeal of dictatorial action, but he said “that’s not how our system works.” The crowd responded, “Change it” and “Yes, you can!”

 

He spoke of bypassing Congress as a temptation to which he wouldn’t yield. But he has, and it is clear that he regards America’s system of checks and balances as an odious obstacle to his conception of good government.

 

In a recent interview with Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, Obama pronounced that “our politics are dysfunctional.” What the Founding Fathers would have considered ordinary and commendable political resistance is akin in Obama’s eyes to Middle Eastern mayhem.

 

Friedman writes, “At the end of the day, the president mused, the biggest threat to America — the only force that can really weaken us — is us. We have so many things going for us right now as a country — from new energy resources to innovation to a growing economy — but, he said, we will never realize our full potential unless our two parties adopt the same outlook that we’re asking of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds or Israelis and Palestinians: No victor, no vanquished and work together.”