Since the election, the president has rolled over feckless Republicans with tax hikes, the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling and is poised to roll them on immigration, but there have been two major victories for freedom: the gun rights debate and the NRLB court ruling. What do these two victories have in common? Elected Republicans have been more or less absent from both of them.
Coincidence?
In this Forbes' piece, NRA Winning the Influence Battle Over Gun Control, Bruce Rogers analyzed the national debate over gun control, not on its merits, but on who is influencing it. Who is engaging the conversation -- stakeholders, he calls them -- and who is most effective. Not surprisingly, among the gun control proponents, President Obama is the most influential voice. And among gun rights proponents?
Republican politicians are missing from the debate. The debate is an influence battle between President Barack Obama’s Democrats and Wayne LaPierre’s NRA. Of the top 25 stakeholders in the debate, there is only 1 prominent Republican politician (Chris Christie – who is pro-gun control). Barack Obama leads the pro-gun control voice with a net influence score of 268. LaPierre leads the anti-gun control side with a net influence score of 240.In the case of the National Labor Relations Board the Washington D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that Barack Obama violated the Constitution, specifically Article 1 Section 5, by claiming for himself the power to declare when the Senate was in recess when the Senate itself declared it was in session. This transparent attempt to bypass Congress and make recess appointments was a naked power grab.
Left unchecked, this is the road to tyranny. So who had the courage to fight against President Obama's unconstitutional power grab? Mitch McConnell, top Republican in the Senate? Don't laugh, but Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader? Any Republican constitutionalist anywhere? No. It was Noel Canning -- a Pepsi bottler whose company was harmed by Obama's NRLB -- with help from the imitable Mark Levin's Landmark Legal Foundation.
This lawsuit was never about the nation's soft drink supply; it was about the sacred principle of Separation of Powers.
"If Congress won't act, I will."
Barack Obama has spoken this phrase numerous times to thunderous applause but consider it closely. With those words, Barack Obama considers himself, not a public servant or a president whose powers are limited by a Constitution or by the people, but he considers himself a supreme ruler. And with these words, Barack Obama considers you, not a citizen, but his subject. His desires will overrule those of the people's duly elected representatives.
It boggles my mind that elected Republicans can remain so silent as our republic shows signs of crumbling. Is it fear? Denial? At least Chris Christie, as wrong as he is on your inherent right to defend yourself, at least has fire in his belly. History is unfolding before our eyes that will forever define our America. Is it too much to ask that our elected Republicans at least put up a fight for freedom?
[crickets chirping]
)
