Obama: Injuries and Usurpations

Image Source: The Daily Caller

One of my left-of-center friends recently posted on Facebook that she “just doesn’t get” the intensity of conservative opposition to President Obama. By way of response, I thought I would assemble a list of the actions taken by the administration that conservatives find objectionable. As I jotted down ideas, it occurred to me that Thomas Jefferson once put together a similar list (As Mr. Limbaugh would say, "I'm referring to the Declaration of Independence, for those of you in Rio Linda."). Anyway, it seemed appropriate to plagiarize shamelessly Mr. Jefferson's style and phrasing, which, after all, are far superior to mine. So here goes…

The history of the current President of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:

He has expended recklessly our public funds without benefit to our people ($800 billion “stimulus”, 28% increase in annual outlays in the first three years), thereby burdening our children with colossal debts and damaged credit ratings (National Debt up 5.6 Trillion, or 53%, in the first three years).

He has imposed burdensome regulations that hinder our trade, sap our industries, and destroy the livelihoods of our people (It’s about jobs, folks! Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, 231,250 pages of regulations published in the Federal Register in the first three years).

He has obstructed enterprises most wholesome and necessary for the public good, including the distribution of essential fuels, the assembly of jet aircraft, and the manufacture of Rock and Roll guitars (Keystone pipeline, Boeing 787, Gibson Guitar).

He has distorted the operation of the free market by the transfer of funds from the Public Treasury to politically connected enterprises for the production of products in excess of consumer demand (Solyndra, A123, Chrysler, General Motors).

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of new officers to harass our people and eat our their substance (I didn’t have to change Jefferson’s words at all on this one! Financial Stability Oversight Council; Office of Financial Research; Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research; task forces on Preventive Services and Community Preventive Services; National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council; Independent Payment Advisory Board; Administration for Community Living).

He has put at risk the health of our people by giving his assent to legislation that will raise medical costs and reduce treatment options, apparently while suffering from the delusion that increasing the demand for a product lowers its costs (Obamacare).

He has appointed officers of the United States who are hostile to our constitutions, inimical to our traditions, and astoundingly ignorant of their own professions (Van Jones, Valerie Jarrett, Elena Kagan, Samantha Power, Alan Kreuger, Ben Bernanke).

He has enabled the murder of law enforcement officials and diplomats of the United States by neglecting measures for their safety and supplying armaments to criminals (Benghazi, Fast and Furious).

He has risked the safety of United States military personnel by delaying strategic decisions, and then, when he made them, providing insufficient resources to carry them out (Afghanistan).

He has damaged the interests of the United States abroad:

by denigrating, during speeches in foreign nations, the moral sense and national vision of the United States of America (“Apology Tour”),

by supporting anti-government demonstrators in a country friendly to the United States (Egypt),

by failing to support anti-government demonstrators in a country hostile to the United States (Iran),

by proposing diplomatic initiatives which, if enacted, would pose an existential threat to an allied nation (the Prime Minister of Israel has said the effect of Obama’s Mideast proposal would be “wiping out Israel’s future as a Jewish state”).

He has undermined the integrity of our electoral system by refusing to prosecute individuals who have intimidated our voters (New Black Panthers case) and by blocking one of the several states from implementing legislation for the purpose of ensuring that only voters may cast votes (South Carolina Voter ID law).

He has encouraged our fellow citizens to report to the Government those of their countrymen who disagree with his policies, a practice closely paralleled in the most barbarous age of Soviet communism (Attention snitches: you may report me by sending e-mail to flag@whitehouse.gov).

He has excited class warfare among us (Osawatomie Speech, tax proposals, attacks on executive compensation), and has endeavored to bring into our public spaces the clueless Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, whose known rule of protest is an undistinguished destruction of all property, hygiene, and logic.

He has violated his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States:

by assenting to laws that assume powers for the Federal Government not enumerated in our Constitution (Obamacare),

by threatening to enact, by his will alone, other laws, without the consent of our legislature (Cap and Trade, Dream Act),

by circumventing, in the appointment of officers, the advice and consent of the Senate, by means of recess appointments at a time when the Senate was not technically in recess (Richard Cordray, Richard Griffin, Sharon Block, Terence Flynn)

by acting in contempt of the Judicial Branch in defying a court order to suspend a policy found by the court to be arbitrary and capricious (Gulf drilling moratorium [Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar]),

by acting in contempt of Congress in permitting one of his officials to withhold documents in a lawful investigation (Fast and Furious),

by usurping, in violation of our laws, the Constitutional authority of the legislature to declare war (the military intervention in Libya without Congressional approval violated the War Powers Act),

by trampling, in violation of the First Amendment, the right of citizens not to pay for products to which they object on religious grounds (Obamacare contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient mandate).

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated insult ("Bitter Clingers," "Enemies," "Revenge," "Racists," "War on Women"). A President whose administration is thus marked by every act which may define an incompetent twit is unfit to govern a free people. Therefore, we the people of the United States do solemnly publish and declare, that Barack Hussein Obama shall be, and ought to be, totally shellacked at the ballot box. And for the support of this declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our time, our campaign donations, and our sacred honor.

P.S. I regret I couldn’t find fault with Obama’s small number of vetoes. That’s too bad, because I really, really wanted to use the phrase “He has prostituted his negative”.

Originally Posted 1/18/12 Revised 11/6/12

Michael Isenberg is the author of Full Asylum, a novel about politics, freedom, and hospital gowns. Check it out on Amazon.com.