Obama has the arrogance of a despot

Erick Erickson:

Barack Obama was able to get Obamacare passed largely because he had a group of Democrats in Congress who were not running for re-election and thus had no fear of the voters. They overreached and the Democrats were swept out to the minority in the House of Representatives. In fact, the voters in 2010 wrecked devastating losses on the Democrats nationwide.

When politicians, regardless of party, are no longer accountable to the voters they tend to do extremely arrogant things, they tend to overreach badly, and they tend to collapse.

Barack Obama is, going into his second term, already one of the most arrogant politicians in America. Remember how his team told the public unconvincingly that Barack Obama was “among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet’? Remember how Obama viewed himself all the way back in 2008?

“I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters,” Mr. Obama told Patrick Gaspard, his political director, at the start of the 2008 campaign, according to The New Yorker. “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m going to think I’m a better political director than my political director.”

Couple that with the amazing admission from Dan Pfeiffer, the White House Communications Director, “that we don’t have a political system or an opposition party worthy of the opportunity.”

Forget the part about the “opposition party.” Dan Pfeiffer (and kudos to Daniel Halper for catching it) states on the record that the United States does not have a political system “worthy of the opportunity” to work with Barack Obama. It’s not just the Republicans, but the system.

That arrogance indicates an intention for overreach. In fact, the whole Washington Post articlesuggests Barack Obama intends to stretch his legs to the limits of Presidential power to secure a legacy. They want big things. They expect big things. He himself will worry about the politics of achieving those big things.

Building on this, a word no one has used much these past few years is back: liberal. The word hasn’t been used because Americans don’t much like liberals. It’s why liberals have started calling themselves moderates or progressives. Even in 2006, 2008, and 2012, more Americans told exit pollsters they were conservative than liberal. Whether they are is another question. The fact is, Americans know that liberal is a dirty word. That the press is now relieved to finally be able to use it to describe Barack Obama creates problems for him and his agenda.

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Opposition parties are one of the things that distinguish democracies from regimes based on tyranny.  Opposition parties sharpen the responses of those in power and drive them to do better and not be sloppy.  Many in the Democrat party today find this too worrisome to deal with it.  That is a bug and not a feature of taht party.