Tiggs, on 22 January 2013 - 09:01 AM, said:
Unless someone can [size=4]actually point to anything that is unconstitutional in the President's executive orders, then I'd say that it's fairly obvious that the entire "Obama's a king / Impeach him" argument is pretty much dead on arrival, given that it hinges on unconstitutionality.
I don't, however, see anything in the executive orders that I'd classify as such.
Let's look out the windshield when we're going forward not the rear view mirror.
Defending liberty is about stopping the infringement before it happens, not after. We've got 23 orders from the President about guns that our derelict Congress in all likelihood wouldn't have been able to pass and they arguably do smack of legislation when they could have just as easily been introduced in a Bill from the House or Senate and voted on by the representatives of our people, not just the partisans who support every steaming turd that Obama comes up with, and not just the majority either. I think it's safe to assume that Obama knows he can't get his orders done through the legislature so he's shirking them and doing it himself. Asking people who are defending the Constitution where infringement already is doesn't get the point. It hasn't even been legally argued yet what smacks like legislation and what doesn't, but it should be and will be thanks to good statesmen like Rand Paul. No this isn't some simple minded in-and-out process that's already been decided, just because Congress is so derelict in its duty as Rand Paul pointed out. We're not going to satiate anyone's need for instant gratification on these fundamental legal matters. We are going to debate this behavior in this country in the weeks and months ahead, whether there's an executive order hand-crafted by Obama that's attached to it or not. It's going to be a shame if we need the Congress to clean up after the President for doing what they wouldn't have been able to agree to. It's more likely that Obama's legal oversteps will be slapped down in court. Maybe it's hard for some people to understand how wrong it is when a President does something unilaterally that the rest of the government couldn't have agreed on for whatever the reason, but it provides an honest exercise in upholding the separation of powers whether we can appreciate it or not.
And yes if someone comes up with anything that is unconstitutional in Obama's administration, that would be grounds for legal action against him. Like banning guns that people suddenly don't have the right to bear anymore. If someone doesn't think that's infringement, I don't know what pipe they're smoking but they can keep it to themselves. The Constitution doesn't tell you what kind of guns we're allowed and what kind we're not. Problem? Then obey the rule of law and amend it. There's a lot of rich targets to choose from here. Unconstitutionality like Libya. Like the Patriot Act. Like the NDAA. We have a very clear process for going to war in this country. I don't care to hear another change of subject to some other President, at some other time, doing some other thing, to compare it to Obama today because these rhetorical political games don't matter. Comparing factoids between Presidents doesn't provide a valid reason not to debate the Constitutionality of our government. We've been plagued by abusive Presidents for decades now and there's no better time than the present to take the power back from these unilateral wannabes.