By Rick Manning
“You don’t like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election.”
That was President Barack Obama, commenting on the aftermath of the recent government shutdown and the fight over his signature health care law.
Yet, despite his credentials, Obama’s juvenile take on these issues is an embarrassment to U.S. constitutional law professors everywhere, and reflects a unique lack of understanding of the United States constitutional system of government.
The President should understand that every single House and Senate Republican won election to their office. The House of Representatives has a majority of duly elected Republican legislators. Americans chose divided government in 2012. Obama’s refusal to acknowledge this fact is at the heart of his unwillingness to be part of the solution in D.C. and does a disservice to the nation.
Elected Senators and House members have every right and indeed a responsibility to represent their constituents’ interests, and for this president to say otherwise underscores his apparent misunderstanding of how our government system works.
Unfortunately, Obama’s imperial attitude revealed in this arrogant victory lap should come as no surprise given the statement attributed to him by the New York Times reported in 2011, “it would be so much easier to be the president of China.”
It is a shame that Obama doesn’t appreciate America’s unique and brilliant republican form of government designed to protect minority rights while preserving majority rule. America owes a debt of gratitude to members of Congress like Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and Representative Tom Graves, who chose to lawfully and constitutionally fight the expansion of federal government power and reject the ‘Do what I tell you’ model advocated by the current occupant of the White House.
Perhaps Obama should crack open those dusty unopened constitutional law books and do a quick review of our nation’s representative form of government.
Rick Manning is the Vice President of Public Policy & Communications for Americans for Limited Government.
