January 23, 2013

Hard a-Port

One hundred years, and 100 pounds ago I was the coxswain on the freshman crew at Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio 45750. During that year I learned that “starboard” means right facing forward, and “port” means left facing forward. President Barack Obama’s inaugural address on Monday was a clear signal that he intends to steer the ship of state hard a-port. During the speech I Tweeted that it was “1/3 Gettysburg, 1/3 FDR, and 1/3 State of the Union.” The speech didn’t have the traditional reach across the aisle to the other political party suggesting Republicans and Democrats are smart enough, dedicated enough, and patriotic enough to find common ground and make America a better place.

One hundred years, and 100 pounds ago I was the coxswain on the freshman crew at Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio 45750.

During that year I learned that “starboard” means right facing forward, and “port” means left facing forward.

President Barack Obama’s inaugural address on Monday was a clear signal that he intends to steer the ship of state hard a-port.

During the speech I Tweeted that it was “1/3 Gettysburg, 1/3 FDR, and 1/3 State of the Union.”

The speech didn’t have the traditional reach across the aisle to the other political party suggesting Republicans and Democrats are smart enough, dedicated enough, and patriotic enough to find common ground and make America a better place.

Nah. The President all but said to the GOP: “Get out of my way. I’m sailing right over you.”

Maybe I’m wrong about this, but I don’t think so.

We know that President Obama is not enamored of, much less awed by, Members of the House or Senate of either party. He fully expects Democrats on the Hill to do his bidding even though it was his bidding that made Nancy Pelosi Minority Leader after the disastrous (for House Democrats) 2010 mid-term elections.

He used up much of his, and all of the House Dems’, political capital on what we now call Obamacare. And we haven’t heard the last of that. As more and more elements come into force the unintended consequences will cascade.

A case can be made that Mr. Obama squandered his first term. In the first two years he had Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and, if he knew as much then as he does now, he would have set many of the Liberal agenda items he named on Monday into motion during those two years rather than trying to out-FDR FDR in those first 24 months.

With a huge Republican majority against him in the House and an economy barely creaking along, he decided to go to war against the Congress – note he rarely differentiated between Republicans and Democrats in Congress as he railed against them – and spent the second two years of his first term running hard for a second term.

The President won re-election but had almost no coattails as Pelosi could pick up only single digit net seats (nine) in spite of having given up 65 seats two years earlier.

I know Democrats in the U.S. Senate increased their majority, but that had more to do with dreadful Republican candidates in at least three states more than an outpouring of national affection for the leadership of Harry Reid (D-NV).

The 23 Executive Orders the President signed during Gun Control Day may be looked back upon as the good old days of Presidential Restraint.

He will keep pushing the envelope of Presidential prerogatives, bypassing that pesky Congress altogether.

As the Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib put it, his inaugural address signaled “that a pent-up Obama agenda had begun to tumble out.”

We know where any climate change legislation is going – nowhere. He might have better luck with immigration reform and gay marriage may well become the law of the land through State action, Supreme Court decision, or both.

The big issues normally get taken care of through the tectonics of American politics. It takes time, but the shifts happen.

It is the tens of thousands of smaller items – items not important enough for Republicans to man the barricades – that the President will be looking for to alter, maybe forever, the direction in which America moves.

Housing, labor law, States’ rights, energy, education, entitlements, securities trading … the list goes on and on.

If I were advising Obama, here’s what I’d say:

You have four years. That’s a long time now that we have a better idea how this machinery works.

Let’s keep the big, public fights going on revenue, entitlement cuts, and foreign policy. Republicans love fighting over those things.

Have the Chief of Staff sent out a secret memo ordering every Department and Agency to come up with a list of initiatives that their legal folks believe can be accomplished by Executive Order – chipping away at the edges.

If you sign, say, ten executive orders a day and we don’t make a big deal out of them, the Congress will have to ferret them out of the Federal Register and they’ll never catch up with us.

By the time you hand over the tiller in 2017 we will be sailing an a direction no one could have possibly imagined.

Hard a-Port, Mr. President.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the 23 Executive Orders on gun control and to Gerry Seib’s piece on the Inaugural address. Also a Mullfoto taken by Reuters showing NY Senator Chuck Schumer at his camera-hogging worst.

Copyright ©2012 Barrington Worldwide, LLC | Mullings.com

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.