"And Down!....It's Over....All Over for El Presidente."
Posted on 11/18/2014 10:14:39 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
It’s hard to overstate how irresponsible President Obama would be to go forward, as he almost surely will, with his sweeping executive order on amnesty. Ross Douthat of the New York Times has written a fine column on why doing so would be, in his words, a “disgrace.” What the president is on the verge of doing would do tremendous, long-term damage to our political culture and our constitutional order. It would set a dangerous precedent. And it would be an act of extraordinary selfishness.
By now none of this should surprise us. Yet on some level it’s hard to believe an American president would do something that is, as a friend of mine puts it, “constitutionally unconscionable”–and so at odds with what Obama himself has said repeatedly. Yet we are where we are, and Republicans need to prepare to respond to the president’s provocations.
What to do?
Some of the same people who embraced the stratagem that led to the government shutdown in 2013–they thought it would be a marvelous, can’t-miss, the-nation-will-rally-to-our-side idea–are eager to do the same thing again. The problem, of course, is that the government shutdown was a failure, for reasons I sketched out here. It didn’t achieve its purpose (repealing the Affordable Care Act), the public hated the shutdown, and by an overwhelming number Americans blamed Republicans for it. We know as an empirical fact that the GOP badly hurt its reputation with the public, and it took time to repair it. It doesn’t help that the same people who were so sure of the Ted Cruz-led gambit now refuse to admit it turned out much different, and much worse, they they said it would. In fact, some of them are even claiming it worked, which is simply silly.
That said, I’m not in principle opposed to creating a series of showdowns over funding the government to try to force the president to back down on his expected plan to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants (just as I wasn’t opposed to it as a means to defund the Affordable Care Act). The issue for me is one of efficacy and prudence. Will it work–or will it backfire? Will it help strengthen the conservative cause or set it back? Will Mr. Obama be forced to back down, or will he emerge stronger and Republicans weaker?
The issue has nothing to do with how much one opposes ObamaCare or is troubled by the president’s unconstitutional actions related to illegal immigrants. The most vocal advocates for government shutdowns often frame this as if they’re strongly opposed to the president’s agenda whereas those who are wary of the shutdown are not. That’s simply not the case. The difference has to do with tactics, not with the end goals. (Representative Paul Ryan thought the steps Republicans took that eventually led to the shutdown were unwise, and he’s done far more than almost anyone you can name to undo ObamaCare and advance a conservative governing agenda.) The mistake is to assume that simply because you support a particular approach the rest of America will, too; that because you think the nation should see things just as you do means it will.
Because I believe that what the president is about to do is egregious–constitutionally and institutionally, as an aggressive attack on the role of Congress and the separation of powers–I’m open to all sorts of recourses. Certainly Republicans in Congress need to respond in some manner. Those advocating a government shutdown aren’t being moronic or irresponsible; they want to protect our constitutional form of government. But neither are those who are warning against a shutdown being weak, impotent, or cowardly. It’s a matter on which intelligent people can disagree.
If you believe as I do that a government shutdown would in the end hurt more than help the conservative cause–that it simply won’t achieve its aim and it will cause collateral damage in the process–the obvious thing to do is to shift the fight onto terrain that is more favorable to the GOP. Republicans should therefore amass all the actions at their disposal to inflict maximum damage on Mr. Obama while not walking into his government shutdown trap. I wonder, for example, whether Republicans might simply refuse to act on the president’s judicial and Cabinet nominees unless and until he undoes his (forthcoming) executive action. Can similar steps be taken on a range of other issues? Can Republicans basically hit the “off” switch when it comes to the normal procedures and cooperation that takes place between a president and Congress, regardless of which party is in control?
It does strike me that we are facing an exceptional situation; that the president is inviting this needless confrontation and that he needs to pay quite a high price for it. It won’t be as high as many of us wish, but we have to adjust around that fact. The challenge for conservatives is to act in ways that are wise and realistic; that are guided not by fury but by clear thinking; and that ultimately persuade people to our point of view. We need calm, sober, intelligent, and enlightened individuals who can advance the arguments for constitutionalism and the rule of law. Because right now we have a president who is subverting both.
