Welcome to Gaia! ::

Is President Obama acting more like a King?

Yes 0.28888888888889 28.9% [ 13 ]
No 0.62222222222222 62.2% [ 28 ]
I don't know or I simply don't care. 0.088888888888889 8.9% [ 4 ]
Total Votes:[ 45 ]
< 1 2 3

Conservative Victory

Nariluggaldimmerankia
Prince Ikari
Obama is an Imperial President that much is for sure, and he is a borderline King and Dictator at this point. Look at who he surrounds himself with? He is always out hanging with the Hollywood celebrities or his wealthy campaign donors despite the fact that millions of Americans are suffering. The media pretty much worships him as if he is the Messiah. At this point we have a state-run media which serves only to glorify him and shut down his critics. The few news outlets that do criticize him he goes out and demonizes. Instead of trying to work with the opposition he attacks them right from the start then calls them obstructionist when they will not bow down and give him what he wants. And when he cannot get what he wants through the legislative process he uses Executive Orders to legislate instead. He even bullies the Supreme Court into doing what he wants. He bullied the Justices on healthcare and he is bullying them on DOMA. And he flat out attacked the Justices verbally right in front of their faces at one point over Citizens United. He has made it clear time and time again that he has no respect for the Constitution and our system of checks and balances. He pretty much is going to do whatever he wants and when he cannot get his way he will go out campaigning trying to stir the masses by overplaying his hand to try and get the people to force the opposition to cave in - most notably the Sequestration cuts and done so through fear-mongering and scare tactics.

And look how much our government has grown since he became President? He has nationalized healthcare, he in a way nationalized the automotive industry, he bailed out the banks, he has wracked up nearly seven trillion dollars of debt in his first term yet claims we do not have a debt problem. He is basically shutting down our energy production and forcing gas prices to raise. With Sequestration he pretty much wants the American people to suffer as much as possible so that he can exploit it for political gain. He uses the EPA to hurt our economy and energy production. He wants the power to be able to raise the debt ceiling whenever he feels like it. He wants full amnesty for illegal immigrants so that he can add millions more voters which will be dependent on his government programs and keep his tyrannical party in power. He is trying to cede American sovereignty away to international bodies like the United Nations. He sent our military to Libya without so much is going to Congress first. And on that note he let our Ambassador to Libya die in a terrorist attack in Benghazi as well as allowed a border agent to die in Mexico because he gave the cartels weapons in the botched Fast and Furious Program. He throws our allies under the bus and praises our enemies. He has basically given himself the power to use Predator Drones to kill anyone without so much as a judge and jury. He stole the money from Social Security and bankrupted it basically. He continues raising taxes and printing money, one of which hurts economic growth and the other leads to inflation of things such as food in order to continue spending trillions of dollars on unnecessary programs and failed boondoggles like Solyndra. Oh and he is very repressive with the media. He makes sure the media publishes and airs news favorable to him lest you lose any journal privileges at the White House. And recently he has been pushing to take away the Second Amendment right of the people to own guns.

He said when he was running in 2008 that he wanted to be a transformative President, and he has pretty much taken the United States from a Constitutional Republic molded in the idea of Representative Democracy into a Single-Man Dictatorship where his will goes, and the Constitution, the Courts, checks and balances, Congress, the Republican Party, the will of the people, all be damned. He is bent on turning America into a Statist, Secular Progressive, European State. I would not be surprised if either he refuses to step down if Republican President follows after him, or if in 2015 he begins pushing to repeal term limits on the Presidency so that he can be the FDR of our time and run for four or more terms.

We lost our freedom the day he took office. He has rigged the system in his favor. He probably won re-election because he has bought the votes of the people through welfare, or massive voter fraud. The ignorant masses continue supporting our Social Democratic Dictator and do so at the peril of our freedom and the very the United States itself. His mother and father instilled anti-colonialist, and radical roots into that man, and he is bent on destroying the nation which symbolizes the triumph of modernity, of free-market capitalism, of military superiority, and of freed and representative government with checks and balances.


Couldn't have said it better myself. FDR certainly set the bar high for the expansion of federal government in America. We haven't seen the type of scaling back that is absolutely vital to our survival. Also, we need to remember that the president is just a figurehead. There are many more individuals and groups in the government and larger corporations and organizations that must be factored in. Yet there has been a trend of increasing executive power, and it is certainly gaining more momentum under Obama.


