The alien-in-chief’s dictator-like conduct

The inappropriateness of Obama’s remark about the Supreme Court last night really is stunning. In an earlier viewing I hadn’t taken in how bad it was, because I had been focused on Justice Alito’s reaction, which has been the main topic of discussion. See the clip at Atlas Shrugs. The justices were there as guests of the Congress, they were there for no other reason than to pay respects to the president during his speech. And while they’re listening to him, he attacks their recent decision in a highly partisan and tendentious way, provoking a standing ovation by the Democratic congressmen and senators who are seated and then standing around the justices. Obama denounces the Supreme Court, and the Democrats applaud the denunciation, while the justices sit there staring straight ahead, helpless.

I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it in American history. This is like something you’d expect in a thugocracy, where the Top Leader at a meeting of his henchmen suddenly singles out one of them for punishment. It reminds of the filmed incident in the late 1970s when Saddam Hussein denounced one of his lieutenants as a traitor and had him taken out of the room. Yes, Obama only scolded the justices, he didn’t have them shot. But in the context of the American political system, what he did was a complete transgression.

People who defend Obama’s conduct because they share his disapproval of the Court’s decision on the campaign finance law entirely miss the point. Of course the president can disagree with the Court. But what he did here was attack the justices who were there as guests listening to his speech.

I retract anything I said about Obama’s demeanor during the speech being acceptable. This is the worst yet. We have a president who is openly hostile to our form of government and our traditions. Conservative opinion writers who keep criticizing Obama for his “foolish” steps, for his “blunders,” rather than for his (at best) indifference to, and his (at worst) animus against this country, are not seeing him for what he is.

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Marc B. writes:u

Minor correction to your interesting note. It was more than one member of the Baath party that Saddam Hussein sent out of the room. And he didn’t just send them out of the room. He sent them out of the room to be shot.

LA replies:

I know they were shot, but I wanted to leave that unsaid as otherwise it would sound as though I was comparing Obama to someone shooting people, and the main point of the comparison—the singling out of individuals at a public government meeting as “enemies of society”—would break down.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 28, 2010 08:37 PM | Send