Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.- C. S. Lewis

On May 5, 2013 U.S. President Barack Obama gave the commencement address to the graduating class of The Ohio State University at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.

Here is an excerpt:

Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.

We have never been a people who place all our faith in government to solve our problems. We shouldn’t want to. But we don’t think the government is the source of all our problems, either. Because we understand that this democracy is ours. And as citizens, we understand that it’s not about what America can do for us, it’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but absolutely necessary work of self-government. And class of 2013, you have to be involved in that process. 

In other words,

Who are you gonna believe? Me…or your lyin’ eyes?

I wrote earlier this week about President Obama announcing that if Congress would not “work with him” (i.e., do things his way) , he would go around them and rule by diktat…err…Executive Orders.

You know what? I’ve got a phone and I’ve got a pen, and all I need to do is a bunch of executive orders and a bunch of executive actions, and I can take care of the it. I can take care of the inequality. I can take care of the unfairness. I don’t need Congress! I’m tired of waiting on Congress; I’m just gonna go do it.”

Well…yesterday, he met with Senate Democrats and gave them the same message.

News.yahoo.com reports that

President Barack Obama has told Senate Democrats he plans to use his executive authority to act in 2014 when Congress stands in his way.

Obama met with senators from his own party Wednesday at the White House. The White House says Obama and Democrats discussed proposals to raise the minimum wage and efforts to pass a comprehensive immigration overhaul. Education initiatives and jobs measures were also on the agenda.

The White House says Obama wants to work with Congress to make progress, but will also act on his own to get things done.

The meeting was the first such session of 2014 and comes two weeks before Obama is set to deliver his State of the Union address.

The senators left the White House without speaking to reporters.

I’ll just bet they did.

On his nationally syndicated radio program yesterday, the Godfather of Conservative Talk Radio, Maha Rushie, himself, spoke about Obama’s “Independence Proclamation”:

Executive orders to make things fair. He can do executive orders and executive actions to get rid of the unfairness. He’s gonna make this lousy country finally fair! … He’s got these Republicans standing in his way. “Okay, I’m gonna just start writing executive orders. “To hell with it! I’m gonna finally make everything fair.” Now, he might have a pen, and he might have a phone, but what he does not have is the constitutional power to run this country like a dictator…

…He’s a constitutional lawyer, and he should know better. But he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about the Constitution. The Constitution is an impediment to Obama. The Constitution is not something to be respected — and it’s not just Obama, by the way. It’s to the vast majority of the intellectual, leftist elite. They really detest the Constitution, because it thwarts them. Some of you may not know this, but the United States Constitution was written to limit government power.

The US Constitution’s first 10 amendments specifically limit government’s power. Well, that’s not cool if you’re Obama or any of today’s liberal Democrats. That, to you, is shackles. They call that “a charter of negative liberties.” Stop and think of that. A document founded in the belief, the proclamation, the declaration, the primacy of individual liberty and freedom is considered “a charter of negative liberties.”

It’s something that gives the people individual primacy and freedom — and, to the left, that’s negative — and the reason they call it “a charter of negative liberties” is because it limits government. They don’t like that, and that’s what Obama was talking about, “You know, the heck with it!”

…Violating the Constitution — there’s no question about this, folks. It’s just a matter of whether people in power and who have the authority to do so want to stop it. Because if nobody’s gonna stop Obama, he’s gonna be able to keep doing it.

Per usual, Rush is right. Obama views himself as a crusader…and the smartest person in the room. Unfortunately for us Americans, he is neither.

Thomas Jefferson had some thoughts on the subject of tyranny:

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.

About that second quote: Perhaps the reason that 3 Congressional Democrats have retired in one week, and those Democrat Senators left their meeting with His Highness without saying a mumblin’ word, is the fact that Democratic Congresscritters with any common sense left, realize that the American People will not tolerate a tyrant who bypasses the System of Checks and Balances, which our Founders so wisely established to secure the continued existence of our country.

Democrats realize that the knockout blow that is coming with the Mid-Term Elections in  2014 will make 2010 look like a slap on the wrist.

Because, when it comes down to it, even the Democrats know that 

It’s not tyranny we desire; it’s a just, limited, federal government.- Alexander Hamilton

Until He Comes,

KJ