Obama’s Chicago Presidency

What you can do if you don’t care what anybody says.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

 

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29 thoughts on “Obama’s Chicago Presidency

  1. Victor, you point out the many points of the Obama presidency, and I agree. You should also point out that the Republicans or conservatives or democrats, , stand by and let it happen. What ever happened to impeachment? His opponents are “just as bad” as they sit by and do nothing,except complain,when they have the power to act.
    Why?, because they are feeding at the same trough.

    1. Mr. Hanson’s focus was clear. It’s important not to spread yourself so thin & Obama’s overreach has nothing to do with the GOP. Nothing to do with it whatsoever.

    2. Why doesn’t Congress impeach Obama? I’m sure you could get well over the required 2/3’s of Republicans to convict, but without significant support from the Democrats, it will never happen and worse they’ll be painted by the Obama poodle media as racist and trying to “reverse an election”.

      Don’t blame the Republicans. The Democrats long ago sold their soul to this traitor.

  2. Spot on brilliant Prof Hanson. The most concise and cogent analysis of the thug regime I’ve seen. Thank you.

  3. I think you’re forgetting one thing, however.

    This “in your face/I don’t give a crap” approach by our President can backfire big-time as in the case of telling Senator Cruz “up yours” following his sterling filibuster of Obamacare by initiating his Obamacare website, knowing full well it wasn’t ready. This “anger mistake” by Obama resulted in exposing to all Americans all the lies he told in the process of getting it passed which crashed his approval rating that has never recovered .

    He’s doing the same thing again with his stiffing the Israeli PM & the Congress on Iran. The result wiil be a veto proof bill which is now coming his way that will severely curtail his ability to define our countries Iranian policy and limit its execution.

  4. “What are you going to do about it?” I’ve been reading this stuff for at least a couple of years. Don’t you have a vaunted checks-and-balances system that prevents this?

  5. “” for the first time in history, California governor orders mandatory water cuts amid unprecedented,dangerous situation,”” from zero hedge. The Jerry Brown way, invite everyone in and by the way, here’s your cup of drinkable sewage water.

  6. Good points that remind me of the old saying about ‘fool me once…..fool me twice…..’ No need to guess what that says about the voters who elected him for the second time. And they might vote again in the next election!

  7. The obvious solution to Obama and his gang is the same solution that has been used for millennia. I’m surprised that everyone is afraid to admit or accept it. It has been euphemistically referred to as workplace violence by Obama and his minions.

  8. Across the administration, they piss on us and ask “Isn’t the rain refreshing?”

    The point is to subjugate, to humiliate, to rub our noses in their power. They get their sadistic rocks off by violating others.

    The point, the thrill, is to abuse and gloat “What you gonna do about it?”

    “Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”

    ― George Orwell, 1984

  9. Hubris is not an impeachable offense. Mr. Obama remains “untouchable” as long as the accusation of racism is as good as being convicted of racism. He and his administration can deflect any criticism by accusation and innuendo alone.

  10. Thank you, Professor H. At least I have some psychic comfort from hearing you voice what I feel like I’m watching happen before my own eyes. It feels like the bricks of tyranny are being baked in the oven right now and it’s only a matter of time before the walls go up, unfortunately. I’ve got to pray more!

  11. Obama will do what he wants and the country be dammed. The Republicans are so paralyzed with fear of being call, “racist, sexist, bigots and homophobes” they have been rendered impotent and really have no way of stopping him.

    I wouldn’t put it past Obama to suspend the 2016 elections, telling us that we need him more than ever while throwing in….”it’s the right thing to do!” Unfortunately, with the press being nothing more than ‘State Controlled Media, they would most likely happily go along with him.

    1. This is the question that surprisingly few ask, and it’s the only question that matters.

      How do we fight back against the unaccountable apparatchik state and the Imperial Dear Leaders at the top?

  12. Excellent analysis. I, however, believe that Obama does what he does in a planned, calculated and preconceived program to damage and if possible destroy America which he hates deeply. Unfortunatly, he is
    acheiving his malignant goals with impunity with the help of an obeisant media. Only impeachment will prevent further damage to our society.

  13. If anything is possible, what does he expect will come of him, once he no longer holds the wheels of power? Does he expect they will always be held by him, or that his own people he has burned will protect him, or won’t have their own bones to pick with him?

    Chicago pols may fly high when they are king, but they always seem to end up ruined or jailed by the time the party is over. Perhaps he just does not care?

  14. This over reach is possible because of:

    1. A lack of courage and conviction in our elected officials to stand for the rule of law and use their constitutional powers to obstruct and reign in the Executive branch. I cannot call our elected officials leaders as I would not follow anyone whose convictions were as firm as the shifting wind.

    2. A complicit and complacent media which does not act on behalf of the citizenry, but instead acts as a propagandist arm of the Obama administration. Our 5th estate is largely an echo chamber for the The Great and Powerful O’s pronouncements.

    3. A distracted, ambivalent, and self obsessed citizenry. In the end the real fault lies with us, the citizens of the United States. We elected these officials and this paper Caesar twice. They reflect, sadly, a moral weakness and ambivalence endemic in the citizens of our country.

    If we expect more of ourselves and of one another, then we can begin to expect more of our officials and change our country.

  15. Hillary withholds and destroys official government emails, continuing the gradual shift away from ours being a government based on the rule of law..

