Since When Did The United States Of America Start Operating Under Presidential Fiat?

Since Obama took office, apparently. Somehow, this Democrat has done precisely what our Founders gave their lives to reject: rule by a king’s fiat.

Okay, I just have to ask: when in the hell did Democrats stop being democratic? I know that sounds hyperbolic, but when one looks at this current battle, when a sitting US Senators declares her issue trumps the Constitution (Sen. Boxer), and more, it really begs the question.

Now, I know I can pinpoint 5/31/08 as the day I accepted that the Democratic Party was far from democratic. That was the day they ruled that they could take lawfully cast, and certified votes, from the candidate they didn’t like, and give them to the one they did like. That is precisely what they did with Obama and Clinton. They took from her to give to him to pave his path to the nomination. There was so much before that, but that was the crowning achievement that turned this former Yellow Dog Dem to Independent in one fell swoop.

Since then, it seems the number of items on which the Democrats have overreached have continued, including Obamacare, and culminating with this recent brouhaha that started last week. That would be when religious leaders realized that Obama had issued a decree, to be carried out throughout the land, that would infringe upon the First Amendment, freedom of religion, liberty, and conscience. There was a HUGE outcry, Obama provided what he claimed was a “compromise” (read: shell game), and now the Democrats have gone on the offensive, claiming that this is a Women’s Health Issue! Women MUST be given FREE BIRTH CONTROL!! Catholics hate women! The GOP hates women! And so it has escalated.

It didn’t help when the GOP held a Congressional hearing on this Mandate and its Constitutionality that they only had men in the first round – there are plenty of women clergy around. But the current attack is fostering this whole idea that this is about taking away women’s birth control, rather than the religious liberty issue, which is what it is. Was it stupid? Yes. Women are half the population, and there are plenty of us who are ministers and can address this issue. But it wasn’t just Catholics there – Jews were there, too, discussing the implications of Obama’s fiat.

I might add, the MSM was once again a willing accomplice, displaying incendiary headlines that were inaccurate once one read the article, but one had to read the article, like this one from The Hill, or this one from ABC News, both of which are intended to portray a different reality from the actual hearing. Never mind the Democrats’ grandstanding in walking out.

Wow. Well, Charles Krauthammer has cut through the issues involved with Obama’s modus operandi of making decrees in his recent column. He nails it:

Give him points for cleverness. President Obama’s birth control “accommodation” was as politically successful as it was morally meaningless. It was nothing but an accounting trick that still forces Catholic (and other religious) institutions to provide medical insurance that guarantees free birth control, tubal ligation and morning-after abortifacients — all of which violate church doctrine on the sanctity of life.

The trick is that these birth control/abortion services will supposedly be provided independently and free of charge by the religious institution’s insurance company. But this changes none of the moral calculus. Holy Cross Hospital, for example, is still required by law to engage an insurance company that is required by law to provide these doctrinally proscribed services to all Holy Cross employees.

Before, Obama’s coalition had been split. His birth control mandate was fiercely opposed by such stalwart friends as former Virginia governor Tim Kaine and pastor Rick Warren (Obama’s choice to give the invocation at his inauguration), who declared he would rather go to jail than abide by the regulation. After the “accommodation,” it was the (mostly) Catholic opposition that fractured. The mainstream media then bought the compromise as substantive, and the issue was defused.

A brilliant sleight of hand. But let’s for a moment accept the president on his own terms. Let’s accept his contention that this “accommodation” is a real shift of responsibility to the insurer. Has anyone considered the import of this new mandate? The president of the United States has just ordered private companies to give away for free a service that his own health and human services secretary has repeatedly called a major financial burden.

On what authority? Where does it say that the president can unilaterally order a private company to provide an allegedly free-standing service at no cost to certain select beneficiaries?

This is government by presidential fiat. In Venezuela, that’s done all the time. Perhaps we should call Obama’s “accommodation” Presidential Decree No. 1. [snip] (Click here to read the rest of this excellent review of the issues.)

Krauthammer then goes on to point out the very serious issues with decreeing what companies MUST do, and the other Constitutional issues with Obamacare, and I urge you to read the rest.

Krauthammer says exactly what I was saying to my friends on Facebook last night: the president cannot issue a fiat that violates the Constitution. This whole “women won’t be able to get their FREE birth control” cry is just theater, a gimmick, to keep women in the Democratic fold. We have seen this with the Democrats for YEARS. Previously, it was “Vote Democrat, or Roe v. Wade will end!” Never mind that people like Senate Majority leader Harry Reid is opposed to abortion, or that LOTS of Democrats don’t support abortion. Please do not look behind the curtain. It was the stick used for years and years, and now they have this one.

What astounds me is how, within just ONE week, the Democrats, with the MSM, were able to turn this into a “The GOP hates women” issue. Or that it is solely the Catholic Church that opposes this Mandate from Obama. That is simply not true, but that is precisely how Democrats are framing this issue as The Hill article makes clear.

And that’s the thing: this is purely political machination. The Democrats have set it up as a “Women’s Health Issue” vs. The Constitution, and unfortunately, many, may people are buying what they are selling. Smart, educated people hear this cry and nothing else matters. “Yes, we must have free birth control! It’s FREE! The insurance companies will just GIVE IT TO US.” It is a false dilemma, but it is one being played up big time.

You know who loses? We all do. When the Constitution is under assault from a major party as it is now, when a president thinks he can rule by Fiat, when Amendments can be tossed into the trash because the president says so, we all lose. As I have said, this is a very slippery slope on which we are embarking. And once we start down this path, it will be difficult indeed for us to make it back up…

What do you think? Treat this as an Open Thread, too.