The Time has Come

Evidently, Obama has come to disdain the legislative process. The difficult and complex process of drafting law, and the negotiations necessary for it's passage, were condemned by Obama in his health care speech as "games" and "bickering." He demands action, and he demands results. Not just any results though; but the results he wants. His strategy seems to be to set himself apart from, and perhaps even above the government and pose as some sort of champion fighting on behalf of the beleaguered populace suffering under the indifference of petty and selfish rulers. The suffering of the people grows as burghers, councils, and princes haggle and contest prerogatives, jurisdictions, and perks. A champion is sought and finally found to relieve the suffering and do what needs be done. Obama would be that champion.

Opposition to Obama's health care plan is frequently portrayed as motivated by pettiness, partisanship and ideology carried out under spite. What compassionate, reasoned person would possibly oppose such a good and noble plan as to extend health care to those who need it? Only the wicked and the ignorant could oppose the laudable plan of providing health care to those unable (and in some cases, unwilling) to obtain it. While Obama seeks to enlighten those who oppose his plan out of ignorance through his many speeches and press releases, he lashes out at those who oppose him out of "partisanship." He scolds and harangues those who oppose his plan for political reasons, but demonstrates his nobility and high mindedness by asserting his patience and willingness to work with those willing to work with him.

But his patience has limits. If Congress will not give him what he wants, or rather, as he claims, what the people want, he will seek to bully it in the eyes of the public until it yields. It has been argued that the obeisance of congress to "special interests" should not be allowed to frustrate the great calling of national health care. Under the rhetoric of those clamoring for national health care, Congress is increasingly being portrayed as weak and venial. This serves to enhance the view of the president as the one person who can be trusted to do what is right and necessary for the country.

I am concerned as to what lengths Obama is willing to go to achieve his ambition. Many times in history, kings and consuls have been frustrated by the limits to their powers presented by legislatures and laws. And many times in history have those kings and consuls, when their ambitions were thwarted by senates or councils, taken their frustration to the public where the pettiness and lack of vision on the part of those that opposed them was condemned. I do not mean to compare Obama to a king or an emperor. The problem lay more with the office and what people have come to demand of it than whomever happens to be in it. The more that is demanded from the office, the more power it will assume to meet those demands. The more ambitious the man in that office, the more readily will power be accumulated. The more power that is accumulated, the greater the demands made upon the office. The greater the demands, the more power that will be needed to satisfy those demands; and on and on it goes until the office becomes the lodestar of government.

If Obama truly sees the legislative process as a "game," we should all be troubled. Drafting and enacting law is not a game. It is a difficult and complex process in which many interests and objectives must be weighed and balanced. Enacting a law is not supposed to be easy. It is supposed to be difficult and we should be thankful it is. The more difficult it is to pass a law, and more time required for it's passage, the more confident we can be that that law has been thought through and has a reasonable chance of accomplishing what it was enacted to do. Perhaps more importantly, we can be a little more confident that the need which engendered the law is a truly a need that can be redressed by law.