Obama ignores Constitution

Delegates representing the 13 American colonies met in Philadelphia in 1787 to draft a constitutional framework for the governance of a new republic; consisting at the outset of those colonies reconstituted as sovereign states. The new Constitution authorized establishment of an overarching federal government, granting it authority to perform certain limited useful functions as defined in Article 1, Section 8. Contrary to the opinion of some (e.g., July 7 contributor Lee Freese), this new federal government was not empowered to exercise dominion and control over the member states, or to usurp their constitutional prerogatives.

However, it seems quite clear that President Barack Obama, in his pursuit of a fundamental transformation of the United States of America, will abandon the federated republic as an organizing principle. That model is not relevant to a unitary republic, in which formerly sovereign member states are relegated to the status of provinces ruled by the arbitrary edicts of a socialist autocrat imposed through czars (administrative department heads) personally appointed by him and accountable solely to him.

We have seen already that with few qualms Obama arbitrarily bypasses our Constitution as well as the established process of deliberative legislative debate, and often also the Cabinet department heads.

Leonard C. Johnson

Moscow, Idaho