What can ordinary Americans do when a large number of politicians are corrupt and an even larger portion of the national political leadership is complicit in a cover-up of that corruption?
Do we petition those leaders to investigate and punish themselves?
George Will, for whom I have great respect as a commentator, recently wrote a scholarly, but an unintentionally satirical article entitled “Is Obama above the law?” about his violation of the War Powers Act in regard to the Libyan War.
Mr. Will ended his commentary with what must have been deliberate satire:
“‘No president,’ says Sen. John McCain, ‘has ever recognized the constitutionality of the War Powers Act, and neither do I. So I don’t feel bound by any deadline.’ Oh? No law is actually a law if presidents and senators do not “recognize” it? Now, there is an interesting alternative to judicial review, and an indicator of how executive aggrandizement and legislative dereliction of duty degrade the rule of law.”
The evident bewilderment displayed by Will is prima facie evidence of the depth of denial now prevalent in
It is an equivalent to writing an article after the
The arrogance of the permanent political class is both shocking and out of control.
Having been born in
For me, the uncertainty about McCain’s ineligibility was resolved by the bogus, non-binding Senate Resolution 511, co-sponsored by Obama, which declared McCain a “natural born citizen” and, therefore, eligible for the Presidency.
The fact that Congress has no authority to do such a thing was apparently completely irrelevant to that majestic body. Maybe I’m a cynic, but it sounds to me like just another crooked, backroom deal.
If McCain and Obama both didn’t need the “cover”, why go through that elaborate Senate charade?
Andrew Napolitano once asked South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, where in the Constitution it authorizes the federal government to regulate the delivery of health care.
Clyburn replied: “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says that the federal government has anything to do with most of the stuff we do.” Then he shot back: “How about [you] show me where in the Constitution it prohibits the federal government from doing this?”
Rep. Clyburn, like many in Congress, has conveniently forgotten that, according to the Constitution, the federal government has only specific enumerated powers.
As Mr. Napolitano correctly noted, Congress has gone from upholding the Constitution to evading it.
Basically, the permanent political class is saying to the American people: “we’ll do whatever we want and you prove that we can’t do it.”
That is exactly how Barack Obama has been operating and why no one in
Our political royals want the option of evading the Constitution or any law they deem inconvenient, like, most recently, what appears to be Congressional insider stock trading and the distribution of Obamacare waivers as political favors.
If the people at the highest levels of government believe that they can, whenever they wish, commit law evasion, what can ordinary citizens do?
We can hope that the cover-up surrounding Obama’s alleged crimes begins to unravel and honest, courageous and patriotic leaders step forward to root out those complicit, eliminate the endemic corruption and guide the country back on the right course.
Otherwise, left with no alternatives, open dissent will grow and chaos will ensue.
Keep your powder dry.