PrintApril 29, 2011
Arrogance and Narcissism Reign in King Barack's Court
Arrogance is defined as an inflated degree of self-importance with a supplementary contempt for others. Narcissism describes a person totally infatuated with his own persona and possessing an overblown sense of ability or worth. Arrogance and narcissism are somewhat synonymous. Yet there is sufficient difference between the terms to apply both to the persona our current Commander-in-Chief embodies.
President Obama is a walking contradiction. Acts he once considered an abuse of authority are but policy recalculations when he exercises them personally. Other presidents have overstepped their authority. Obama, however, is uniquely intelligent and supremely qualified to properly wield powers he once considered abusive and to rule a free people. "Rule" isn't a word chosen at random; it's a term Obama himself has used to describe his administration.
Barack Hussein Obama doesn't see himself as merely the United States' 44th President; he is her liege, King Barack the First.
Obama's use of signing statements confirms his narcissism and arrogance. Obama's position on signing statements is similar, but in mirror image, to John Kerry's position on the Iraq War. Remember how Kerry voted for the war prior to voting against it? Obama was against presidential signing statements before he used them.
Before his coronation Obama considered signing statements beyond the president's constitutional authority. He pledged not to use such statements to circumvent Congress, a charge he leveled at his predecessor. However, when Obama's signing statement accompanied the recent budget deal he had to redefine his position.
King Barack has changed his mind. Signing statements aren't beyond the president's power after all, as he stated when campaigning in 2008. But such executive statements shouldn't be abused in the way his predecessor abused them. Note the arrogance and narcissism. Other chief executives have abused the signing statement. Obama, however, possesses the virtue, wisdom, and sound judgment necessary to exercise the signing statement effectively without crossing the line into abuse.
Obama further displayed his royal manner in his refusal to comply with Congress' ban on White House czars. Worse than his contempt for Congress, a feeling with which most Americans can empathize, is his disregard for the U.S. Constitution.
The President, according to Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution, will appoint various officers of the United States subject to the Senate's review and consent. The language represents a problem for czar appointees, who aren't presented for Senate review. The President may also appoint inferior officers, which could be interpreted to include czars, at his discretion. However, such discretionary appointments can be made only if Congress has empowered the presidency to make them. A Congress that can grant discretionary appointment authority to the president via legislation may revoke that authority in like manner, as this Congress did in the budget bill.
Yet the czars remain and Congress' duly passed law is ignored. King Barack the Arrogant and Narcissistic simply snubs Congress and the Constitution's directives on presidential appointments.
Instances abound to confirm His Majesty's elevated sense of worth and authority. Obama also thumbed his nose at a judge's decision declaring Obamacare unconstitutional. If you or I ignored such a ruling we would be arrested. But people of superior intellect and insight, like King Barack, can't be bothered with trivialities, such as court rulings, that would apply to those of us in the great unwashed.
Arrogance allows Obama to travel on the publicly-funded Air Force One at $70,000 per flight hour while demonizing corporate CEOs for flying privately-funded aircraft at a fraction of the cost. Narcissism vindicates King Barack the First when he compensates his supporters with taxpayer provided stimulus cash while praising his administration's exemplary ethics.
Signing statements aren't the problem, be they issued by King Barack or a simple president. But a President serves within the office's authority at the pleasure of the governed. A King serves at his own discretion, believing the contemptible governed are beneath questioning or comprehending their ruler's decrees. Rulers embody arrogance and narcissism individually and simultaneously, a feat thoroughly possible in the Court of King Barack the First.
Anthony W. Hager has authored more than 300 articles for various newspapers, periodicals, and websites. Contact him via his website www.therightslant.com.
