An optionless president

Regardless of how cosmetic, political, self-aggrandizing or futile the president's unilateral maneuvers prove to be, they are but symptomatic of how utterly dysfunctional Congress has become. From the NY Times:

With his jobs plan stymied in Congress by Republican opposition, President Obama on Monday will begin a series of executive-branch actions to confront housing, education and other economic problems over the coming months, heralded by a new mantra: "We can’t wait" for lawmakers to act.

That heaving feeling in the pit of one's stomach is alternately inspired by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell or Speaker Boehner and sidekicks. Their sadistic indifference to the immense distress across working-class America provides Obama's propulsion toward the kind of benign, executive dictatorship which Republicans will, no doubt, now indignantly assail.

Here's McConnell, yesterday, on CNN's "State of the Union":

[The White House's] story line is that there must be some villain out there who’s keeping this administration from succeeding.

Earthworms crawl no deeper in the slime. It is perhaps a "story line" but certainly no fable that barring Republican intransigence in Congress, the nation's economy would be faring much better. The Times' story continues:

The "We can’t wait" campaign ... comes after unanimous votes by Senate Republicans in the past week to block the [president's jobs] plan; House Republican leaders have refused to put the measure to a vote.

And Senate and House Republicans have done this ... why? Because of their superior jobs plan? The Washington Post's 'Fact Checker,' Glenn Kessler, labels that little item "ludicrous"; "mostly a mish-mash of previous offered bills, such as that hardy perennial -- a balanced budget amendment to the constitution," which would throw the economy even farther in reverse. Because supply-side economics rendered the past 30 years so splendidly worthier for working Americans than its 30-year antecedent of Keynesianism? Check any graph of general economic performance, ca. 1950-2010; there's a million of them, each depicting a decided slide.  

Or maybe its only because of conservatives' noble adherence to some traditional ideology? Absolute rot. Contemporary conservatives haven't so much as even brushed against authentic conservatism for years. Today's crowd is hopelessly unimpressed by the political equivalent of the caring, protectively prudent oath: "First, do no harm."

No, conservatism today means only cheap shots, cheap politics, cheap obstructionism. Thus, out of frustration, Obama is forced into a strain of imperial presidentialism -- executive orders over congressional lawmaking -- that Republicanism, in its prototypical form of Whiggism, once rather democratically denounced. Doubtless, Republicans will make a grand show of repeating their principled outrage, notwithstanding that they've proffered Obama no choice. 

Comments

[janicket]

And of course the Professional Left will scream just as shrilly that the President's tyrannical power-grab is just as bad as Bush's.

[Susan Zoon]

I say- go for it, Barack! BE the change!
I could write about my disgust for the Rethugs in Congress and the Blue Dog Dems that support them, but what good does that do? It just goes right in to the black hole of bitterness that is the internet political discourse world.
I support Obama- the good, the bad and the ugly.
Be bold, Mr. President!

[Ansel M.]

"I support Obama- the good, the bad, and the ugly. Be bold, Mr. President!"

Amen, Susan!

[S. Holland]

I second wholeheartedly that amen!!!

[nathkatun7]

While I second the Idea of the President trying to do whatever he can through Executive Orders, reality tells me that it won't be enough. Instead, as a citizen, my obligation is to keep pressuring members of Congress to pass AJA.

If Congress fails to act, then it's Congress and not the President who should be held accountable. May be people will now realize that the country will be better off without the just say NO teabag-Republicans dominating Congress. Congress, with the Democratic majority, saved the country from going into a Depression. Congress under Republicans seems hell bent on sending the country back into a Depression; hoping that high unemployment would result in the defeat of President Obama for re-election.

Bottom line is: Republicans would rather destroy the country than see President Obama re-elected. The Irony is that the teabag-Republicans claim to be the real patriots. They hate Obama so much that they would not mind a father or mother being out of work for another year, thus unable to provide for his/her family, so long as that would lead that father or mother to blame President Obama and vote for Republicans. May be we need a new way to characterize teabag-Republicans. The term cynical con artists seems appropriate.