Paul Ryan mention in this article.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, thisi Wisconsin interest ping list.
DEFUND HIM COMPLETELY
MAKE IT LOOK LIKE HE IS SITTING ON A CORNER TWIDDLING HIS THUMBS
What about the EPA and all those other oppressive “rules” that are not made by Congress?
“Some of the same people who embraced the stratagem that led to the government shutdown in 2013–they thought it would be a marvelous, can’t-miss, the-nation-will-rally-to-our-side idea–are eager to do the same thing again. The problem, of course, is that the government shutdown was a failure, for reasons I sketched out here.”
If you consider failure to be landslide victory and the most Republican office holders across the nation in the last 80 years, the, yeah, it was quite a failure.
#GOPeDelusion
Accelerate the swearing in process.
Don’t shut down the Gov, just stop the funding for Congress and their staff as well as the President & VP and their staff.
Number 1: Stop caring about what blacks feel, say, do when we criticize him.
Number 2: Start calling him a degenerate liar every chance we get. Joe Wilson was right!
Number 3: Vote no on anything he wants to do or pass. Kill his nominations, kill his budgets and cut off his financial knees.
Number 4: CNN, MSNBC and the three-letters do not matter one bit anymore. They are for elitist ideologues and idiots in general who will NEVER side with you.
Can you say Impeachment? Sure you can, unless you are a spineless Republican House Speaker.
” (Representative Paul Ryan thought the steps Republicans took that eventually led to the shutdown were unwise, and he’s done far more than almost anyone you can name to undo ObamaCare and advance a conservative governing agenda.) “
LMAO!!!!
IMPEACH the most lying, anti American. POTUS we have ever seen!
Exactly, whatever it takes they have to remove this guy ASAP. Make deals with the Democraps to vote for impeachment, WHATEVER it takes because NOTHING is more important than getting this guy out of office NOW. We got ALLLLL of 2015 and ALL of 2016 left to go with this idiot in office and God knows what else he is going to do. People forget that right now Iran is *this* close to getting their hands on nukes, and guess who is getting those nukes once they do? This is nuts! That he has been allowed to stay this long in office is absolutely disgusting, look at the middle east, look how close ISIS is to taking over Iraq, this is absolute insanity. WW3 nuke style is going to break out in the Middle east, what do liberals think radioactive fallout is going to do to the environment? Do they have ANY idea how it’s going to absolutely obliterate the world economy? And everybody is just standing around going “Duh duh duh duh...oh let’s focus on immigration, let’s focus on healthcare..” FORGET ALL THAT! THIS GUY HAVE TO GO NOW!! ASAP Put a freakin’ mannequin in his place, who cares just get this jackass out out out OUT!
Nuke him. Shut the thing down and start screaming bloody murder. The media will still try to spike the story but it's something. The alternative is to let him alter the entire structure of government to grant himself power. I'd prefer a shutdown.
The first step should be to reinstate the debt ceiling, prohibit the Fed from issuing any new money, and balance the budget. Do that, and Obama won’t want to be President any more.
In most countries where an elected president tries to take this much political power for himself, the Army removes him. Honduras is a recent example.
"And Down!....It's Over....All Over for El Presidente."
THE BIG LIE
“The problem, of course, is that the government shutdown was a failure, for reasons I sketched out here. It didn’t achieve its purpose (repealing the Affordable Care Act), the public hated the shutdown, and by an overwhelming number Americans blamed Republicans for it.”
This is why the Republicans Were given a MAJORITY, to do Precisely that!! SHUT IT DOWN
How? Communists Democrats in the Senate control an overturn of a veto by King Obama. We have nothing except a lot of crying. And using defund, what a joke. The next two years will be hell and if we do not get the Presidency in 2016 nothing will stop the future hell. Time to get real.
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