Obama is relegated to a reactive presidency, except to the extent that he can go around Congress and use unconstitutional executive orders in lieu of passing legislation
The American public realized not long after the 2012 election that they had blown it. Given the opportunity to fire Barack Obama and turn the federal government back in a wise direction, they should have seized the moment and done just that. Instead, they got caught up nonsense like Big Bird and "binders full of women", and in not liking rich, CEO-ish Republicans, and as a result they dropped the ball and stuck the nation with four more years of an unserious, unqualified, inept president.
Oops. Sadly, the Constitution doesn't offer a mechanism for correcting that mistake. Just don't do it again, boneheads.
But what the electorate could do, it did last night. In essence, America told Obama to step aside. By giving Republicans at least a 52-seat majority in the U.S. Senate, and probably its biggest House majority since Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president, the nation sent Obama to the sidelines. Not a single piece of legislation will reach his desk for the remainder of his presidency without massive Republican backing. Obama can veto bills, of course, and he surely will. But what he can't do is shove insane, left-wing nonsense down the nation's collective throat. That's over.
He also can't hide behind Senate inaction like he did when Harry Reid controlled the upper chamber and routinely bottled up any piece of legislation that came out of the Republican House - not even allowing commitee hearings or floor debates, let alone votes.
The nation has passed judgment on Barack Obama's presidency, and the verdict is thumbs down. People were not fooled by recent GDP growth numbers or falling gas prices. They were able to assess a six-year record of sluggish growth, falling labor force participation, rising food stamp dependence, hostility toward business and meddling in private markets - particularly health care - and recognize that it's made things worse and not better. They were able to look at America's declining influence in an increasingly chaotic world and recognize that a president who rejects America's global leadership role doesn't do any good for America or the rest of the world. And they were able to see that juvenile blather about the "war on women" and so forth demonstrates complete unseriousness from a party that said it would govern, not endlessly campaign.
The media tried its best to protect Obama by ignoring stories like the IRS scandal
The media tried its best to protect Obama by ignoring stories like the IRS scandal, but in an era of alternative and social media, it didn't work. People knew that instead of serving the public, the Obama White House was using government agencies to serve itself at the expense of anyone who opposed them or their agenda.
Liberals will offer predictable excuses, of course. They'll say it was just an anti-incumbent election, or that it reflected nonspecific "voter anger," or that it was the product of too many Democrats defending seats in red states. That will come as a surprise to the conservative blue state governors who won re-election last night. Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Florida all joined in the mistake of electing and re-electing Obama, and also put conservatives back in their statehouses last night. This was not an "anti-incumbent" nor was it an "anger" election. It was a rejection of Obama and of liberalism, pure and simple.
Today, Obama is relegated to a reactive presidency, except to the extent that he can go around Congress and use unconstitutional executive orders in lieu of passing legislation - and given his track record you can be sure he will try. But now when he does so, he will no longer have Harry Reid protecting him by refusing to look into it in the Senate.
Also, in the event there is a Supreme Court vacancy in the next two years, Obama will not be able to appoint an insane left-wing Justice with the assistance of a Democrat majority.
This is not to say it will be easy for the Republican majority. They will surely face shrieking about "extremism" from day one, and of course they still have to contend with Obama's veto pen. But we can expect real budgets, real investigations and real policy progress. Obama has been essentially neutered by a nation that realizes it should have done so two years ago, but did what it could now to make up for the error.
I know many conservatives have little confidence in John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. I share their skepticism. So I'll tell you this: A Facebook friend who is tight with the Republican establishment in Washington has been saying for the longest time that if the GOP were ever to control both the House and the Senate, then we would see what stalwart conservatives both of these men really are.
Well. Go.
