Two entries in the “Yes, Tonight Was Fun, But…” column. First up, Here’s Charles Hurt in the Washington Times positing, “America faces most dangerous two years in 150 years:”
If President Obama suffered a “shellacking” in the 2010 elections, then what he endured Tuesday night was nothing short of a vicious gangland beatdown the likes of which have rarely been seen before in the history of electoral politics.
This, of course, is a wonderful and well-deserved outcome. But beware: America now enters the two most dangerous years of her existence — or certainly the most dangerous since the Great Depression and possibly going all the way back to the Civil War.
* * * * * * * * *
President Obama still has two more years left in his final term.
Already, he has demonstrated again and again that he has no regard for the constitution or the legitimacy of laws when they do not suit his agenda. He flaunts his disregard for the constitutional process, dismisses laws he doesn’t like and rewrites others.
He mocks the powers of Congress. The Supreme Court has slapped him down more than any president in recent times. All of this as he tells us he is an expert on constitutional law.
Now come his very explicit threats to pass more illegal and unconstitutional presidential edicts to grant amnesty to illegal aliens already in the United States. This, in turn, will issue invitations for millions more illegals to come streaming across the border.
It will not end at immigration. Unchecked power is addictive.
Disowned by Democrats and made to feel irrelevant in this election, President Obama’s enormous and unjustified ego is deeply wounded. He is frustrated and feels caged, cornered. This is when people like him are most dangerous.
Buoyant Republicans will make an effort to engage him.
But President Obama is not a listener. He is not a negotiator. He is not a learner. He will just take what he wants. It is easier that way.
And while a wounded Obama with nothing to lose is a very dangerous proposition indeed, he’s certainly done plenty of damage already. Which is why Roger L. Simon, our own Maximum Pajamahadeen Emeritus, adds that as great as tonight’s victory was, “Too bad there’s no time to celebrate. We almost lost our country. There’s no time to lose getting it back:”
Depending on whether Barack Obama decides to behave like an adult or not in the face of massive defeat, all Hell can break loose in the next few months. He can subvert Congress and initiate an absurd amnesty program that nobody wants except for perhaps some random aging members of La Raza. Just as bad, or maybe worse — it involves weapons of mass destruction — he can subvert Congress again and sign a deal with the Iranian mullahs that, on latest reports, relies on our good friends the Russians to police the Iranian nuclear program. How insane is that? Ask any Ukrainian.
And that’s only getting started. The litany of possible mischief small and large is endless from Obamacare to accusations of racism (how else could Obama lose?) to that monumental absurdity the “War on Women.” (That one doesn’t seem to be working out too well lately with the Senate filling up with Republican women.)
And then there are the Clintons who have been in their Westchester bunker all night long working the phones while staring at walls of televisions and plotting their way back, speaking of the “War on Women.” There must be another way. It doesn’t matter what to them. Power is all.
So what should Republicans do? Stand up and lead, obviously. Come up with programs and put them through the House and Senate. Do away with Obamacare, either in one gulp or, if that’s not possible, piecemeal.
But they all should make a monumental and immediate outreach to African Americans. No group has been so brutally screwed over by the Democratic Party — and I suspect more than a few of them are beginning to realize it. Republicans should take this opportunity to come up with some fresh ideas and communicate with them, and with Latinos, and Asians, and with women, and break the back of our identity politics that is so reactionary and divisive, so hurtful to the very people it pretends to help.
Roger’s post is titled, “Hooray for the Wave: Now Forget It.” I rarely argue with his advice, but I’m going to delay implementing it until tomorrow; tonight there’s a cigar and a snifter of cognac with my name on them.
Update:
Sen Obama after ’06 Dem takeover: “If Pres Bush is stubborn, refuses to take signals from the election…” http://t.co/OI2LOyuzA7
— Morgen (@morgenr) November 5, 2014
Say, that Sen. Obama seemed like an interesting, and at times sensible guy; whatever happened to him?
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