Living in the Twilight Zone

Every day some new headline or soundbite pops up that literally makes me want to beat my head against a wall. A couple weeks ago, it was the president's State of the Union address in which he declared, to thunderous applause, that he was going to bypass Congress whenever and wherever he could and use his pen and his phone to pursue his economic agenda.

Echoing this sentiment and in a show of support, Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee recently went on record by saying that writing up a number of executive orders for the president to sign should be "our number one agenda". No doubt she was one of the ones cheering when Obama announced during the SOTU that he would make her and others like her entirely irrelevant by bypassing Congress this year in his "year of action".

And yet, members of Congress aren't the only ones cheering. Millions of Americans who believe that Congress is hopelessly deadlocked and not doing enough to help businesses create jobs and get the economy chugging along also applaud the words and actions of the president and his Democratic cohorts to legislate by executive order. While Democrats have no problem with this currently with Obama in office, now that they have willingly given this power over to the executive, what will they do when a Republican gets into the White House and wants to do the same thing? Of course they will be crying bloody murder, but once you give over this power, you cannot un-give it. There are no takebacks. You cannot expect it to not be utilized by the next occupier of the White House. And why do you suppose the Republicans in Congress haven't more forcefully opposed this, perhaps by taking action to block these unlawful uses of executive actions? Mayhaps it's because you would be fooling yourself if you believed Republicans won't gladly wield this power to their own advantage the next time one of their own reclaims the high command.

Over the past few years, since I've been "awake", I've noticed an incredible amount of intellectual dishonesty that is rampant not just amongst our legislators but amongst the general public as well. How else can you explain the silence of the left, supposedly the champions of civil liberties, in the face of the complete evisceration of our Bill of Rights from the Obama administration? The conservatives who were cheerleading Bush and his use of torture and the creation of the "Patriot" Act have now begotten a president who claims the power to indefinitely detain and even murder American citizens on the mere suspicion of terrorist activity or associations. When you allow a person of authority, particularly a head of state, unchecked powers, don't be surprised when they use it. And don't expect to rein in their newly found power without a fight.

Now for the latest cringe-worthy soundbite which comes to us courtesy of Rep. Keith Ellison who hilariously intoned that the latest CBO findings in which they project that the 2 million job losses that are expected to come due to Obamacare will, get this, "allow for people to have more free time and be able to cook dinner at home". Ha! This reminds me of a similar claim made by the loony toon Nancy Pelosi who said that the death of the 40 hour work week due to Obamacare's redefining "full-time employment" will free people up to pursue their happiness and follow their passions. What planet do these people live on? This is not freedom for those people who need a steady 40 hour (or more) work week in order to pay for the continually rising prices of everyday items due to the inflation created by the Federal Reserve's crippling monetary policy. Who actually believes this crap that representatives like Ellison and Pelosi try and shove down our throat?

Yup, welcome to the Twilight Zone, where we've now blatantly handed all power over to the executive, where the president possesses the power to assassinate any American anywhere at anytime based upon secret evidence that only he and his team possess, where we now allow American citizens to be indefinitely detained without charges on the mere suspicion of terrorism or being associated with terrorists, and where losing a paying job with benefits now qualifies as freedom from the burdens of an honest day's work and not, rather, further struggle to make ends meet. When will Americans finally wake up? I'm tired of living in the Twilight Zone.