Emperor Obama

We were warned. “Who can deny but the president general will be a king
to all intents and purposes, and one of the most dangerous kind too; a king
elected to command a standing army.... The President-
general,
who is to be our king
after this government is established, is vested with powers exceeding those of
the most despotic monarch we know of
in modern times.... I challenge the politicians of the whole continent to find
in any period of history a monarch more absolute....”

That was written by Benjamin Workman under the penname
“Philadelphiensis,” one of the Anti-Federalists who warned in 1787-88 that the
proposed Constitution would centralize power to an appalling degree,
particularly in the executive branch.

Now here’s President Barack Obama defending his unilateral military
intervention in the civil war raging in Libya (emphasis added):

“Confronted by this brutal repression and a looming humanitarian
crisis, I ordered warships into the
Mediterranean. European allies declared their willingness to commit resources
to stop the killing.... [At] my
direction, America led an effort with our allies at the United Nations Security
Council to pass a historic resolution that authorized a no-fly zone to stop the
regime’s attacks from the air, and further authorized all necessary measures to
protect the Libyan people.... We knew that if we wanted — if we waited one more
day — Benghazi, a city nearly the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre
that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of
the world.... I refused to let that
happen. And so nine days ago, after consulting the bipartisan leadership of
Congress, I authorized military
action to stop the killing and enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1973....
[As] President, I refused to wait for
the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.... Of course,
there is no question that Libya — and the world — would be better off with
Qaddafi out of power. I, along with
many other world leaders, have embraced that goal.... The task that I assigned our forces — to protect the
Libyan people from immediate danger, and to establish a no-fly zone — carries
with it a UN mandate and international support.”

You see no reference to a congressional declaration of war or the
Constitution. Philadelphiensis and his compatriots would not have been
surprised. They saw early on that it wouldn’t take much for a president to
become an emperor.

Obama continued: “I’ve made it clear that I will never hesitate to use our military swiftly, decisively, and
unilaterally when necessary to defend our people, our homeland, our allies, and
our core interests.... But let us also remember that for generations, we have
done the hard work of protecting our own people, as well as millions around the globe. We have done so because we
know that our own future is safer, our own future is brighter, if more of
mankind can live with the bright light of freedom and dignity” (emphasis
added).

There in a nutshell is the imperial premise: Our future depends on the
condition of the rest of mankind. Therefore, the president may bomb or invade
anywhere he likes as long as he
believes intervention is feasible. And as long as he can get the U.S.-dominated
NATO and UN Security Council on board. (NATO, incidentally, was never
established for such a purpose.) Obama’s touted “coalition” is cold comfort to
those who realize that freedom and fiscal moderation at home are jeopardized by
a government run amok in the world.

Once upon a time, people actually believed that a president could not
constitutionally commit troops abroad without a declaration of war by Congress.
With some exceptions, that belief held presidents in check for a while. But it
passed away sometime after 1942, and since then presidents have gone to war —
big-time and small — whenever they damn well pleased. Congress has simply been
too timid to assert itself against imperial presidents. After the undeclared
Vietnam war disaster, a War Powers Resolution was passed in an attempt to limit
future presidents, but it was a pale substitute for the war-declaration
requirement — and besides, cowardly Congresses have never pushed to enforce the
resolution.

The Anti-Federalists saw it
coming. We can’t say we weren’t warned.

* Sheldon Richman is senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation
(www.fff.org) and editor of The Freeman magazine.

About CFLive Staff

See Contributors Page https://chaddsfordlive.com/writers/

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...

Comments

comments

This Post Has One Comment

  1. DeVries

    Funny we don’t see any similar problem in Syria!

Leave a Reply