President Clinton, with the help of the Secretary of the Department
of the Interior and fellow socialist Bruce Babbitt, is planning a
brand-new assault on land and property rights in the west. According to
a recent report, Clinton -- under the aegis of the Antiquities Act -- is
considering setting aside millions of acres in the west and Midwest for
wilderness preserves by executive order.
As usual, there will be no debating the issue, no "commentary
period," and, likely, no hope of stopping this new Clinton onslaught
against the Constitution. What will happen, however, is that the
president is likely to get away with this, just as he has gotten away
with such usurpation of the Constitution since first taking office in
1993.
Naturally the Republican "opposition" is speaking out against this
appropriation, but there is nothing in recent GOP history to indicate
that action will follow these words. So unless Congress grows a spine,
consider millions more acres of public land officially "off limits" to
the taxpayers and corporate interests, even though both groups will have
to support these lands until the end of time.
Welcome to America 2000 -- where politics is no longer a necessary
evil but instead a shell game designed merely to give us the impression
that we still have a functioning Republic. No one has played this game
more masterfully than William Jefferson Clinton.
These new assaults on our liberties are nothing more than Clinton's
ongoing attempt to build some sort of legacy for himself -- other than
being an ethically challenged, morally depraved criminal who has run his
administration like a bunch of nine-year-olds run their clubhouse. What
Clinton doesn't understand, however, is that millions of Americans
already believe he has his legacy -- one of almost continual usurpation
of the Constitution.
Since he took office, Bill Clinton has written more executive orders,
presidential decision directives and proclamations than any of his
predecessors. And because he holds his opponents at bay -- either
because of the hundreds of FBI files he has or for some other reason --
he has largely been able to get away with the most blatant abuse of our
system of government since FDR.
Presidents have always used executive orders; even George Washington
used them. The difference is, however, the same as it always has been
with Clinton: character. Presidents like Washington used them
correctly -- to manage the Executive Branch of government. Others
though, and especially Clinton, have used them to govern the
country, as if he were a king and his executive orders were monarchical
proclamations to be obeyed without question.
So far, most of them have been obeyed without question. Enter
the "character issue" again. If Congress was filled -- or even
nearly filled -- with character-minded representatives and
senators, a class act criminal like Bill Clinton would have been thrown
out of office within a year of taking his oath. Draw what conclusions
you will from that example, but you and I both know it's the truth. And
yet, Congress would have you believe that anytime an unconstitutional
executive order or regulation from some government agency is issued,
there is nothing they can do about it. That's just a lie, pure and
simple.
After all, if Congress really can't do anything about such
orders and rules, then why did the Founding Fathers even bother to
create a Legislative Branch in the first place? Why didn't the Founders
simply establish another monarchy and be done with it?
Obviously our Founding Fathers had the divine insight to foresee Bill
Clinton over 200 years before we elected him. What our Founders could
never have imagined, however, is that our entire system of
government -- all three branches -- could be co-opted by such a hoodlum
at the same time. Who could have imagined such a thing would
happen, short of a coup?
There is a way out of this political quagmire: Congress needs to
reassert its own authority, and it needs to rein in the power of the
Executive Branch to match its constitutional limitations. Once that
happens, Congress can then go to work disbanding extra-constitutional
entities like the Department of the Interior and the dozens of other
federal agencies that do nothing but serve as usurpation tools for
presidents and congressmen who care nothing about our unprecedented form
of government.
It may look grim now, but it will happen if we want it to.
Then, Bill Clinton's unconstitutional legacy won't amount to much
more than a footnote in the history books that our great, great
grandchildren will read about in the future.