Law Professor: "President Obama Or King Obama?"
PITTSBURGH (NewsRadio 1020 KDKA) - A Law Professor at George Mason University is afraid that we are on the horizon of a crowning government. Professor and author, Francis Buckley, is ready to state that President Obama will be, "the most consequential American president since George Washington."
Buckley says George Washington was considered the "indispensable man" when he left the seat of President, but President Obama will be acknowledged as "the person who assumed king-like powers as President."
Law Professor Buckley, of George Mason University
Professor Buckley wrote a shorter, opinion article for Fox News that included information from his recently released book, "The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America." The book describes an America that is returning to a crown kind of government, like when King George III ruled in Britain.
In the article, Buckley references George Mason during the 1787 Convention when the Constitution was created. Mason remarked that the American President would become an "elective monarch" and worse than the real thing.
Law Professor Buckley, of George Mason University
(Photo Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for USC Shoah Foundation)
Buckley explains that while this government didn't start with President Obama, he has certainly taken it to a higher level. The professor says that the way President Obama makes and unmakes laws without consent on Congress; the spending of government dollars; committing America to war; and rewarding his friends while punishing his enemies makes him "rex quondam, rex futurus - the once and future king."
"Who cares which party controls the Senate, if all the action is at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue," said Buckley in his column. He believes that if Democrats want to continue to complain about the underfunding of Senate campaigns then they only have themselves to blame for the Obama administration.
He believes that the main idea that the founder's had in mind when creating the Constitution was if political power became centralized in a single person, this would be a threat to liberty. America is and has been democratic, in Buckley's opinion. He fears that if the media doesn't start showing more interest in the quick rise of presidential power then the future will begin to resemble the past.
Law Professor Buckley, of George Mason University
(Photo Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
The professor notes that some conservatives believe his foreign policy decisions seem to hint at a deep-rooted antipathy towards America because the President might feel like he was never quite accepted as a countryman. But he disagrees and instead finds a "logical desire to shift spending from defense to social welfare making Obama a progressive politician.
"So here's the question, ya know we've got this constitution which was supposed to, it was really more than anything designed to ensure we wouldn't get another George the third," said Buckley. "And here's my question, is the only part of the Constitution that's relevant right now as far as the federal government is the President has to get elected every four years, nothing much else matters. Well, that would make the President what George Mason called an 'elected monarch' and he thought that was worse than the real thing."
Law Professor Buckley, of George Mason University
(Photo Credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)
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