I agree. Though even in the grave both FDR and LBJ have still found ways to continuously increase the size of the federal government. The welfare programs they created continue racking up more and more debt as more and more people use them. I believe those programs account for about 2/3 of the federal budget at this point. We should never have created Social Security, Medicare, and especially Medicaid at the end of the day if you ask me. Medicaid is the worse one because under Obama Medicaid is basically becoming single-payer healthcare in the United States through rapid expansion that is going to see the states go bankrupt like the member-states of the Eurozone. We need huge cuts in these programs (and others), consolidation with all of the agencies and departments, and to stop printing money just to waste it. Before long we will be like Greece or Cyprus. And to that last point you mentioned, I would say the combination of big government, big business, and big labor has been very toxic. Big labor and big government are pretty much creating at least at the present time a watered-down version of socialism, while big government and big business have led to corporatism and crony capitalism over the years. And you would be right. Executive power has been momentous under Obama. He pretty much thwarts the democratic process to do whatever he wants. To Hell with Congress he says because he has executive orders. The executive would never have been given that power if they could see how bad Obama abuses it.

Perle Angelique's Significant Otter

Benevolent Hellraiser

21,450 Points
  • Winged 100
  • Bookworm 100
  • Hunter 50
JiranTalyir
Lord Akhenaton
JiranTalyir
Lord Akhenaton


But should we really settle for that?

I rather we place some form of check and balance even if all it involved was the American people and not the other two branches. Giving unilateral power to the president kinda defeats the purpose of having checks and balances. More so, it defeats the purpose of having the other two branches all together.

Of course not, but in this case, the checks and balances are giving people who harm us way too much power.


Hmm I would have to disagree with you on this. Giving the President full control simply because the other two branches don't want to work with him is a grave mistake for our country. Does not our constitution begin with "We The People". It's not "We the Government" or "Myself the President" the power needs to be in the hands of the people, for the people, by the people. I'm not saying we need to get rid of the other branches. Far from it. I'm saying those powers need to represent the people once more. If they can not they they need to find someone who can. This is why they exist in the first place...to place laws that represent the will of the American people. It's why we elect them into office. Our entire history has been one of refusal to bow the will of a one singular power or king. Giving the president or anyone for that matter the ability the do whatever he pleases is a slap in the face.

I personally believe that a better system would allow for the people to vote on such matters like his executive orders as a means to repeal them. Instead of just allowing it to become law why not allow the normal average American have a voice in the politics that dictate their own lives? Are we so afraid of politics that we are willing to shackle ourselves to the will of one man?


Executive orders are nothing new. They've always been around, and like another poster said, they CAN be overturned.

However, you seem to be a little mistaken as to what we are. Everyone proclaims us a land of democracy. But we are not a democracy. We are a republic. Like the Roman Republic. The thing you are describing as the ideal sounds closer to a true democracy. The only true democracy that I can think of right now was ancient Athens, for a time. We have way more people and it would take awhile to vote on issues, but maybe we'd get something done, unlike congress. It's an interesting idea, unfortunately it's nothing near our government's current setup.
You forgot the biggest problem. Obama's kill list, Obama's reluctance to say whether or not he thinks he has the right to kill Americans for any reason without due process of any sort, AND the craven support his Democratic supporters have given him.

Forget Obama's dictatorial tendencies. What about all those jackals in the Democratic party who say "It's fine! He can kill whoever he wants, whenever he wants! He's a good man, and we trust him with the unchecked power of life and death."

These are the same Democrats, mind you, who complained so loudly about that horrible dictator and warmonger and mass murderer, President Bush.

Apparently a kill list doesn't bother these Democratic jackals one bit, so long as the list is controlled by a Democrat.

Needless to say, Obama and his lackeys have overstepped the Constitution big time by the mere creation of such a list.

Aged Lunatic

Nariluggaldimmerankia
Prince Ikari
Obama is an Imperial President that much is for sure, and he is a borderline King and Dictator at this point. Look at who he surrounds himself with? He is always out hanging with the Hollywood celebrities or his wealthy campaign donors despite the fact that millions of Americans are suffering. The media pretty much worships him as if he is the Messiah. At this point we have a state-run media which serves only to glorify him and shut down his critics. The few news outlets that do criticize him he goes out and demonizes. Instead of trying to work with the opposition he attacks them right from the start then calls them obstructionist when they will not bow down and give him what he wants. And when he cannot get what he wants through the legislative process he uses Executive Orders to legislate instead. He even bullies the Supreme Court into doing what he wants. He bullied the Justices on healthcare and he is bullying them on DOMA. And he flat out attacked the Justices verbally right in front of their faces at one point over Citizens United. He has made it clear time and time again that he has no respect for the Constitution and our system of checks and balances. He pretty much is going to do whatever he wants and when he cannot get his way he will go out campaigning trying to stir the masses by overplaying his hand to try and get the people to force the opposition to cave in - most notably the Sequestration cuts and done so through fear-mongering and scare tactics.

