They are definitely not cheering for it, but some conservatives and libertarians I ordinarily respect are saying oh, ho hum, it is no big deal if President Barack Obama gets re-elected because - listen up, worriers - we have separation of powers. We have divided government. Both houses of Congress are likely to be Republican after November's election, and they will keep this guy in check.
Excuse me, but have these fine folks paid any attention whatsoever to the past century or so of American history, to the gradually, then dramatically growing power of the executive?
Do they know how administrative agencies are now virtual dictators of much of American life and how a particularly controversial guy can be snuck into bossing one around when Congress is out of Washington? Have they heard of the veto, and how there is little way Republicans can stymie tyrannical acts big and small unless they have numbers no single election will ever give them?
Have they noticed the way in which Obama himself has come increasingly to think of Congress as a bother to be casually swatted away?
I don't say this as a Republican lover. Again and again, I get emails that start off, "All you Republicans ..." and I want to shout back, "Not guilty!" To me, the Republicans are the lesser of two evils and on occasion have been the greater. But minus a Republican president, what will happen when the Supreme Court has a couple of vacancies?
Obama may not be able to squeeze leftist deconstructionists onto the court, but after all the banging, jousting and grandstanding are done, we will have unmistakably progressive justices in a position to someday help take this country down the road to a more Europeanized, overregulated, liberty-shrinking society.
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