  16. “” top 10 weird facts about California’s drought “”, from breitbart. Drowning in mindless bureaucrats.

  17. Once again, fault lies with the American media. Without their enabling, Obama would never get away with his malicious and illegal actions.

  18. VDH,

    Throughout his political career, Obama has carried two banners or marks of socialism and its confinments. You are correct that he is the archietect of social strife in reference with Iran. Imperalism and less diplomacy would be better served by our country than socialism. The United States would be better served by a President that practiced many of the foundations and superstructures of Empire that were erected. Trade and foreign policy must follow the American flag. President Obama is not the poet of American self-confidence. A world where dipolomacy did not exist and Imperalism was popular made our country great. We will eventually have to fight a war with Iran as we did with Iraq, and it would be better to take small segments of countries in the Middle East. England’s old empire saw the merits of trade expansion that would benefit humanity, and the Empire, as did Greece and Rome. The United States must get back to a strong leader and leadership that brings world-dominance, and a “place in the sun….” For Obama dialect not force is not right in his dominant factors or wishful thinking in Iran. President Obama continues to neglect the fact that he still holds the reigns of the strongest nation in the world. Under President Obama nationlism seems dead. The United States hold’s no supremacy. The bulk of the middle-class has no committment to nationalism or Obama’s lack of foreign policy. He certainly is not at the Pantheon of empire-building.
    Under Obama Isis continues to challenge the United States position in which Obama does little or nothing. The United States foes and enemies mean to challenge our world position in America, but Obama does nothing but practice diplomatic policy. The two main streams of Obama’s plan is step back and do nothing. His policy is a forced policy of diplomacy that is one of peace, not war on terror, of internal organization and not of outward expansion that could help keep the balance of power in the middle east with vested interest by the United States . The deteroation of the United States is sad to see under Mr. Obama. Dipolomacy is not the only way that the United States can cope with nuclear threats by other countries. Military force is still the strongest and the best way. Iran has no good will toward the United States, and Barack is a foul for thinking otherwise. International cooperation is really needed. In the Grey, really armaments make for more security than peace talks or treaties. Obama is insecure in his beliefs on dipolomacy and it is easy to see his thoughts and dealings of weak leadership the kind that mimics the United Nations. Iran and the United States will never really iron out their differences. Nuclear weapons is their existence. Just as they are our existence and they still exist in our country. It is existence that is expansion to them and existence to us. Wars in the Middle East should see the United States going back to the days of imperialism and expansion, now with diplomacy that does nothing the roots of American Supremacy has been lost. Obama has no clear direction, as he thinks that he has made reasonable efforts to turn nuclear arms aside perhaps it is invitable that in the process he may start World War III with his diplomacy and give Isis who is funded by Iran the ability to fling more at the United States. The practice of appeasement and diplomacy is the cowardly act that President Obama keeps exercising. It was this mentality that caused the Rise of the Nazi Regime and World War II. Obama’s removal of the Churchill bust is symbolic for his poor leadership and his lack of statesmanship…..
    I have also stubbled upon some reasearch on Patton that has promoted short work by me on if he was Schizophrenic. I enjoy your writtings on Patton. Best to you,
    jwc
    Caruthers, California 2015

  19. Dr Hanson….do you think theres a point where we will stop talking, waxing eloquent, and impressing with observations, roll up our sleeves and start kicking somebody’s ass?
    I’ve been hanging on your words for over ten years and the number of times I’ve disagreed with you I could count on one hand…but we’re still being bulldozed under.

  20. I think the real questions are these: Can the US survive another 2 years as a constitutional republic when its president so openly and so brazenly violates the Constitution daily? And even if we believe that it can, has Obama created such a strong precedent that any future president will resort to bypassing the Constitution whenever he/she sees not constitutional way to impose his/her will? In other words, has Obama demonstrated that the Constitution, as it stands, is flawed as it does not provide the necessary balance to Executive overreach when the legislative bodies are complicit with the President’s disregard for the Law?

  21. The factor enabling Obama’s tyranny is the lack of an opposition party. The GOP is fully complicit in the depravity, having sold its soul to the Chamber Of Commerce in exchange for mountains of cash. The Republican Congress is nothing more than a corporate lobbying organization, indifferent to everything except lavishing its benefactors with corporate welfare. The miscreant residing in the Oval Office thrives due to the collaboration of the whores on Capitol Hill.

    The American experiment has come full circle, all the way back to taxation without representation. And with Gallup showing that half the public approves of Obama’s fascism, the entropy will only accelerate.

  22. I listened to a Chicago political radio show last weekend, for about an hour. I didn’t hear one inference about “Americans” just an hour of talking about black vote v. Mexican vote, Mexican vote v. Puerto Rican vote, White v. all vote, ad nauseum. It was all they managed to conjure up in their brains, except Rahm was for Wall St. and that his Mexican socialist opponent was “for the people”. Intellectual midgets.
    It reinforced my conviction that Progressivism and modern liberalism is tribalism and for the balkanization of nations. Obama is perfectly of this Chicago mold, and has shown not much more than pettiness and infantile governance. They also praised Obama that he was “working with Iran” and that any means of getting peace with Iran was the utmost, never even entertaining the question of appeasement brought up by the radio host (it immediately cut to break without a mention of it following the break)

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