In politics, if you don’t like the rules, you ignore them. This philosophy only works if you are big enough and powerful enough to get away with it. I have some recent examples.
Shoot First Ask Questions Later
The Guardian comments Obama’s Legal Rationale for Isis Strikes: Shoot First, ask Congress Later.
For expanded Isis strikes, president relies on legal authority he disavowed only a year ago. Obama said he would welcome congressional support but framed it as optional, save for the authorisations and the $500m he wants to use the US military to train Syrian rebels.
Yet one of the main authorities Obama is relying on for avoiding Congress is the 2001 wellspring of the war on terrorism he advocated repealing only last year, a document known as the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) that few think actually applies to Isis.
Taken together with the congressional leadership’s shrug, Obama has stripped the veneer off a contemporary fact of American national security: presidents make war on their own, and congresses acquiesce.
The constitution envisions the exact opposite circumstance.
More Obama Examples
Changes on the fly to Obamacare? Hey, why not? Who is going to stop him?
Immigration rule changes? Why not?
It matters not that Obama would be overstepping his bounds in a matter that should be left to Congress. It matters not that Only 26% in Favor of Obama’s Amnesty Plan for Illegal Immigrants.
Republicans and Democrats Alike
It’s not just Obama. Bush and Cheney wanted a war with Iraq so they lied to get one. Some $3 trillion later, many warmongering fools still think Bush was correct. Yet, we are now fighting in Iraq for the third time as a result.
FDR Burns Crop, Confiscates Gold
FDR confiscated everyone’s gold and burned farmers’ crops, two of many blatantly illegal, even treasonous acts by FDR. He is revered by Keynesian economists for breaking the law because he got away with it and they believe it worked. (It didn’t).
End analysis says that if presidents think they can get away with it, they do what they want. Constitution be damned.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
