Okay, we have to cut the Bamster some slack here because these words were spoken at a press conference and Obama did not have the benefit of his trusty teleprompter to help him out. It’s not exactly clear that what transpired in the Central American country was a coup although the US president seems to assume that it was. Let’s give him that one and assume that it was in fact a coup. What he said was nonsensical; a coup by definition is illegal. The word “coup” is defined as the overthrow of a government by force or illegal means. If what happened in Honduras wasn’t illegal, it wouldn’t have been a coup – it would have been a legal transfer of power. And to think that there are rumors circulating that Obama has a law degree.
Under the constitution of Honduras a person can hold the presidency for one term only and Manuel Zelaya’s expires in 2010. He wanted to hold a referendum to extend his hold on power but the Honduran Supreme Court refused to allow the referendum. The Honduran Congress refused to sanction the proposed referendum. Even after the legislative and judicial branches of the government of Honduras ruled against holding a referendum to extend the power of the executive, Zelaya decided to go ahead anyway. At this point the Supreme Court instructed the military to arrest the president. He was grabbed and then exiled to Costa Rica.
Obama’s response to the situation in Honduras was made with lightning speed compared to his reaction to the aftermath of the recent Iranian elections. The president had to be poked and prodded before saying anything negative about the repressive action taken by the Iranian regime against those who were demonstrating in a peaceful manner. Then again, Mamoud Ahmadinejad was democratically elected too so what’s the problem.
Barack Obama’s comment says more about Barack Obama than it does about Honduras. His worldview is that as long as a government obtains power by democratic means, nothing else matters. The US under Obama is becoming more like Canada than simply adopting, albeit by stealth, our healthcare system. Canada prides itself on being a democratic country because our government is elected through free and fair elections, although it seems to be a consensus that too many elections are a bad thing. A major difference between how Canadians and Americans see their governments is in how Americans view the concepts of freedom and liberty. Between November 1 and 11, Canadians speak a lot about soldiers and veterans and about how they fought and sometimes made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. The rest of the year, the “f” word is hardly ever used. And, except with the occasional reference to the title of a Mark Levin book, the word “liberty” is virtually never seen nor heard. As long as democratic elections are held, nothing else matters.
In Obama’s eyes, a democratically elected government is the be all and end all of democracy. It doesn’t seem to concern Obama that authoritarian rulers such as Hitler and Hugo Chavez came to power by democratic means. Turning a democratic state into an autocratic one doesn’t seem to bother the US president. The concepts of liberty and freedom that have been so important in political life in the United States do not come into play. Only free and fair elections matter.
The “coup” that took place in Honduras was not a run of the mill military coup. The military acted on the authority of the country’s Supreme Court and only after Zelaya ignored both the court and the country’s congress. The military did not take over the country; rather the new leader was chosen by the Honduran Congress.
According to Obama’s views, it would be alright for him to hold a referendum to extend his own term in office past the constitutionally mandated eight years no matter what the other levels of government say or rule. If the public’s infatuation and the fawning of the media persist, he could probably pull it off.
If Barack Obama view of Honduras is applied to his own country (and all countries are the same in his opinion), the concepts of liberty and freedom will become as abstract as they are in Canada. And the notion of the separation of powers that Americans take such pride in will be rendered meaningless. Why should Obama care what the United States Supreme Court or the US Congress says; he’s been democratically elected.
A true democracy means more than simply letting citizens go to the ballot box periodically and vote for candidates.
In the wake of the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, Barack Obama had this to say:
We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there.