And look how much our government has grown since he became President? He has nationalized healthcare, he in a way nationalized the automotive industry, he bailed out the banks, he has wracked up nearly seven trillion dollars of debt in his first term yet claims we do not have a debt problem. He is basically shutting down our energy production and forcing gas prices to raise. With Sequestration he pretty much wants the American people to suffer as much as possible so that he can exploit it for political gain. He uses the EPA to hurt our economy and energy production. He wants the power to be able to raise the debt ceiling whenever he feels like it. He wants full amnesty for illegal immigrants so that he can add millions more voters which will be dependent on his government programs and keep his tyrannical party in power. He is trying to cede American sovereignty away to international bodies like the United Nations. He sent our military to Libya without so much is going to Congress first. And on that note he let our Ambassador to Libya die in a terrorist attack in Benghazi as well as allowed a border agent to die in Mexico because he gave the cartels weapons in the botched Fast and Furious Program. He throws our allies under the bus and praises our enemies. He has basically given himself the power to use Predator Drones to kill anyone without so much as a judge and jury. He stole the money from Social Security and bankrupted it basically. He continues raising taxes and printing money, one of which hurts economic growth and the other leads to inflation of things such as food in order to continue spending trillions of dollars on unnecessary programs and failed boondoggles like Solyndra. Oh and he is very repressive with the media. He makes sure the media publishes and airs news favorable to him lest you lose any journal privileges at the White House. And recently he has been pushing to take away the Second Amendment right of the people to own guns.

He said when he was running in 2008 that he wanted to be a transformative President, and he has pretty much taken the United States from a Constitutional Republic molded in the idea of Representative Democracy into a Single-Man Dictatorship where his will goes, and the Constitution, the Courts, checks and balances, Congress, the Republican Party, the will of the people, all be damned. He is bent on turning America into a Statist, Secular Progressive, European State. I would not be surprised if either he refuses to step down if Republican President follows after him, or if in 2015 he begins pushing to repeal term limits on the Presidency so that he can be the FDR of our time and run for four or more terms.

We lost our freedom the day he took office. He has rigged the system in his favor. He probably won re-election because he has bought the votes of the people through welfare, or massive voter fraud. The ignorant masses continue supporting our Social Democratic Dictator and do so at the peril of our freedom and the very the United States itself. His mother and father instilled anti-colonialist, and radical roots into that man, and he is bent on destroying the nation which symbolizes the triumph of modernity, of free-market capitalism, of military superiority, and of freed and representative government with checks and balances.


Couldn't have said it better myself. FDR certainly set the bar high for the expansion of federal government in America. We haven't seen the type of scaling back that is absolutely vital to our survival. Also, we need to remember that the president is just a figurehead. There are many more individuals and groups in the government and larger corporations and organizations that must be factored in. Yet there has been a trend of increasing executive power, and it is certainly gaining more momentum under Obama.


Course it's hilarious considering that Ikari is a Christian authoritarian who doesn't at all mind personal freedoms being yanked if it's from the wrong people, you know, like me.
JiranTalyir
Lord Akhenaton


But should we really settle for that?

I rather we place some form of check and balance even if all it involved was the American people and not the other two branches. Giving unilateral power to the president kinda defeats the purpose of having checks and balances. More so, it defeats the purpose of having the other two branches all together.


You're speaking on the assumption that giving people more power will benefit the people. Or that taking power away from our government will benefit the people. On both accounts, you are mistaken. There are a large number of people in this country and each one wants something different; something which benefits him or her. To give the people more power, by definition, will benefit the country as a whole less and the individual more. Quite simply; a country needs a leader to make some unilateral decisions because it is at those times that a leader would know what's best for us since we cannot see outside of our own lives, needs, and wants.
I do love the "HUR! IS 'MURICA REALLY A REPUBLIC, ER IS WE A DICTATORSHIP!"

Come talk to me when people are being disappeared for saying the wrong thing. Or when entire families are sent to death camps because their cousin deserted the country (Oh, that's right, you still have the option to LEAVE this terrible, authoritarian dictatorship, don't you? Unlike, say, North Korea, a real actual dictatorship.) Or the government starts introducing mandatory indoctrination seminars for everyone in the community.

