Founders Sought to Avoid Obama
Jonathan Turley weighs in again.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley has long supported Barack Obama, but he’s also become alarmed at Obama’s increasing imperial presidency. “Our system is changing,” he warned, “and [Congress] is the one branch that must act if we are to reverse those changes. We are seeing the emergence of a different model of government, a model long-ago rejected by the framers.” Turley added, regarding a possible lawsuit against the president, “A dominant presidency has occurred with very little congressional opposition. Indeed, when President Obama pledged to circumvent Congress, he received rapturous applause from the very body that he was proposing to make practically irrelevant. Now many members are contesting the right of this institution to even be heard in federal court.” Moreover, “This body is moving from self-loathing to self-destruction in a system that is in crisis. The president’s pledge to effectively govern alone is alarming, and what is most alarming is his ability to fulfill that pledge. When a president can govern alone, he can become a government unto himself, which is precisely the danger the framers sought to avoid.”