Monday, May 13, 2013

Obama: Nixon Administration Redux


I normally don't like comparing presidential administrations to one another, but this is one I just cannot pass up: Barack Obama is becoming the 21st century edition of Richard Nixon and the imperial presidency.

Don't agree? Well the rundown:

1. Because Nixon didn't respect the authority of Congress in war time matters, the War Powers Resolution was passed into law over presidential veto. President Obama ignored the resolution entirely and relied only on U.N. authorization to topple Qaddafi.

2. Under Nixon's administration there was an actual enemies list of people in the press that was enforced by his attack dogs. President Obama's administration attempted to squeeze Fox News out of its press pool and would have succeeded if not for the other news organizations.

3. Since the creation of the IRS it has been used to target political opponents via audits and paperwork by whomever was in power, but President Nixon championed this by auditing every individual who ever dare oppose or question his administration, or by letting his allies off the hook. President Obama's administration just one upped him: intentionally signaling out and auditing every conservative or tea party associated group the past few years.

But all of the aforementioned counts are basic everyday politics, and wartime power battles, our current President best embodies Richard Nixon by his actions outside of government - never have we seen fiats essentially used to legislate and govern under any administration before, or such a hatred towards whistle blowers and an attack on transparency.

That is what makes the Obama administration the Nixon administration redux: he acts is if he is an imperial who has taken over some faraway land - he can dictate what law he wants, when he wants, without review from the justice system or the legislative branch and no dissent is tolerated within or outside of his ranks.

The only difference is that President Obama hasn't committed any impeachable offenses... Yet.

What say you?

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