Obama: Cornered, and Dangerous

Eric Cantor is hardly the only lame duck in Washington these days.  Conventional thinking might have it that Barack Obama, whose administration is like most two-termers reaching the point of exhaustion, has become politically impotent, or irrelevant.

The thinking goes that, while Republicans are trying to cash in on his increasingly unpopular and scandal-plagued second term, Democrats have moved on, no longer concerned about the lame duck president’s political viability or even his effectiveness, except to the extent it affects their ability to cling to their senate majority and put Hillary Clinton in the White House in 2016.  Even the establishment media, satisfied that they helped put him over the top twice, has demonstrated a newfound willingness to challenge him now that he is safely ensconced in the oval office a second time.

But it is Obama’s reciprocal lack of concern about the fortunes of anyone but himself and his own agenda that actually makes him more dangerous than ever.  For, as with animals, politicians who are cornered are often the most dangerous.

This president proudly proclaimed his goal of fundamentally transforming America.  More recently, he promised to employ his pen and his phone in the absence of his desired congressional actions.  When you consider his demonstrably imperial presidency – liberal law professor Jonathan Turley said, “Barack Obama is the president Richard Nixon wanted to be” – this all adds up to a clear willingness to do almost anything to achieve the most unpopular items that remain on his hard-left checklist.  Things he could not achieve by fully legal means or by legislation that he will try to accomplish with executive actions via verbal proclamations and the stroke of his pen.

Now, you might well argue that he was more dangerous when he first came to power, given his political capital based on astronomical approval numbers and the utter euphoria on the left and in the establishment media (pardon my redundancy), but given his extremely ambitious statist objectives, he knew he would at least have to satisfy the voters one more time in order to achieve his dream of completing the country’s transition from a constitutional republic to a de facto social democracy.  Not so now.

Certainly, most lame duck presidents have spent their waning days trying to forge legacies, but at least the last two have done so with initiatives that, most would agree, were likely to change the world for the better: Bill Clinton going all-in for mideast peace and George W. Bush with an unprecedented push to eradicate AIDS in Africa.  That is a far cry from what Obama has and will attempt to force down America’s throat.

Exhibit A is the Bowe Bergdahl swap.  Obama did not bother to seek the congressional advice and consent required by law, choosing instead to cite concerns about Bergdahl’s health as the justification to fast-track a deal that has outraged the nation.  It is not unreasonable to believe the release of the five most powerful Taliban commanders at Gitmo will, perversely, help make the case for another of Obama’s unfulfilled promises – closing Gitmo – since the remaining prison population there has now become less threatening.

This week and last have seen a hitherto rare spectacle – the establishment press and a powerful liberal (Dianne Feinstein) strongly critical of the president’s conduct regarding Bergdahl.  Leaving aside that this criticism came at least in part from Sen. Feinstein’s own sense of violated self-interest – deference not given to the Congress = reduction in her power – we have rarely witnessed statements like this from the left since Obama’s first inauguration:

“It comes to us with some surprise and dismay that the transfers went ahead with no consultation, totally not following law, and in an issue with this kind of concern to a committee that bears the oversight responsibility, I think you can see that we’re very dismayed about it .”

Exhibit B is the dumping of immigrant children in Arizona. “Parents in Central America are sending their children to the United States knowing that under President Obama’s deferred action policies, they won’t be sent back home.  Border Patrol resources in Texas are so overwhelmed, hundreds of children have been relocated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Border Patrol Station in Nogales, Arizona for processing.”

Is this because all statewide elected officials in Arizona are Republicans?  With this president and his closest  advisors, and his direct use of the IRS as a political weapon, we would be crazy not to look for an ulterior political motive behind these actions.  “A lot of the agents are pissed just beyond belief because we realize these people, there’s no way they’re going back, they’re going to be let go eventually. They’re just trying to figure out how to do it right now.”  Indeed, the administration has announced it will renew its non-deportation program for the now 560,000 young adult illegal immigrants.  Why send back future Democrats? (perhaps this is Obama’s lovely parting gift to his party).

Exhibit C is last week’s lawless actions by Obama’s EPA, unilaterally adding onerous carbon emissions regulations, end-running congressional rejection of Cap and Trade legislation (when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, no less).  This has the potential to significantly change life for many Americans.  By forcing energy production from relatively inexpensive and widely available coal and natural gas to expensive, pie-in-the-sky ideas about solar and wind farms – the president can shift massive amounts of wealth both from the private sector to the government, and from free marketeers to his $upporters.

These actions regarding the military/national security, immigration and the environment – outside of healthcare, probably the three most controversial policy areas of his presidency – demonstrate that the most fundamental element of the transformation attempted by Barack Obama is from a nation of laws to a nation of men, where the whims of an imperial president supercede constitutional separation of powers designed to limit the concentration of power and require broad consensus for major policy initiatives.

Obama has obviously been no friend to liberty during his reign term in office, but expect his behavior only to worsen as his time in office ticks away.  Obama himself may, may, still have some fleeting interest in appearing “moderate” until the midterms elections are held in November.  But even that is far from certain, and after that he is all but certain to have either the same divided Congress which has rendered him irrelevant, or if projections hold, a Congress openly hostile to his goals and methods.

Republicans alone will not be able to stop him – not without a (somewhat) honest press, and a few Democrats along for the ride.  But even those circumstances are unlikely to be enough to prevent his commitment to close the deal on transformation through any means he chooses.