THEN come talk to me about what a horrid dictatorship your country is becoming. Because until then all I hear is a bunch of spoiled brats whining because mommy took away their shiny toy car.

Sparkly Shapeshifter

12,950 Points
  • Megathread 100
  • Lavish Tipper 200
  • Person of Interest 200
The answer to the question is, "No."
Childhoods End
JiranTalyir
Alright I just want to get some clarification as well some opinions on a growing controversial topic that has been raising here in America.

The topic I wish to address is President Obama and the current status of the quote "Freedom" of America. Can we truly call ourselves a Republic these days? Or has our government simply evolved into a Dictatorship in Denial?

What I'm bringing to the table to discuss is a little thing known as "Executive Orders". Perhaps I'm merely uniformed but to my knowledge our form of Government was supposed to have checks and balances so that no branch of our Government becomes too powerful. Yet from all the research I have done there doesn't seem to be ANY check to these all powerful orders given by the President. Take a look a Executive Order 13603, from what I myself could find it seems this article mentions that at the time of the Presidents choosing the Federal Government may take control of:

All Forms of Energy
All Forms of Civil Transportation
All Usable Water from All Sources
All Commodities and Products that are capable of being ingested by human beings or animals.
Health Resources
As well as induction into the military or reinstatement of the Draft.

I need clarification on this. If the President has the Authority to do things like this without any sort of approval of our other branches...if there is more to this then simple conspiracy nutjob theories then how, How are we democratic in any sort? The President might as well be a King wearing a crown in the White House with us bowing at his White Throne. I love my country very much but this has me very concerned about the future of our nation. Even IF President Obama means well for our country the prospect of unilateral power in the hands of one man is something we as American people should be disgusted by. How is it possible that we the American people allowed for this? Where are the checks and balances? And how is it that it seems that the President can do whatever he wants by signing these so called Executive Orders? Where ever you fall in the political aspect of things I believe this to be an important question that needs to be answered.

IF the president has this kind of power, then I personally see no difference between us and the dictatorships that America loves to hate. Absolute Power after all Corrupts Absolutely.


Oh, please American. Your understanding of monarchism is as simple minded as your understanding of republicanism itself. Any forms of decree and "authoritarianism" must be irked at as being monarchist in nature thus he must be a king! I know monarchs scare you guys a lot since you have some fetish making George III a tyrant. Please note that monarchs aren't dictators in sense that have legitimacy to rule and are often held to the laws to how they can rule.

I should point out that your president shares very similar vestiges of monarchists and one of them being decrees or as you guys call them "executive orders". They can be held to be accountable and have been overturned by other branches of the government. In certain cases they aren't either like order 9066 that detained people of German and Japanese heritage.

How it came to be dates back to the founding of your nation and often cited in this case here. The president has two tasks which are ministerial and discretionar. Ministerial are decisions that the president can choose or not to do and the other being ones the president must do. Decrees in your nation were very common in the 18th century and calling the president a king was just as common as well. I'm sure your familiar with Abraham Lincoln being views as a monarch over the same powers that has been used since Washington. Since abolishing slavery was viewed as crazy for giving him power to take away private property. The president has been able to take private property as emergency powers as cited by this.


Here here.

Monarchs were actually part of a very delicate, balanced system. A king is actualy much like a president in which they are protectors. Kings were supposed to be the guardians of their kingdom, just as the US president is supposed to be the guardian of the US Constitution. Land was owned and controlled largely by noblemen who were, in turn, the guardians of their own lands. The proles would work the lands owned by these barons, and generate wealth for the kingdom. In return the barons would provide protection for the proles. This was back during a time when barbarians raided the countryside, and the centralized, organized protection was really a necessity.

This is why most noblemen back during this time were knights. Warriors. fighters. Chivalry was the way a knight conducted himself, especially towards other knights, because they were noblemen, they had to hold themselves to a certain standard... Also, because it was bloody hard to kill a knight wearing full plate armor with chain-mail underneath. So it was easier to force a surrender, which was chivalrous, than trying to bash these people until they died of concussions.

So kings protected the kingdom as a whole and gave land to noblemen. Noblemen, knights, protected their own land and their people.

The people worked the land and generated income in exchange for protection.

This is of course, a very simple outline of a single part of rule by monarchy. It doesn't cover their laws, which they did have, their assemblies, which they did have, or the individual policies and procedures of each kingdom, which they did have.

Aged Lunatic

Spierred
Childhoods End
JiranTalyir
Alright I just want to get some clarification as well some opinions on a growing controversial topic that has been raising here in America.

