Comment E-mail Print Bio Archives

Barack H. Obama will forever be known as the first black president of the United States. This fact will likely be the least impressive item about him in tomorrow's history books. The first four months of his administration strongly suggest that he will most likely be known as the president who transformed America's system of government.

The U.S. Constitution provides for a system of representative government with a degree of checks and balances. This system has been tested, twisted, and tormented over the years, but has always survived the abuses inflicted upon it. Obama brings a new threat, in a new era, to a new generation.

Obama is creating a system of government that is beginning to look much like an "Administrator" form of government that will ultimately have no checks and balances, and little need for legislators.

This form of government was the fantasy of Colonel Edward Mandell House, the "alter-ego" of President Woodrow Wilson, a designer of the League of Nations, and author of "Philip Dru: Administrator."

House fantasized about a system of government in which a single administrator held all executive power to appoint underlings without interference from elected bodies, and to design, and enforce, rules of behavior for individuals, and organizations -- including states and local administrative units. In House's world, his administrator was a part of a global system of administrative governance whose purpose was "...to pursue socialism as dreamed of by Karl Marx."

Obama's actions during these first few months are very much like those of Philip Dru: Administrator. He has found a way to design, and enforce, rules of behavior on much of the banking system, and on General Motors and Chrysler -- private industries not subject to governmental management under previous presidents.

Obama has found a way to force state and local governments to yield to his rules in order to get federal dollars, even when states don't want the dollars that come with federal strings attached.

Obama is creating a new form of government with a growing network of "Czars" that do not have to be approved by the Senate, nor are they subject to the oversight of Congress. So far, 21 Czars have been appointed, with assignments and salaries set by Obama, and accountable only to Obama. This network of White House officers bypasses the traditional executive organizational structure that relies on Cabinet Secretaries to administer laws and promulgate rules subject to congressional oversight and supervision.

Obama the Administrator is building his enforcement organization to avoid the obstacles that Congress often constructs. These congressional obstructions are also known as checks and balances.

These dramatic changes in the structure and form of government have drawn hardly a whimper from the American people, the media, or from congressional opponents. These changes are just the beginning. Obama is determined to impose a national healthcare system, and a national energy-rationing system on the nation. He has already demonstrated his contempt for the Constitution by reaching deep inside private industry to inflict and enforce his managerial dictates.

>> Continued -- Page 1 2