The American dictatorship

An amazing thing has happened. I'm not certain when this took place, and it remains to be seen if it will be challenged, but it appears we have completely ceased to be a Republic or even a functional Democracy. We are now a full-fledged dictatorship. Don't believe me? Check out this Department of Justice memo. Pay careful attention to the fourth paragraph, in which the Attorney General states:

The President has ... concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the President’s determination.

What's wrong with this? Anyone? Oh, that's right... they haven't taught civics in school for decades, so if you mention "separation of powers" to anyone under the age of 40, you're more likely than not to get a funny look and asked, "You mean separation of church and state?"


As an aside: it's ironic is that the separation of powers is actually in the Constitution. Separation of church and state is not. The latter can only be inferred from the First Amendment, and even then, only in the context of reading the Federalist Papers.

What's wrong is this: the President's job is absolutely not determining whether or not a law is constitutional. His job, as explicitly stated in the Constitution, is to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed", and "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution." He has ZERO authority vested in him by the Constitution to decide which laws he will or will not enforce.

The Congress is solely responsible for creating laws. "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives." Yet this legislative power has been usurped by the office of the Presidency over the last sixty years (particularly by the last three administrations) which has abused the Executive Order to create extra-constitutional de facto law.

The Supreme Court is solely responsible for determining the constitutionality of a law. Now this judicial power has been usurped by a sitting President.

We no longer have separation of powers. We are a dictatorship, pure and simple: a single man can create laws (via Executive Order) and reserves the right to declare existing laws unconstitutional, with no regard to the Supreme Court. The worst of it is that nobody knows or cares.

Oh, some Republicans might care...now... when a Democrat occupies the throne. But whenever a Republican is ruling, Republicans are willfully blind to his serious shortcomings (Bush Sr "New World Order", Bush Jr Patriot Act and TARP). They simply don't care; as long as the candidate has an R after their name, the R-drones fanatically support him. Or her. As Padme observed: "So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause."

It seems Valerie Jarrett really didn't misspeak when she said, "It is important that President-elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one." She was just being honest about their intent to deliver the coup d'grace to the Constitution. The Great Experiment is over. The Republic is dead.



Edit: The piece above is entitled The Forgotten Man by John McNaughton.