A Fork In the Road

The country is rapidly coming to a fork in the road. Both choices are fraught with danger. Of course, I mean the election. This election is more about Obama than it is Romney. Take the left fork and Obama wins. Take the right fork and Obama loses. That is the way that I, and I suspect, and many others look at it.

If the country should take the left fork, democracy as we have known and loved it is a thing of the past. Over the past four years Obama has tried and had some degree of success at making the congress and the Supreme Court irrelevant. He runs the country through regulation and presidential edict. He has an Attorney General that aids and abets in this process. His department heads do his bidding without question. He ignores his cabinet and his gatekeepers isolate him from unwanted communication. He spends most of his time golfing, campaigning, fund raising, and vacationing rather than sitting in the Whitehouse doing the job for which he was hired. He is truly an imperial president who has surrounded himself with like thinking ideologs. He respects no limits now. That will not improve if he is re-elected.

If he is re-elected I would not be shocked to see him attempt to grab even more power ala Hugo Chavez. His ego is so unlimited that I'm sure he goes off to sleep every night thinking that he is doing the best thing not only for the United States but for the world. Look at how he just lectured the European heads of state. Telling them how they should run their economies when his own is an absolute disaster. His ego is his shield and his buckler against criticism. Why aim for perfection when you have already achieved it.

The right fork also has risks. First and least bad is the damage that a lame duck president can do between the election and the swearing in of the new president. Especially a president that has taken on to himself almost limitless power. He has the power of the pardon. Remember some of the pardons issued by the Clinton administration. His department heads can flood industry with sweeping regulations that will take years to unravel. Worst of all he still has the power of the presidential edict. Remember how Carter gave the Panama Canal back to Panama.

But my worst fear is the possibility of declaring a presidential takeover of the country in the style of, or perhaps as, martial law. Over the past year he has put the pieces in place that would allow him to take over the whole economy of the United States in an emergency. Such an emergency could be real. But it could also be created. You don't buy a tool unless you plan to use it. Obama has that tool. The first thing most people would think is "he would never be allowed to do this". My response is, who would stop him. No one in the world wields more power than the American president. He is Commander in Chief of the military, he is the chief law inforcement officer and his next level of command is made up of all his political minions. Under those circumstances he could conceivably send congress home and shut down the supreme court. Do I expect this? Honestly, no. But I still recognize the possibility.

As a country we must take the right fork. But it may not be a smooth ride.