Four years ago our Nation heralded in a man who said he would put aside the partisan politics of the past, that a new age of bipartisanship had begun, and that his administration would be the most transparent administration of all time. The media went crazy; people cried at his inaugural address thinking that the world would never be the same.
Fast forward to this last week, which some might call the president's worst week in Washington. Not only has he been dealing with the overhang of the Benghazi whistleblowers appearing before congress, but now he is dealing with two additional scandals: the first being the IRS targeting conservative groups and the second is the AP phone records requests from the Justice Department.
So we have an overreach of power so much that even Jon Stewart couldn't control himself.
Even he said it: "A good government has the power to improve peoples lives and the people have the power to restrain it's excesses."
For the last few years I have not remained silent in my contempt for the current administration. An inexperienced man in power giving too much rope to his subordinates with too little accountability leads heavily down the lane of abuse of power by said subordinates in order to maintain their power and control. If Fast and Furious and Benghazi wasn't enough, we have now added in two additional scandals to the mix to show that in all reality the president is one of two things: a dirty Chicago politician or an ignorant inexperienced leader with no actual control over his administration. I hope for his sake it's the latter, because at least that would mean he wasn't lying as he continues to have his press secretary say that he had no knowledge of these different scandals.The fairytale is over, the shine has faded off of his presidency, and we are left to understand the basic deception of it: that a people wanting a celebrity president got one, who then in turn was really just a politician playing them like any other previous politician. Watch this from the Chicago Tribune:
The deception is over, the curtain has been pulled, and now we see the man who uses power to get what he wants exposed for who he is. He is not a god. He is a man, and a man with power cannot be trusted to any degree.
At his commencement address at The Ohio State University, he stated “You’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as
nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of
all our problems. You should reject these voices. Because
what these suggest is that somehow our brave, creative, unique
experiment in self-rule is just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.”I beg to differ with his opinion on this matter. The cynics are not as concerned with the form of government that has been established - a restricted republic with checks and balances - as they are with the abuses of power that seem to be inherent when one group or individual gains too much power. It seems to be human nature that too much power brings out the worst in men, sometimes the best, but more often than not the worst. As someone once said, "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." It is therefore necessary that we limit this power with checks, including legislative, judicial, and regulatory. When compared with the other two branches of government, the Executive Branch has seen a much broader expansion of powers. This expansion throughout our history has exceeded by far its mandated responsibilities granted by the Constitution.
Our founders when conceiving our constitution were afraid of factions taking over portions or all of our government and oppressing individuals. They gave the government checks and balances, to ensure that even though the government might not be the most efficient, it would have the best shot at restraining tyranny. We must restrain the excessive power of our government, and I believe we need to begin with the executive branch.
