I’m using this Independence Day to think about where we are as a nation. Are we free? Is our government acting in the spirit of the Declaration and the Constitution? I don’t believe so. This is not me stating the obvious as I preach to the choir. This is me speaking to the nonpolitical public. I will try hard to stay away from buzz words, phrases and talking points. Those things are easy to use, but only through sincere belief and carefully chosen words (truth versus political, or politically correct language) can we have the necessary discussions to heal our nation. When I speak of healing our nation, I am not talking about repairing violence or hurt feelings. I am saying that the American promise that we have had for over 200 years is dying.
Over the past few weeks we have seen our Attorney General held in contempt for what appears to be obstructing an investigation into a poorly run program that has cost us American lives on American soil. We have seen this Attorney General run to the President like a child in trouble at school runs to his father, the principal. We have seen this principal… President… inappropriately grant executive privilege in an attempt to keep their son… Attorney General… from having to provide documents that would prove his guilt. We have seen now that the Department of Justice will not participate in any proceedings against their boss, the Attorney General. Does this sound like Justice? Does this sound like the checks and balances are being used effectively? Or does it sound like the Attorney General, appointed by the President, is more bulletproof than Superman?
We have seen the President, obviously unhappy that the DREAM Act could not get passed through a vote of Congress, has made it the law of the land through executive order and policy decision. Executive order is a procedure that he decried his predecessor for using. By executive order, the president has saved 800,000 illegals from deportation. By policy decisions, the President and his Department of Homeland Security will not expend much energy to enforce the immigration laws already on the books. The executive branch has decided that if they don’t like a group of laws, they will just not enforce them.
The Supreme Court, once thought to be an apolitical group, has now done what it can to not only remove that belief, but to also engage in what is either hypocrisy or stupidity. Let everyone make their own judgement. First, the court ruled against Arizona in the case their immigration law case. Arizona carefully crafted their law to mirror the existing U.S. law. The court ruled their law unconstitutional on the basis that states cannot make their own immigration laws. Arizona only made their law in order to give them the power to enforce the very laws that the Obama Administration refused to enforce. Isn’t it hypocritical for Arizona’s law to be ruled unconstitutional, when there are many sanctuary cities across the country that have stated they will not support the federal immigration laws? Second, Justice Elena Kagan voted to revisit the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. For those that don’t remember, Justice Kagan argued for the Obama Administration, as the Solicitor General, on the losing side of that case. If this is nor the textbook case for recusal, then there is none. Imagine a lawyer that loses (or wins for that matter) a case being allowed to preside as judge on the appeal. How is that close to being ethical? Finally, we have the Obamacare decision. I will not go deeply into it as there has been story after story, and analysis upon analysis of the decision. To make a long story REAL short, the decision was that the Affordable Care Act was held up because the court saw it as a tax which was within the powers of Congress. The problem was that the court allowed the administration to argue that it was a tax AND argue that it was a penalty. The fact is that the Affordable Care Act can only be one or the other. The President and the Democrats ALWAYS said it was a penalty. The job of the Supreme Court is to take a law and rule as to whether it is square with the Constitution. The Supreme Court is not supposed to make a new interpretation of a law or of the Constitution to force a fit. Words are on paper. They are what they are. Yes; it is supposed to be that easy. Instead, the Chief Justice wrote an opinion that changed the nature of the law so it would fit his argument to uphold it. Let’s look at that argument too. The Affordable Care Act is a tax. Ok, every tax (as every 8th grader that passed his/her Constitution test knows) must originate in the House of Representatives. Wait a minute… didn’t the Affordable Care Act originate in its final form in the Senate? Oh yeah! It did! Ah-ha! Wait… the Supreme Court didn’t catch that…?
So I’m led back to my original thoughts at the beginning of this writing? Are we a free nation? Do we follow the Constitution?
The conclusions that we can draw from the examples above are:
- The Department of Justice is above the law.
- When the President doesn’t like the laws, he either decrees new ones or shirk his responsibility of chief executive of the nation and instructs his cabinet to not enforce existing laws.
- The Supreme Court no longer sees the Constitution as static and seems to blow in the winds created by the Executive branch.
Barack Obama promised to “fundamentally transform” (oops a buzz phrase slipped out) our nation. He has succeeded. I would never have dreamed of these things happening, even on the night of his inauguration. This is why it is so damn important to be involved in the political process. I feel guilty for not being involved enough. My participation in organizations has been down. I write once a month instead of every day. I have to do more. We have to do more. We cannot let this country be transformed any further. We need to transform this country back. If Obama and the left (that means our Senate, Representative, and local elections too) win this November, we may put ourselves past the point of no return. If we succeed in November, we cannot consider the job done. Progressives took 100 years to make our nation the way it is today. One election will not deter them from trying again. I want my son to grow up in a free nation, not a culture of government dependence. I want a nation that he feels proud to serve and contribute to, not a nation that he is obligated to support.
