The Unprecedented Obstructionism of Barack Obama

Neo – neocon is outraged that Barack Obama would use his phony-baloney “clearly assigned constitutional powers” in ways that reflect his policy preferences — almost as if he was elected or something.  And never before has a president showed such contempt for democracy on so many occasions!

Historically, most presidents have saved their vetoes for the issues that matter most to them, because they have been afraid to challenge what appears to be the will of the majority of the people too many times. But Obama has no such hesitations. The last time he cared about the will of the people was on November 6, 2012.

Yes, back in the day presidents were very cautious about using the veto power, but under Barack Obama it’s nothing but reckless tyranny.  Assuming that Obama vetoes the Keystone Pipeline, consider this remarkable record of indiscriminate vetoes in historical context:

Obama: 3 (5, pro-rated to a full two terms)

George W. Bush: 12

Ronald Reagan: 78

Gerald Ford: 66 (in less than 3 full years!)

Richard Nixon: 43 (less than 2 full terms)

Dwight Eisenhower: 181

Calvin Coolidge: 50 (less than 2 full terms)

Teddy Roosevelt: 82

Grover Cleveland: 584

As you can see, the data is clear.  Obama’s lawlessness and obstructionism are unparallelled.   The veto used to be a very rare event, but now it’s ubiquitous.  I think we can all agree as well that Neo- neocon’s assumption that vetoes are somehow illegitimate and undemocratic is every bit as sound as her history.

So this line of argument is really going to be a thing.  I assume the next step is to argue that Obama and Biden are defying the will of the voters by refusing to resign.