The topic I wish to address is President Obama and the current status of the quote "Freedom" of America. Can we truly call ourselves a Republic these days? Or has our government simply evolved into a Dictatorship in Denial?

What I'm bringing to the table to discuss is a little thing known as "Executive Orders". Perhaps I'm merely uniformed but to my knowledge our form of Government was supposed to have checks and balances so that no branch of our Government becomes too powerful. Yet from all the research I have done there doesn't seem to be ANY check to these all powerful orders given by the President. Take a look a Executive Order 13603, from what I myself could find it seems this article mentions that at the time of the Presidents choosing the Federal Government may take control of:

All Forms of Energy
All Forms of Civil Transportation
All Usable Water from All Sources
All Commodities and Products that are capable of being ingested by human beings or animals.
Health Resources
As well as induction into the military or reinstatement of the Draft.

I need clarification on this. If the President has the Authority to do things like this without any sort of approval of our other branches...if there is more to this then simple conspiracy nutjob theories then how, How are we democratic in any sort? The President might as well be a King wearing a crown in the White House with us bowing at his White Throne. I love my country very much but this has me very concerned about the future of our nation. Even IF President Obama means well for our country the prospect of unilateral power in the hands of one man is something we as American people should be disgusted by. How is it possible that we the American people allowed for this? Where are the checks and balances? And how is it that it seems that the President can do whatever he wants by signing these so called Executive Orders? Where ever you fall in the political aspect of things I believe this to be an important question that needs to be answered.

IF the president has this kind of power, then I personally see no difference between us and the dictatorships that America loves to hate. Absolute Power after all Corrupts Absolutely.


Oh, please American. Your understanding of monarchism is as simple minded as your understanding of republicanism itself. Any forms of decree and "authoritarianism" must be irked at as being monarchist in nature thus he must be a king! I know monarchs scare you guys a lot since you have some fetish making George III a tyrant. Please note that monarchs aren't dictators in sense that have legitimacy to rule and are often held to the laws to how they can rule.

I should point out that your president shares very similar vestiges of monarchists and one of them being decrees or as you guys call them "executive orders". They can be held to be accountable and have been overturned by other branches of the government. In certain cases they aren't either like order 9066 that detained people of German and Japanese heritage.

How it came to be dates back to the founding of your nation and often cited in this case here. The president has two tasks which are ministerial and discretionar. Ministerial are decisions that the president can choose or not to do and the other being ones the president must do. Decrees in your nation were very common in the 18th century and calling the president a king was just as common as well. I'm sure your familiar with Abraham Lincoln being views as a monarch over the same powers that has been used since Washington. Since abolishing slavery was viewed as crazy for giving him power to take away private property. The president has been able to take private property as emergency powers as cited by this.


Here here.

Monarchs were actually part of a very delicate, balanced system. A king is actualy much like a president in which they are protectors. Kings were supposed to be the guardians of their kingdom, just as the US president is supposed to be the guardian of the US Constitution. Land was owned and controlled largely by noblemen who were, in turn, the guardians of their own lands. The proles would work the lands owned by these barons, and generate wealth for the kingdom. In return the barons would provide protection for the proles. This was back during a time when barbarians raided the countryside, and the centralized, organized protection was really a necessity.

This is why most noblemen back during this time were knights. Warriors. fighters. Chivalry was the way a knight conducted himself, especially towards other knights, because they were noblemen, they had to hold themselves to a certain standard... Also, because it was bloody hard to kill a knight wearing full plate armor with chain-mail underneath. So it was easier to force a surrender, which was chivalrous, than trying to bash these people until they died of concussions.

So kings protected the kingdom as a whole and gave land to noblemen. Noblemen, knights, protected their own land and their people.

The people worked the land and generated income in exchange for protection.

This is of course, a very simple outline of a single part of rule by monarchy. It doesn't cover their laws, which they did have, their assemblies, which they did have, or the individual policies and procedures of each kingdom, which they did have.


Nor did it provide any real protection of the proles from the knights and noblemen themselves. They were at their mercy.
a communistic dictator is more like it.

Wheezing Kitten

26,865 Points
  • Megathread 100
  • Millionaire 200
  • Invisibility 100
He doesn't act like a king. He acts like he thinks he's the Messiah.

Quick Reply

Submit
Manage Your Items
Other Stuff
Get GCash
Offers
Get Items
More Items
Where Everyone Hangs Out
Other Community Areas
Virtual Spaces
Fun Stuff
Gaia's Games
Mini-Games
Play with GCash
Play with Platinum